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View Full Version : Leaking Shower that nobody can figure out


jenjab
Jan 11, 2007, 01:03 PM
Hi, our 2nd floor shower is leaking into our first floor bathroom. It is a shower stall with two tiled walls and two glass sides with a glass door. We called a plumber who removed the first floor bathroom's ceiling. There were rotted beams which he had to remove so obviously there has been a problem for a while. He ran a hose down the drain in the middle. It did not leak. He then directed the water toward the tiled walls and it began leaking in the first floor bathroom on 2 sides, one directly underneath a tiled wall and one underneath a glass side. He concluded that it was a tile problem and that we should have the tiles recaulked and grouted. He said in the meanwhile, we should tape a shower curtain over the tile so they don't get wet. The next two days, we took showers with the shower curtain and it still leaked. I then noticed that when the water was directed toward where the floor of the shower met the metal frame of the stall, it rained in the first floor bathroom (and down to the basement underneath). I then thought it was a caulking problem between the floor and metal frame (I could see that caulking was missing). Therefore, yesterday, we taped shower curtains and used tape to cover up the glass and missing caulk. Unfortunately, the problem has gotten even worse where there has to be a few gallons of water pouring into my first floor. The sides of the shower have not gotten wet so it cannot be the tile, in my opinion.

The plumber, even though he believes there is no plumbing problem, wants to take down the stairway wall that shares a wall with the shower.

Do you have any thoughts? This is an old shower, but we had hoped to put off renovating the bathroom for another year or so. We have only lived in this house for a year.

Thank you,

Jennifer

speedball1
Jan 11, 2007, 03:17 PM
This is out of my area of expertise. A plumbers job ends when he hangs and pipes to the valve and when he connects the drain and drainage. Let me kick this over to another page where the experts may be more knowledgeable. Regards, Tom

jenjab
Jan 12, 2007, 03:36 PM
Well, just to finalize this, we called in the plumber again. He has determined that the old owners raised the shower stall off the floor and put it on blocks of wood and moved the drain over away from the old drain. Therefore, the leak is in between the old and "new" drain. It cannot be fixed without taking apart the whole shower. Therefore we will have to redo our bathroom (not something that had budgeted just yet as new homeowners!) :(