Mud shower pan leaks.

[ohiosmith]

18 months or so ago we replaced the fiberglass pan in our shower with a mud pan. It was my understanding that the pan would not leak even if the grout and/or caulking in the shower failed. A couple of months ago the shower began leaking through the ceiling below. The contractor refuses to deal with it. Another contractor has re-caulked the shower which has stopped the leak.

Question: Should the pan be leak free regardless of the condition of the caulking?

Thanks

[Stinky The Clown]

1. It sounds from your report that the pan itself did *not* leak

If surface cauling above the surface of the pan stopped the leak, my guess is that the pan itself was not to blame. Your description seems to imply that the caulk was (probably) at the joint of the wall tile to the tile in the pan. If that's true, then the wall tile waterproofing failed, not the pan itself.

The long term fix is to remove the wall tile, waterproof it properly, and reinstall it. While this is a bog job, it is not nearly as big a job as redoing the pan.

Or you can just plan to regularly remove and replace the caulk that stopped the leak this time.

[ohiosmith]

2. Many thanks.