OK, so I moved into a brand spanking new home two years ago and the workmanship leaves much to be desired. This is a new development and here is my dilemma.
The grout between the ceramic floor tiles in my master bath shower is cracking in several places. The largest of which is about 2 feet in length with the floor raising a bit along the crack. (there are cracks in the wall tile grout as well, but that is another question for another day)
We just noticed this problem but may have been using the shower with the cracks for as much as 1 month. (the tiles are the type that come attached 6x6? on mesh)

Of course, there is only a one year warranty through Tarion for this problem so I have to fix it myself.

I asked at HD and was told that the concrete underneath will capture the water if in fact we did use it while the crack was there and all I needed to do was to regrout.

Is this correct? If not, how do I find out if there is indeed water damage?

Thanks in advance

I would say that your shower was never constructed properly right from the start.

Unfortunately your not going to see any water damage. The water will be pooling under the shower floor because the liner is more than likely sitting directly on the subfloor.

Chances are the walls will also be greenboard.

It looks like your in for a complete rebuild.

Theres not much good or correct advice that comes from the big box stores. The grout suggestion is one of them.

Hi poorbuilder,
well there's bad news, and some not so bad news. Sounds like you have a shoddy job there......thats the bad news, the not so bad news is that your shower may not actually leak which is really not good news. Showers built in this fashion eventually fail with leaking floors or leaking walls or mold growth in the walls. Can you give us any more info of what you see in your shower? Does it smell bad when you wakl in the shower.......like a pungent smell?

No bad smell at all. Just the cracking and lifting tile. It is not lifting a ton, just ever so much, but noticable.
We did have the inspector come last year and in taking readings he noticed an elevated moisture reading in there. We recaulked and grouted as requested and still a year later are seeing the cracking.

If I do indeed have to fix the shower, can I start with just taking up the floor and go from there. Or are we talking about a major renovate and taking the walls out as well?

It all depends on whether the shower pan was built right or not.

Unfortunately it requires a tear out of the shower base to determine a plan of action.

grrrrr
i knew it
i will get back to you all when i pull the floor out.

thanks for your help