Shower Pan Leak in Marysville, WA

A shower pan leak is slow, which makes it easy to ignore. In Marysville, where the median home was built in 1994, many original tiled showers have seen decades of daily use, and the grout, the caulk and the liner under the tile all wear out over that kind of time. Every shower pushes a little more water into the mortar bed and down into the subfloor. In a home on a crawlspace, that water can drip onto the insulation and the vapor barrier for months. In a two-story home, it spreads along the joists and finally shows on a ceiling below. Cool, damp Marysville winters mean the wood rarely dries out between showers.

After the first hour, a pan leak has not changed much, because it has been building quietly all along. Over 24 to 48 hours of continued use, a wet subfloor stays wet and mold can grow on the back of the drywall and on the framing. Over a week, the mortar bed stays soaked and floor tile starts to loosen or sound hollow. Over months, plywood and particleboard soften, the bottom plate of the wall can rot, joists below may darken with mold, and the repair grows from a pan replacement into structural work.

When a pan leak is caught early, much of the structure dries in place. Plywood subfloor that is wet but still firm can be dried with air movers from below in a crawlspace, or through a ceiling opening in a two-story home. Wall studs and the bottom plate behind the shower usually dry once the drywall on the outside wall is opened at the base. Joists that are damp but sound dry well with a dehumidifier running in the crawlspace or the joist bay, and readings are taken on the wood itself rather than guessed from the surface.

The shower itself usually cannot be dried and saved. A failed liner sits under the mortar bed and tile, so fixing it means removing the floor of the shower and often the lower rows of wall tile. Particleboard or oriented strand board that swelled or softened around the drain is cut out and replaced. Drywall and baseboard on the far side of the wall that held water for weeks are removed, and crawlspace insulation that stayed wet is replaced. Any framing that is soft or rotted is cut out so the new pan rests on sound wood.

Shower pan leaks show up across Marysville, often in homes where the showers are original. In the 1970s and 1980s neighborhoods to the north and east that replaced the old strawberry fields, many tiled showers have been in daily use for decades. In the 1990s and 2000s homes of Smokey Point, Lakewood and Getchell Hill, fiberglass bases and tile showers alike are reaching the age when grout and caulk give out. Older homes near Downtown have often been remodeled more than once, so a newer shower may sit over older framing and a crawlspace.

The same slow leaks turn up in nearby towns. Stanwood has many homes from the 1990s on with original showers, and Camano Island cabins and part-time homes can leak for a long time before anyone is there to notice. In Everett, older homes in north Everett may have tiled showers that were rebuilt over old framing. One call connects you with a local restoration pro who finds the leak and dries the structure before rebuilding begins.