We just bought an older house with a newer 2 year old basement bathroom. The basement bathroom is on a 1.5 In. raised floor, and the tiled shower stall is leaking. Grout around the base of the shower was cracked so I re-caulked it and it slowed it down somewhat, but did not stop. So I removed the drain cover and noticed there was some gaps in the drain and caulked those as well. That didn't work either, so I plugged the drain and filled it with about 2 inches of water, as I watched, underneath the base of the raised floor (Under the 2x4) the water rapidly pooling. So now I don't know what to do... can it be coming through the grout, or what?

Do you mean that you plugged the drain and filled the shower floor with water from another source or did you fill it using the shower head.

Showerhead

Harold is on to something here. Dump water in shower with five gallon buckets and see if water rises. This will eliminate the shower head riser as your problem. If water rises we will know it is a drainage leak, or tile leakage.

What do you mean "if water rises?". The leak is worst when water sitting in the bottom of the shower.


Okay, did bucket think and it still leaked. Didn't leak when I let it sit at 1/2 an inch but once at 1.5 in. it leaked a lot and started to pool under the foundation of the shower.

By water rising, I meant if water pools under shower.

If no leak at 1/2 standing water, then drain is fine. I would suspect leaky tile/grout.

How do I fix leaky grout

If you have leak with water less than the height of the step or door ledge you have a defective shower pan. The shower pan comes up the wall to at least the top of the step. Can't stop leak with grout. This is assuming you have a built in shower floor, not a fiberglass. If fiberglass the floor is cracked.

If it's not a tile floor, it could be that as you add weight to the bottom of your fiberglass shower floor, or a crack like indicated above, the space between the shower and the drain can leak.

Let us know if it is fiberglass/acrylic shower base first.

It's a tile shower. And there was no weight in it when it leaked last. Do we have to replace the entire shower? How can it be fixed?