Old shower floor missing grout

[chigundo]

My 1949 shower floor is missing grout, although I've never seen any signs of leakage on the ceiling below...

So, couple questions. How the hell is nothing leaking with this much grout missing?

Should I make an attempt to clear out the rest of the grout and give it a nice re-grouting or just leave it alone? If re-grout, do I use caulk where the green meets the black curb?

[Terry]

The grout doesn't seal, it's the liner below that the mud pan is built on. Concrete is porous, so a liner catches the moisture and directs it down the drain.

[kreemoweet]

By all means you should re-grout. The crevices will accumulate nasty crud and grow mold and
other undesireable organisms. The joint between floor and wall should receive flexible caulk.

[chigundo]

Thanks, Terry. That buys me time. Although 60+ years is probably well beyond the life of the pan.. let's hope it lasts another 60.

I'll regrout this weekend. Any tips outside of the standard methods of chiselling out the old grout? This looks like a much harder job with such thin grout lines to begin with.

[jadnashua]

Power tools may chip the tile, manual tools are just that manual, and it is a lot of work. Now, grout by itself, normally doesn't crack out. But, if there is any movement, that can create cracks and eventually it may break down. Movement to tile is death to the system.

As Terry mentioned, at least on the floor, the liner is the waterproofing. In truth, a properly built shower should be water tight without any tile on the surface anywhere at all...the tile is a decorative wear surface, not the primary waterproofing of a properly built shower. Now, lots of them were not built that way! but that is the industry spec (lots of approved methods, often not followed or executed well).

[johnfrwhipple]

60 years and no signs of leaks is a wonderful story and shows how well a shower can preform when properly build.

Once your shower is removed I would not be surprised to find a pre-slope under your liner.

No fasteners through the liner.

And most likely a few runs of candle wick run to the weep holes - but I'm sure the candle wick is long since gone and only a tunnel of sorts is left.

What type of cleaners are you using on this shower?

Does it get used every day?

Can you use another bathroom for a spell and let this one fully dry out?

JW