Opinion on shower pan build

[Russell Harris]

Hello,
Looking for some opinions on my re-done shower pan.

I had a custom fiberglass shower pan installed last week and the initial pan had a pinhole and failed the water test. Water seeped under the fiberglass.
So the installer cut out the bottom of the pan, dried out the mortar base and then came back and added new fiberglass to the floor of the pan. This pan passed the water test this weekend.

However, there is now a small section of the pan up around the front of the drain, see pic, where a small amount of water pools (maybe 1/8" deep but not consistent) . There's a 'divot' in the floor of the pan because of the cutout of the first pan was thicker than the layers of fiberglass applied the second time. I asked the installer if this was an issue and they said no. With all the lead up to getting this thing installed and ensuring slope and getting the mortar and drain at the right height, seems like it is an issue. But maybe it's not? Am I needlessly worrying?

Thanks!
RH in Austin

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

Assuming that is not the finished surface... some other material is going to be going over the top of that. What is the next planned step for this and will that simply take care of the small swale? Or could the installer feather out more fiberglass resin/material to get rid of that area?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Russell Harris]

The next step is the tile guy and his mortar bed which will be over the whole pan. It'll follow the slope and he'll fit in the linear drain. So the fiberglass is the blue line in the example below.
R

 

[Jeff H Young]

the shower pan is required to slope to the drain weep holes pooling up and holding water in puddles doesn't meet that standard . it needs 1/4inch perfoot slope look it up don't accept poor work. this wont be a problem till everyone is long gone. so it'll be a few years

 

[Russell Harris]

the shower pan is required to slope to the drain weep holes pooling up and holding water in puddles doesn't meet that standard . it needs 1/4inch perfoot slope look it up don't accept poor work. this wont be a problem till everyone is long gone. so it'll be a few years

I've got the boss man now coming out to look at the work. Everyone seems to know the slope rules but they have one crew do mortar and another crew do fiberglass. None of them technically plumbers. I'll push for resolution tomorrow.
Thanks for the advice!
RH

 

[Jeff H Young]

around here the plumbers very rarely do shower pans I've never seen a site fabricated shower pan of fiberglass the most common if site fabricated are a hot mop the cold vinyl liner are not so common here either . I didn't look that closely at the pics but like I said it shouldn't pool up . it shouldn't be that hard to build up so it has fall but it is work.
I'd be a little concerned if it traps water on top.

 

[Russell Harris]

around here the plumbers very rarely do shower pans Ive never seen a site fabricated shower pan of fiberglas the most common if site fabricated are a hot mop the cold vinyl liner are not so common here either . I didnt look that closely at the pics but like I said it shouldnt pool up . it shouldnt be that hard to build up so it has fall but it is work.
Id be a little concerned if it traps water on top.

Well luckily, the overall pan has fall from the back to the drain (former tub space) it's just that last bit in front with the divot that they need to build up to make it to the drain. Not sure why they didn't do that during the redo.

 

[Jeff H Young]

only had one job working with fiberglass Carlsbad Desalination Plant in California fiberglass piping joined like buttwelded pipe with layers of woven mat. each joint had to be inspected as we went. no air bubbles allowed had to work fast at times.
Are those type Pans common there? how long to build?

 

[Jadnashua]

While the tile needs to be sloped to the drain, the pan is the waterproofing layer that MUST be sloped a minimum of 1/4" per foot to the drain. The plumbing inspector only inspects the liner, not the finished, tiled shower, and it must hold water and drain properly when inspected.

 

[Jeff H Young]

If the pan pools water? no Bueno. doesn't matter if its inspected or not I'd insist on it right

 

[Russell Harris]

The fiberglass pans are very popular here in TX.

So they are going to come out Friday and use some quickset to build-up the divot area in front and then another fiberglass layer on top of that.