Hi, My sister just got a proposal to remodel her bath. The contractor plans to remove the wall tile in her shower, but he plans to keep the tile shower pan and put new tile over it. I've never heard of this being done before. Is that a good idea? The current tile is small, and I think the new tile will be the same or slightly larger (about 2" squares). (The existing tile is in good condition -- just an ugly color.) I'd sure appreciate some feedback from an experienced tile person as to whether this will be o.k. or not. I assume he's doing it to keep from having to make a new shower pan and keep the cost down, but I'm just not too keen on the idea.
There could be several reasons for this. 1. The renovator does not know how to install a pan. 2. He or she is afraid that if they touch the drain pipe assuming its old they will end up fixing all the drains below. 3. He gets the job, starts it and finds out he cannot complete it right without doing the pan anyway. So he charges more to do the job. 4. Your sister told him to do it as cheep as possible.
Many times pans are saved if they are in good shape, Its a little tricky to properly seal along the bottom edge after they remove the old tile walls. You did not tell us how old the shower was. If its an old shower with a lead pan underneath, I would go with the extra expense to remove and replace with a new pan made out of rubber or one of those pre-cast units. Schluter systems also have a pan kit that can be installed then tiled over. But if you go with a mud pan base you will spend a bunch more on the job.
Why not remove the grout on the walls and re-glaze the tiles with new surface. There are a lot of professional companies that do this type of work. Once re-glazed then re-grout.
Posts: 945 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
The RIGHT way to do it would be to completely demo the original pan down to wood subfloor and start building a new pan. I wrote an article a while back on the right way to mud a shower pan for tile installation.
Do it the right way. It may be cheaper to cut corners, but it will cost much more to fix mistakes than it would to do it right the first time.
