The weep holes clog
Soap, shampoo and body oils wash into the tiny drain holes that let the liner empty. They pack shut over the years, and the water has nowhere left to go. This happens even in showers that were built correctly.
Shower Leaks
Your shower is leaking. Here's why that's rarely a small repair.
It's one of the most common calls we get — and the answer surprises people. This page explains what's actually happening behind your tile, in plain language, before you spend a dollar.
Straight talk
We know how this sounds.
You call about a small leak — we tell you the shower has to be rebuilt. It's fair to wonder if you're being upsold. So here's the same explanation we'd give our own family: why the obvious fixes don't work, and what it costs done right.
Tile and grout were never the waterproof layer
The waterproofing is buried under the tile
Where you see water isn't where it's leaking
A saturated mortar bed can't be dried out
Re-grouting and sealing don't reach the problem
Done right, it's a rebuild — not a patch
How your shower was built
Your shower was never built to keep water out of the wall.
Traditional showers are a water in, water out system: water is expected to soak through the grout — tile and grout are not waterproof and never were. A buried vinyl sheet (the pan liner) catches that water and drains it out through small weep holes.
That works — right up until the water can't get back out. Then it goes into your floor and walls.
Why they leak
Six ways a buried pan liner fails.
The liner was laid flat
The liner has to sit on a sloped bed so water runs to the weep holes. Laid flat, water simply pools on it — and eventually finds a seam, a fastener hole or a low spot instead.
Something punctured it
One nail or screw through the liner is enough — most often where backer board was fastened to the curb. A pinhole below the tile becomes major damage behind the wall.
The corners were cut, not folded
Inside corners are meant to be folded like wrapping paper. Cut and patched instead, they become a permanent weak point right where water collects.
The liner stopped too low
If it doesn't run high enough up the walls and over the curb into dry space, water running down the wall gets behind the liner rather than into it. The pan is bypassed completely.
The mortar bed is saturated
Once the bed under your tile stays wet, you get efflorescence, mildew smell and mold — and the bed itself breaks down. It is not something that dries out on its own.
The part that surprises people
Where you see the water is almost never where it's getting in.
Water travels along the buried liner before it escapes — so the stain shows where water left, not where it got in. That's why patching at the stain doesn't work, and why the only way to find and fix the breach is to open it up.
The exit point and the breach are different places
A flood test proves it leaks, not where
Patching the symptom misses the defect
The liner can't be inspected without demolition
The honest answer
Why we can't just patch it.
The waterproofing is buried
It sits under the mortar bed and your tile. There is no access panel. Reaching it means removing everything on top of it — that's not us upselling, that's just where it is.
Re-grouting doesn't reach it
Grout was never the waterproof layer — water is supposed to pass through it. New grout and fresh caulk change the surface and leave the actual failure untouched.
Sealing the tile makes it worse
Coating the surface traps the water already sitting in the mortar bed. It doesn't dry out. It stays in there against your subfloor and framing.
A buried liner can't be patched
Patching vinyl needs clean, dry, accessible material. A liner that's soaked, packed in mortar and reachable through a small hole is none of those things — and it can't be re-tested in place.
The wet mortar bed has to go
Even a perfect patch would leave a waterlogged, mold-grown bed under your tile. It doesn't recover, so it comes out — which is the demolition we were trying to avoid.
The tile won't survive
Tile rarely comes off in one piece, and older tile usually can't be matched. Once the surround is open, putting it back means new tile.
What we actually do
A correct repair, step by step.
The glass comes out
Doors and hardware are anchored into the tile we have to remove, so they come off first. They rarely survive to be reused.
The tile comes off
Floor tile and the surround — tile almost never comes off intact, and matching an older tile is usually not possible.
The bed and liner come out
The saturated mortar bed and the failed liner are removed down to the studs and subfloor. This is the only way to reach the waterproofing.
We repair the damage
Whatever the water reached — subfloor, framing, drywall — gets repaired. We'll show you what we find before we go further.
Rebuilt waterproof
A bonded Schluter® membrane, a sloped tray and an integrated drain, with sealed seams and corners — waterproofing at the surface, not buried under mortar.
Flood-tested, then tiled
We fill the pan and prove it holds water before a single tile goes back on. Then new tile, new grout and new glass.
What it costs
Most shower rebuilds land between $9,000 and $13,000.
A correct repair is a rebuild, so it's priced like one — size and what the water reached set where you land. That's a range, not a quote: the estimate is free, and if we find worse damage once it's open, you hear it from us before we keep going.
Size of the shower drives most of the cost
Hidden damage is found once it's opened
Tile, glass and fixtures are all replaced
You approve the number before we start
We rebuild it so this doesn't happen again.
No buried liner. We rebuild with the Schluter® system — a waterproof membrane bonded right behind the tile — with no weep holes to clog and no wet mortar bed, flood-tested before a single tile goes on.
Know the signs
Is your shower leaking?
The smell and the chalky residue usually show up first. A stain on the ceiling downstairs shows up last — by then water has been in the structure a long time. If you're seeing any of these, it's worth a look now rather than later.
A musty or mildew smell that cleaning never fixes
White chalky residue on grout, the curb or the drain
Grout that stays dark or damp, cracks or crumbles
Corner caulk that keeps failing no matter how often it's redone
Loose or hollow-sounding tiles
A damp patch or bubbling paint on a wall beside or behind the shower
A stain or blistered paint on the ceiling under an upstairs shower
A soft or spongy floor near the shower or the curb
Ready for a change?
Schedule your free estimate.
Serving Wayne, Oakland and Washtenaw counties.