Hello out there and thanks for reading this... I remodeled a bathroom in 2009 and I've developed 2 leaks unfortunately. The bathroom is on the second floor of a 2 floor condo and the leaks showed up in the kitchen below. From what I can tell, and after removing the sheetrock in the kitchen the leaks seem to be coming from both opposite ends of the shower perimeter walls (one under the hot/cold and faucet side and the other side where most of the shower water hits the wall). I'm noticing a lot of cracks around the perimeter of the shower floor and some in the corners where the walls meet. I tried to capture those in the pics attached. From what I remember all the seams were finished with grout (floor/wall, wall/wall). There is also a crack in the saddle which has been caulked and to me looks sealed well. I know this is really hard to diagnose and water can be coming from anywhere but seeking some troubleshooting advice please? One thing I did last night was I plugged the drain and filled the shower base so that the water came up about 1/2 inch on all the walls. It seemed like the base held the water and I didn't notice a difference in the dripping (maybe slightly but very hard to tell). I let that sit for maybe 2 hours and then unplugged the drain. Left overnight hoping things would dry out and I could do some caulking to see if that helps anything. This morning I noticed the dripping from the leaks were much more noticeable than last night and that was after not using the shower at all. I did use an adjacent bathroom shower but Im confident that's not leaking or creating this problem. Sorry for the long winded explanation but just looking for any troubleshooting advice I can get. To summarize:

1. 2 leaks seems to be coming from shower above kitchen.

2. Cracks around perimeter of floor (grout used prior)

3. Shower base seems to be holding water but maybe my test wasn't thorough enough.

If I try to now caulk the shower perimeter floor, can I just go over the grout that's in there or does that have to be removed?

On another note the shower pan was done with mud, rubber membrane (I forget the product name but the stuff that's made for that and ran up the walls about 8 inches.

Here are the links to my pictures:

https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A65qXGF1IGGaV

Thanks so much in advance everyone!
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Neal

Your flange type shower drain has weep holes installed so that even if the water leaks past the grout into the shower pan. It is directed back into the drain.

The only way that the water will not drain away is if the installer allowed the weep holes to be filled with grout. To repair the area around the shower strainer needs to removed and the weep holes cleared.

Is the shower still under warranty? If so, call the installer back and have been corrected mistake. Let me know how you make out. Good luck, Tom

Hi Neal

First, remove the trim plate from around the shower valve and run the shower... see if any drips show up behind the wall.

If that fails to show a leak, purchase a 2" CHERNE TEST BALL (see image) from a local home improvement store or plumbing supply house and test the shower pan like a plumber would. Here, inflate the test ball in the drain and then fill the shower pan with water to within about an inch of the bottom of the shower threshold. Hold that water test overnight (or until a leak shows up, of course) and see if a leak shows up.

If a leaker shows up then the pan is probably shot (ugh). If no leaks after this test then the tile/grout on the wall is the next suspect... ;)

Questions? Let me know, OK?

Mark

Hi Neal

First, remove the trim plate from around the shower valve and run the shower...see if any drips show up behind the wall.

If that fails to show a leak, purchase a 2" CHERNE TEST BALL (see image) from a local home improvement store or plumbing supply house and test the shower pan like a plumber would. Here, inflate the test ball in the drain and then fill the shower pan with water to within about an inch of the bottom of the shower threshold. Hold that water test overnight (or until a leak shows up, of course) and see if a leak shows up.

If a leaker shows up then the pan is probably shot (ugh). If no leaks after this test then the tile/grout on the wall is the next suspect...;)

Questions? Let me know, OK?

Mark

Mark, thanks so much for the reply. I did do that test last night and I continued to have drips. The weird thing is that I haven't used the shower for 24 hours (except to fill the pan with water last night) and it continues to drip. I'm wondering if its either the shower body or hot/cold feeds to it. One of the leaks is coming from underneath where the shower body is and the other is on the opposite wall. I can only see this from underneath (kitchen ceiling below). I was thinking of shutting the water off at the main, bleeding the pipes to the shower and see if the dripping stops?


Your flange type shower drain has weep holes installed so that even if the water leaks past the grout into the shower pan. It is directed back into the drain.

The only way that the water will not drain away is if the installer allowed the weep holes to be filled with grout. To repair the area around the shower strainer needs to removed and the weep holes cleared.

Is the shower still under warranty? If so, call the installer back and have been corrected mistake. Let me know how you make out. Good luck, Tom

Hi Tom and thanks. I did check that and there was plenty of "crud" built up under the drain (the second section of the drain before it goes into the tail piece (if that's the term). But I don't know if that was blocking anything from being drained out.

I was thinking of shutting the water off at the main, bleeding the pipes to the shower and see if the dripping stops

You can try this... certainly can't hurt, but be prepared to spend some time waiting this out as both a leaking shower pan and a leaking water pipe can drip for hours after all is isolated.

Keep us posted...

Mark