Need advice for 'patching' together shower

[D-Hoggs]

Hey all, I need some advice on patching the bottom portion of a shower, if possible. I've taken out the bottom of my neighbor's shower up to about 16" from the ground. The rubber membrane was installed incorrectly along with some other issues that have led to a bunch of water damage over it's 6 year life. My plan was to get a layer of tile off the Durock without damaging the durock so I can put new durock around the bottom and have enough room at the seam to be able to Kerdi over. Put a kerdi pan in and move on. The problem I have run into is that there is no way I can get a row of tile off the Durock cleanly, the durock just breaks apart all underneath.

How can I tie into the existing durock?

[D-Hoggs]

Here is a pic, thanks for any help!

[D-Hoggs]

Yeah I got you Bob. Neighbor doesn't want to take out the whole shower though, and there isn't any water damage anywhere other than in the pan area. Any suggestions that would allow me to get this put together without a full demo?

[D-Hoggs]

Bob, thats what I am going for and what the neighbor wants. My problem though as I stated before is that I have not been able to get a row of tiles off cleanly and it looks unlikely. That being said, I wouldn't be able to have a seem between new and old durock to be able to kerdi over.

[cx]

Welcome back, MD.

That's always the problem, well, one of the problems, with a "pan replacement" job in a shower. There's usually no way at all to make a continuous water containment system.

It's always a temporary patch job, even when well executed.

I'd wanna be sure your neighbor recognizes that so's y'all might continue to be friends even after the next failure of that shower.

If you really like said neighbor, I'd recommend he save the money to be spent on Kerdi products and just build another traditional shower pan with mud walls up to the existing walls. That would better allow you to match the wall thickness at the transition and perhaps look a little better.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[D-Hoggs]

Thanks CX. Yeah, he is well aware of the situation. I told him that I wanted to tear it all out but he doesn't want to. I've given him all the pertinent info, his choice.