"Who Knows What Evil Lurks Under Your Shower Pan"

You arise and enter the first well used sanctuary in your home. As you walk in your nostrils catch a nano particle of a peculiar odor. You think you have smelled it before but you just can't recall.



You ask your spouse, "honey, do you smell something funny in the bathroom?" " Yea, but I think it was from your tacos last night dear", kind of smells like a sewer I think".



You wanted a shower with no grout lines. You wanted a shower with smooth sides and Cultured Marble fit the bill. It is a little tight but I don't have to take care of grout lines mold growing there.



I understand the want and need for that Cultured Marble shower, but I have a confession to make, we tear out more of these than we install. As  matter of fact, we have NOT installed a Cultured Marble shower since I have been around these remodeling contractors in the last 5 years. That should tell you something. I have torn one apart and replaced the pan and drain then re-caulked. I have just re-caulked many Cultured Marble showers. But for the most part we rip them out and replace them with tile, ceramic tile, porcelain tile and natural stone.

In this example we did about 4 years ago, the customer complained about an ever growing offensive odor that wafted through the bathroom. The unpleasantness turned into a decision that entailed a total bathroom rebuild. In this photo I have broken out the floor and I am using a shop vac to remove the offensive murk. The shower pan did it's job but it was not installed properly. The water that was retained and went bad should have drained out through the weep holes in the drain assembly. It did not however as you can see. It is black, it really stinks, and I can't wait to get out of there.



I have to say that I have torn out tile floors that were leaking too. So this issue is not specific to Cultured Marble. Maintaining Cultured Marble is a akin to maintaining a fiberglass tub or shower.  



Here is a tile tip,



If you have large tiles in your shower floor, try tapping the tile with a small solid object. If it sounds hollow, it probably is. If you smell something bad coming from your shower, the space between the tile and the pan is probably holding water.



Ripping out and rebuilding the shower is the answer. It is difficult to remove cultured Marble walls and replace them without damage. It is almost impossible to match an old wall if it gets broken. The same is true for the floor.



Are there advantages of Cultured Marble Showers?, "I reckon, but for now, it seems all we do is replace them with tile making them bigger, roomier, and more functional with niches, multiple shower heads, set and forget water temperature controllers, better lighting, frameless glass, mosaics, Solar Tubes, and stone floors.