Two years ago we noticed the roof in the kitchen (below the master bath) was deterioting. The home…read morewas original 1972, so obviously had a shower pan leak. We contacted Kitchen and Shower Expo and had them do the work, which entailed replacing the shower pan, some carpentry work, and retiling the bottom section of the walk in shower ($8k).
Less than 2 years later, the grout around the drain for about a foot and a half is COMPLETELY gone, it sags a bit, a cut tile by the drain is broke, and now I see a brown spot developing on the ceiling directly below it, indicating a leak.
I am a firm believer that crap happens... It just needs to be fixed. We contacted them, and while yes I understand it is out of the 1 year window, they refuse to fix their issue without almost $1000 payment. Fine... The contract says 1 year, they can do that, even though I feel it is a poor business practice not to see that this as something beyond the contract. As she said, "We have never seen damage that bad in such a short period of time." She says it's lack of maintenance, the 3 other companies that have see it in person say otherwise. Being that, I just want to make sure future customers see what COULD happen to them, and weigh the risks.
Now, Star will probably come on here and say we didn't maintain it... The original shower had been here for 51 years, and other that your typical wear and tear, the grout was good condition. She's also going to point out a piece of tile that broke off in the corner of the shower, and insinuate it fell off the side trim because of lack of upkeep. That piece of tile was one of the pieces that broke off around the drain, NOT the side trim. I have inspected the wall trim... No piece is missing. They did a fine job along the wall. No complaints there.
So, long story short, 51 years, grout was still good. Kitchen and Bath Expo replace it, and less than 2 years the shower itself is worse than it was before. Is this a one off situation? Maybe. It's up to you if you want to risk it.