Removing shower surround panels to get to floor?

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
The small bathroom attached our bedroom has a stand--up shower in it. It's the typical full 60" x 30-something deep. It's 3 panels and a floor, as opposed to the single-piece style.
Unfortunately as some point there was a clog that cause the basin to overflow and water got under the floor in front and under it, and has rotted the subfloor. you can feel soft spots when standing in it, and it has caused the plastic basin to crack in a few places (further allowing more water uinderneath which I'm accelerated he softness.

So unfortunately, I have to pull at least the floor pan out and the bathroom floor and replace it. But I'm assuming there is no way to get out just the bottom pan, all the panels have to come out too, right?
The plastic panels have drywall right up against them, both above around the top, and in front. Making in more fun the bottom half of the walls have wainscoting, also up against the plastic edge.

The real question is - is there any way to get this thing out w/o destroying the drywall, and that wainscoting, that is around it?
The videos I've watched of these panel installs seems they usually have a lip around them that goes against the studs, and the drywall then covers the lip. Is that always the case?
Patching and taping in DW sucks enough, but removing the whole panel of wainscoting will be a major pain b/c of window/door trim it goes behind etc. The whole project goes from "just replacing a shower floor pan" to "complete demo of almost all the walls". ugh.
 
After some thought, I'm wondering if I'm reasonably careful with cutting the drywall close to just past where the edge of that lip is (of course I have no idea what the length of it is), maybe I can get away with re-installing the same, or same-size replacement panels, and then cover the missing drywall with a fancy 3" wide piece of trim...
 
Your sheetrock is hanging in the air with no support. Cut back to the center of the next stud.

You could get lucky and the stud that the shower is mounted to is a double or triple stud like a corner. Cut 1"back and see what happens.
 
Also, use an oscillating saw to cut the nails behind the window trim and remove it. Then you can get to the wainscoting. Use a small punch and push the nails through the paneling.
 
You will need to remove the side wall panels. Most of them along with the pan have a ship lap design which is supposed to be caulked to reduce water seepage through the joints.

Go ahead and plan on removing all the panels and the pan as the panels should have about a 3/4" overlap on the pan. Without removing the wall panels, while you may get the pan out, you'll likely never get a new pan back in place after floor repairs. Plus, you'll need the working room for the drain on the pan. And, you'll want to properly seal what gets put back in so you don't have similar issues later.

And, like most wood rot, when you expect X amount of repairs, go ahead and quadruple it for a more realistic scope of work, duration, and frustration.


Oh, and when putting a new pan (or tub) in, I recommend setting it in grout or similar to give it more stability. It will be much more solid and won't flex and crack after use.

Good luck.
 
Yeah I've pretty much resigned myself to pulling all the panels, once I thought about how they piece together. The question now is (and this mostly depends on wife) whether the replacement is another panel system, or ceramic tiles or something. I'll still do a drop in pan b/c I don't have the skill to properly tile the floor to drain right.
But I realized if I tile the walls then an expanded opening isn't so big of a deal anymore.
 
I would start trimming back the sheetrock about an inch or so from the panel. The lip should be less than that. And trim back to the next stud so you have a surface to renail both sides of your new panel.

You can get a kit like this to help create your slope, if you are unsure of how much:

Goof Proof Shower Quick-Pitch Standard Shower Kit-QPK-101 - The Home Depot

The window trim is easy to remove, but You can use a multitool to trim really close around it if you had to leave them in place.
 
rockcity said:
If you trowel in preslope on the floor and let it cure overnight, then tiling the floor is no different than tiling a wall. ;)
Click to expand...

Fuck that. Just buy a Shluter Kerdi base.
 
It's the window in the shower wall? I hate that age of house. While your doing your remodel go ahead and remove the window and put in opaque glass blocks and tile around it with the rest of the wall. That eliminates a future issue and you can fucking destroy the molding!
 
And you probably have 1"boards on a 45° for a subfloor under all of the other layers of flooring.
 
More than likely you'll have to remove panels! I did this last winter in our rental and tried pulling bottom and ended up cracking one of Panels just so happens could t find a replacement so had to get three new panels...
 
