This happened last year….

I woke up abruptly at 2 am worried about the shower pan at a Montclair property my client was purchasing.  In the disclosure reports the seller noted that a licensed contractor replaced the shower pan prior to listing the home.  Yes, that’s a good thing but, since no one lived in the house since the replacement, the new shower pan had never been tested. Inspection reports often call for the replacement of leaky shower pans.  To test one, the inspector stops the drain, runs water a few inches high, and then inspects the crawl space, garage, or room below it. After tossing and turning from 2 am on, I left my home early the next day with towels in hand to test the shower pan.  I put several towels in the shower drain and ran the shower until the water rose several inches high.  I then went downstairs to the garage below the bathroom and waited.  No water, great!  The next day, I stopped by the house and the ceiling below the shower was soaking wet, we had a problem.  I immediately called the listing agent, who in turn called the licensed contractor who had replaced the shower.  We negotiated with the seller, and the shower pan was completely replaced for my buyer.

What happened? It turned out that when the contractor initially replaced the pan, he was trying to preserve the marble walls and did not bring the waterproofing membrane up high enough on the wall.  When he replaced the shower pan for the second time, the original marble walls could not be saved and also had to be replaced.  This situation could have been messy, but the agent representing the sellers was helpful and cooperative.  He even sent me photos of the shower reconstruction progress.  See below.

This is the photo sent from the listing agent. The marble walls and floor tiles were removed and a new waterproof membrane was installed. (The black paper is the waterproof membrane.)

In the photos below you will see a shower pan being tested by a pest inspector:

The Ace Hardware paper is stopping the drain to allow several inches of water to rise.

Dan Marzilli from GenTech Pest Control is now going under the house to observe if there is leaking under the shower.