HELP shower pan leak

[cntputt]

I have a leak in my lead shower pan and it is only 4 years used. The contractor doesn't want to know about it now!!

My questions are... do you think the contractor should repair it...I paid him close to 300k for the remodel job on my house??

The job will cost about 2200..Shower door removal and reinstall 800/ plumbing 800/ tile work 600.

Secondly,do I go back to lead pan or the new plastic lining???

BTW I did all the tests and I'm sure its the pan. I had a Shower Grouter come in and tell me that i would be wasting my money if he took the job!

any ideas??

[jadnashua]

Lead has to be one of the less desireable pan liners, and many of them are installed incorrectly. National code requires the waterproofing layer (in your case lead) to be on a sloped surface. Many times, the plumber comes in, installs the liner on the floor, then the tiler comes in and installs the sloped mudbed and then the tiles. This does not meet code, but many places get away with it.

There are numerous ways to build a shower pan correctly and many materials available that are more forgiving and will last longer than lead (which is much more prone to movement cracks than say a pvc liner).

I suggest you check out www.johnbridge.com for help on tiling.

Personally, I'd put in a pvc liner, or if building from scratch, use Kerdi from www.schluter.com. Kerdi is a system, and retrofitting just the pan isn't an accepted method.

The Tile Council of North America (TCNA) pretty much sets the accepted industry standards for tile and tiled shower installs. Lead is in there, but not the first choice.

The liner must go 3" above the curb, so they will need to remove some of the walls as well, and the curb will need to be rebuilt. If done right, it would seem to be more than what they listed, but it depends on the area as to what the labor costs are.