LESLIE: Bret in Rhode Island, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
BRET: We have the 1890s Victorian home. We’ve put in an 8×14 master bath in with Frank Lloyd Wright Arts and Crafts-style tile in it. And the shower in the corner, that’s a step-in shower. And over the last eight years, because of – plastic floor of the shower wasn’t supported. It started to crack from the flexing. And I’m not sure how I can take care of those cracks without ripping out all the tile around the lip of the plastic floor of the shower.
TOM: So, there is one way to do it. And it’s not real pretty but you can do it this way. And that is that plastic base is made of fiberglass and you can use a fiberglass-repair kit and basically cover the split area with a fiberglass patch. And essentially, that means you’re going to put down resin and then you’re going to put down fiberglass itself and press it into the resin. Once that dries, you’re going to put down more resin and then more fiberglass in. You’re going to kind of crisscross it and essentially, you’re going to build up kind of a patch across that crack.
Now, of course, that’s going to be painfully obvious but maybe you don’t care about that. Maybe you’re thinking, “I’d rather have it just be patched and watertight than have to tear out the tile.” Because yes, replacing that kind of shower pan will require that you remove that tile around the first 8 to 12 inches all the way around to be able to get that pan out.
BRET: I think – I’m not sure that it’s fiberglass; I think it might be just hard, molded plastic. I got it at a big-box store.
TOM: The only way to try to repair it is with a fiberglass-repair kit. And you can pick that up at an auto-parts store. You know, it’s like a body-repair kit. And essentially, it’s just those two things: it’s basically the resin itself and the fiberglass material. It may be some – it may have some sandpaper with it. But you’ve got nothing to lose; you might as well try it.
I did it once in a house that I owned – bought myself a year before I got around to tearing out the shower pan – and it worked great.
BRET: OK. It’s a great idea. We’ll give it a try. Thank you so very much.
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