Mending shower floor

We bought a house that has a pebble tiled shower floor.

I scrubbed the tiles attempting to rid the room of a strange dog pee smell.

The grout is cleaner....and now missing in areas.

Some pebbles came loose.

Had a tile guy come and with my misguided blessing he cut into the pink waterproofing membrane to see what was underneath.

The quote to redo the shower floor is unaffordable particularly because I want to gut that bathroom soonish...move pipes, put down cork flooring, install soaking tub.

In the meantime, I just need a functioning, and draining shower (even if the whoLe room smells) (the white floor - not the shower - tile wasn't sealed either.

How do I seal that tear so I don't have water damage while we save up the funds for a makeover?

I read that the grey membrane can be bonded but the pink cannot. True?

Dimensions are 5 by 2....so a shower in a box won't fit on top of the existing.

Maybe a feed trough? Can I cut a drain to direCT into the existing drain and then shower curtains all around?

Is there a magic glue?

Hi my name is Larry. I do this for a living. No miracle if you want it to last.  Take the Inside measurements. Add 12 to 16 inches and buy the membrane and a new drain. I can walk you through this. Not brain surgery. But I can help. It will not look pretty for a bit but it will be over and done.  Retiling looks scary. It's not. Offer open. Want the rock look? Shop around.  But can offer my 36 years in this plumbing trade.   Larry

hmmm... How long are you trying to buy time until you redo the bathroom? a couple months? year or two?

There's kinda two pink membranes, well one is more orange. If it sorta looks like a fabric, it's likely the Schluter membrane which looks kinda orange, which can be patched, with a patch of the same material overlapping the old by at least 3 inches and using it's special adhesive. If the pink membrane was really thin, like a few thousandths thick, it was likely Redgard, which comes in a tub and rolls in with a high nap paint roller and dries into a seamless monolithic membrane. Could use that to go over the exploratory surgery performed by tile guy. The grey membrane is a pvc rubber, and there's a special cement to bond it to itself and other substrates.

You could, just as a temporary bandaid, remove the grill in the drain, buy some of the grey pvc pan liner material (Oatey is a brand) to cover the entire floor and go up the walls 6 inches, and glue it to the walls and then run a bead of clear silicone caulk (the kind that burns your nose if you smell it) along the seam. You could then cut a small hole in liner at the drain, smaller than the perimeter of the drain, lift up and again silicone caulk around the perimeter of the drain (under the liner) and then "tuck" the liner down into the shower drain and reinstall the drain grill previously removed on top of the liner so it holds the liner in place in the drain.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing. It'll work for a while, and by all means is nothing more than a bandaid to get you by.

You could do the feed trough idea and curtain all around.

Not sure if there is a magic glue. Maybe the "liquid rubber in a can" advertised on tv? That may actually temporarily work and buy you time, but I'm not endorsing it's use for this purpose.

Hope this give's you some avenues to consider! :)

Yes. Some ideas to chew on . Thank you both.

I'm not fond of the pebbles. I'd prefer a solid surface in the long run for cleaning purposes. If retiring is my best bet, I'd probably get the cheapest mosaics stuff I could and then use a high voc sealant.

It seems more fabric like, so salmon colored.

Is the pvc liner smelly? Is it slick on the feet?  The folds in the corners would get pretty funky fairly fast. Yes?

Another option would be to buy the tub I'd like to install in a different location and install in the cramped space for now, but that would be moving drains, still doing some tile work along the top and adding faucets.

Keep it coming!

Depending as said above on your time frame, if the hole in the membrane is as small as appears and it doesn't need to last long, I would be comfortable patching it with a compatible glue and refilling the hole. Glue doesn't need to have large mechanical strength here, just seal tight. If you don't know the exact glue, I suggest E-6000, industrial-grade rubber cement from craft stores. I have used it to repair shoes and boots. Or maybe high-grade silicone caulk. Again, only for short-term shower repair.


I didn't see the "fabric, salmon-colored" bit at first reading, so probably kerdi. Get the glue for that.

G morning, I was looking at your photos again. You never mentioned the actual dimensions of the shower. Thinking out of the box, perhaps a fiberglass shower stall would be a good idea. There are three or four piece units available.  When these first came out, they were junk. Times change and some of these units are of pretty good quality and fairly inexpensive. Considering that the proper membrane for an average shower runs about $100. Now add a can of glue shower drain, tile guy ect. It's not Brain surgery and I'd walk you through it if you go this route. No grout to clean, no tile to scrub    Larry