Shower Pan Leak in Issaquah, WA

Shower pan leaks are slow, so people wait, and that is the problem. Each shower adds water to the same small area of subfloor around the drain and curb, and the wood never gets a chance to dry. In Issaquah, many homes built from the late 1990s through the 2000s in the Highlands and Talus now have tiled showers with original pans, mortar beds and grout at an age when liners and drain seals begin to fail. In older Olde Town homes and Squak Mountain area houses over crawlspaces, the water drips onto insulation, where cool, damp winter air keeps it wet for months.

After the first few showers, only the mortar bed and grout are wet. After a few weeks, the subfloor around the drain is dark and soft and the drywall behind the curb has wicked water. Within a month or two, mold can grow inside the wall and under the pan, and the room smells musty after each shower. Left for a season, subfloor and joists near the drain can rot, tiles loosen, and the repair grows from a pan rebuild into structural repair.

Framing, subfloor and drywall around a shower pan leak can often be dried in place if the wood is still solid. Once the wet drywall outside the curb is opened, studs and the bottom plate usually dry well with air movers and a dehumidifier. Plywood subfloor that is damp but firm can be dried from below through a small ceiling opening or from a crawlspace. Ceiling drywall in the room below may be saved if it was only stained, not soaked, and the joist bay is dried quickly.

The shower pan itself rarely stays. A failed liner, a mortar bed that has held water for weeks or a cracked prefabricated base usually has to be removed so the subfloor can dry and be inspected. Subfloor around the drain that has delaminated or gone soft is cut out and replaced. Drywall that wicked water for weeks, wet insulation in the joist bay and any material with visible mold growth is removed rather than dried.

Shower pan leaks turn up in every part of Issaquah. In the Issaquah Highlands, where first homes were finished in 1998, many tiled showers are old enough that original liners and drain seals are wearing out, and in stacked condos the leak may show up in a neighbor's ceiling first. In Talus, multi-level homes on Cougar Mountain can hide a pan leak above a lower-level family room. In Olde Town, older homes with updated showers over crawlspaces drip into insulation where a leak stays out of sight.

The pattern repeats nearby. In Sammamish, homes from the 1980s and 1990s around Beaver Lake and Sunny Hills often have original tiled showers. In North Bend and Fall City, older homes over crawlspaces can hide a slow pan leak for months. On Snoqualmie Ridge, two-story homes put the primary shower over the main floor. One call connects you with a local pro who can find the leak and dry the area.