GotWood said:
It's the window in the shower wall? I hate that age of house. While your doing your remodel go ahead and remove the window and put in opaque glass blocks and tile around it with the rest of the wall. That eliminates a future issue and you can fucking destroy the molding!
Click to expand...
No, the rear long wall of the shower faces another interior wall (other bathroom). The window is a typical window 4'ish high about 6" from the end of the left side of the surround panel. No real issue there, except that the chair rail of the wainscoting transition is a tad higher than the sill, so the wanscoting is behind the window trim and goes to flush against that vertical edge of the shower panel.
But I think if I'm real careful and cut it and a nice straight line along teh edge of that lip then patching over it later won't be terrible.
My expxperience w/ the trim in this house is that if I go pulling it off around the window I'll end up having to replace all of it.
GotWood said:
And you probably have 1"boards on a 45° for a subfloor under all of the other layers of flooring.
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Nope, this has more conventional plywood subfloor. Built in '67. My last house, from '64, had the 1x on a 45 subfloor. Amazingly solid but geez what a pain for repairs.
GotWood said:
@RatLabGuy

:nopics:
Click to expand...

Meh, maybe later, right now nothing exciting to see, except a bunch of Flex a Seal strip patches on the floor of the shower lol.

shawn said:
Should say "used to have" s
ubfloor?

Also, cue the mold discussion in... Three... Two...
Click to expand...
Oh, no doubt it's there.
That's the other thing I've been battling on this bathroom, keep getting small patches of grey mold growing on the trim and ceiling.
Has a good fan w/ lots of vacuum, I've replaced the fan switch w/ a humidistat that auto-runs for a minimum time and doesn't turn off until its below a target, even repainted w/ "anti-mold" paint and high gloss ceiling... still accumulates. It wipes off no problem though.
I think its just a tiny room and just accumulates vapor too fast?

So I can't wait to see what it looks like behind the walls and floor....
rockcity said:
At least Dave will listen to the pros to fix his issues. :)
Click to expand...
Mostly.
When I feel like it.
If a pro shows up. :D
 
Like I said before, be ready to replace a lot of wood, especially if it's saturated. Mold likes wet areas and it sounds like has found a good home.

Go ahead and consider what you will need to do to replace a floor joist or two. If the subfloor is like you say it is, it's a good bet that the joists are compromised.

You can buy 2 part epoxy wood rot repair that helps with minor damage and seals it up and fills the voids pretty good. I've used it a lot to spot treat some wood in the past with success. You have to buy it online since Lowes doesn't sell it. It may be a good option to have some of this handy. :)
 
Fortunately, I have a (almost) full height basement and can see the joists below. I can see the underside of the subfloor and it isn't too bad, and unless there is rot on the top surface of the joists (and yes, there probably is) I *think* they are ok. I'm sure I'll be replacing a good chunk of floor.
Basically, *somebody* that resides in my bedroom has had a lot of long brown hair end up in the drain, causing it to clog. Years ago we got one of those pop-out drain strainers that are easy to clean, but if you aren't diligent.. well... then when puberty hit, my son learned the joy of loooong showers and wouldn't notice the tray filling faster than the water falling... so once or twice it overflowed past the tray edge and spilled into the bathroom floor, then back under the whole thing. Plus for a little while the seal around the drain wasn't great so some seeped out around that down around the pipe and base. But all of this was fairly recent, and it's above a spot at the bottom of the basement stairs where it'sbeen easy to keep an eye on the underside.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Fortunately, I have a (almost) full height basement and can see the joists below. I can see the underside of the subfloor and it isn't too bad, and unless there is rot on the top surface of the joists (and yes, there probably is) I *think* they are ok. I'm sure I'll be replacing a good chunk of floor.
Basically, *somebody* that resides in my bedroom has had a lot of long brown hair end up in the drain, causing it to clog. Years ago we got one of those pop-out drain strainers that are easy to clean, but if you aren't diligent.. well... then when puberty hit, my son learned the joy of loooong showers and wouldn't notice the tray filling faster than the water falling... so once or twice it overflowed past the tray edge and spilled into the bathroom floor, then back under the whole thing. Plus for a little while the seal around the drain wasn't great so some seeped out around that down around the pipe and base. But all of this was fairly recent, and it's above a spot at the bottom of the basement stairs where it'sbeen easy to keep an eye on the underside.
Click to expand...

It sounds like putting a extra tall curb on your replacement pan is a good option. Or replacing it with a tub/shower combo if you are going back with plastic/glass vs tile.
 
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