Shower pan split

[Craig]

Has anyone had their shower pan split? Is the pan double walled or will it now leak water onto the floor? So far no water is showing up anywhere else. Has any one tried to replace the pan and know how difficult a job it is? I am going to put some eternabond tape for a temporary repair. Any help or ideas will be much appreciated. The shower is the garden tub style.

Craig

[Carl32092]

The pan is a single layer. Google NAPCO shower inlays. They make an inlay that may help you. The pan splits because it is not supported well enough from underneath and it flexes and splits. Fix the root of the problem first.

[MikeM]

Mine cracked also due to improper support and subsequent flexing as Carl indicated. I made a temporary repair by drilling the ends of the crack and 2 spots in the middle and then injected insulating foam (the expanding kind that also hardens - Lowe's or Home Depot) into each hole. Following that I covered the crack with Gorilla tape to seal out any moisture that might seep thru. I'll eventually replace the floor pan or might try the NAPCO inlay, but it's holding fast after 6 months of daily use by 2 people. Caution: the wife is not sold on the visual quality of the fix so YMMV!

[HOOK]

Spread the crack, put in two part clear epoxy, allow the crack to close, clean out excess. Go behind basement service center and under shower floor, install spray in styrofoam insulation between tub bottom and wood floor. Makes floor firm, no more flex, no more crack, no more leak.

[camper4]

My shower is not broke, yet, but the floor does flex. I think I will do the foam thing now.

[Craig]

Just a follow up on my shower problem. I completely removed the shower pan and fixed the 5" crack myself. Procedure was removing shower door and side glass, then removed shower wall and then the base. Repair was made using marine grade 3M 5200. I temporaryly duct taped crack from top side to hold the pan together. Then I spread 3 tubes of 5200 over the entire bottom and about 1" up the sides of the pan. After curing for a week I spread 2 more tubes over entire area and let cure. The resulting layer of 5200 is about 1/4" to 3/8" thick. I have not had any further splitting or leaking from the repair for almost 2 months of continuous use by two people and no one would ever see the crack if you didn't know where it was. I cut and fitted plywood under the pan at reinstallation for positive support.

[Wayne and Carolyn Mathews]

Which type of foam was used (anyone) to reinforce the area under the shower? I had no idea so many spray foams were available. I'll be in Idaho Falls the next two days (Walmart! Target! Kohls! Home Depot! Lowe's! Real food!) and want to get the right kind of foam to fix our flexing shower pan.

Ozz--sounds as though you got a real good dose of life in Montana! We're sorry we didn't see you stop by the Dillon KOA. You'd have had more real Montana experiences if you had!

Carolyn

[Craig]

I would consider spray foam as a short term support. Any foam will eventually compress unless the shower is used by super light weights. There is no support from the thin vinyl pan. If you do use foam make sure it is the non expanding type. If you use the expanding type you could end up pushing the pan up in the air.

[RRman]

I bet eternabond would work.
I've used it in a plastic trashcan about 36" tall that I use as a rainbarrel and the eternabond over over cracks in the poly plastic at the bottom corners have held up leak free even when FULL, so I'm sure Eternabond would make a functional if not esthetic fix.