Shower Pan Woes

[Mom & Dogs]

The floor i.e. shower pan in my 2015 Axis has developed a large crack. The previous owner and I have never used the shower due to its small size. The material has become extremely brittle. (I used for storage which caused the crack/now hole.)



My repair shop is quoting nearly $2000.00 to replace. Does this seem reasonable or should I keep shopping around???

[cavie]

Find a company near you called Bath Fitter They build overlays for house tubs and showers. Might fix you up cheaper.

[axis earl]

Originally Posted by strandstra@verizon.net

The floor i.e. shower pan in my 2015 Axis has developed a large crack. The previous owner and I have never used the shower due to its small size. The material has become extremely brittle. (I used for storage which caused the crack/now hole.)



My repair shop is quoting nearly $2000.00 to replace. Does this seem reasonable or should I keep shopping around???

On our 2016 24.1 Axis I recall that the shower pan was separate from the shower walls so it may be possible to cut and pull out the old pan and replace it without removing the walls. I am guessing that it is still at PITA job. I would probably get at least one more estimate and then decide. What kind of storage materials caused the failure?

[Mom & Dogs]

Too many dog food cans. Also there seems to be no support under the pan. See lots of tubes below.

[The_Breeze]

He'll want to remove the walls. The pan should have a lip on it that turns up behind the walls to prevent/reduce leaks. Do not seal this area. It has to breathe to prevent mold/mildew/rot.

[be happy]

I guess it depends on how much money you want to spend or what you want the end result to be. Depending on where the crack is, in relation to the drain, I would first drill a small hole at each end of the crack. That will keep it from becoming larger. I would then go and get some fiberglass repair kit. Both cloth and resin, I know folks will say it will not work on the shower floor. It worked for me, but it does not look good either. You may want to come up with a different place to store the pups food.

[Lt Keefer]

I know someone that stop drilled the cracks in their shower pan and put a piece of gorilla tape on ot for a temp fix. 10 years later he still hasn't repaired the pan, only replaced the tape a couple of times. Just a thought, but if you are only using it for storage, why not put a piece of 3/4 inch plywood in there?

[Mom & Dogs]

Repair shop pulled plastic shower pan which had styrofoam backing on most of bottom. Turns out that crack/hole appeared in spot beyond styrofoam placement. So lack of what would have cost Thor fifty cents to extend pan backing to entire pan is costing me almost 2K to replace entire pan. At this writing the bathroom door, vanity and shower walls have removed and pan has been tossed.

[Lt Keefer]

2K seems excessive,

[knucklehead]

Originally Posted by strandstra@verizon.net

The floor i.e. shower pan in my 2015 Axis has developed a large crack. The previous owner and I have never used the shower due to its small size. The material has become extremely brittle. (I used for storage which caused the crack/now hole.)



My repair shop is quoting nearly $2000.00 to replace. Does this seem reasonable or should I keep shopping around???

HOLY CRAP!!!! Are there's plated in gold?? I cracked the side walls of my shower-surround trying to install a curtain rod cause I did not like the 3-pane glass shower door in my 2018 Windsport 29m. After that failed attempt I let the pros at Camping World in Statesville, NC fix it. I got it there and maybe they did me a favor but I paid around $200.00 for the base, surround and a curved heavy plastic shower curtain. Total was not $400.00 I think. They also beefed up the area under the base because the tech said it was not supporting the pan evenly. This is what a good shop and qualified techs do!! "Fix it right the first time"!!!!! Very pleased and no problems in over a year and a half; Bob Trice

[Mom & Dogs]

After spending $2000.00 to replace shower pan it is cracked again!! I did not store dog food cans in pan this time. Shop tec just shrugged and said must be coach movement.


I suspect that they did not take the time to reinforce bottom of pan as I suggested.

[Pilobob]

I got access to my 29M shower pan thru my right rear wheel well access panel. I had the same issue with the spongy floor in the area of the drain. I was able to cut a piece of plywood to fit where it was cut short. I held that piece up with double sided tape to keep it in place. The next piece of plywood spanned the filler as well as the main floor that the pan was sitting on. That piece was held up with construct adhesive that was fast setting. To make sure it set I wedged a couple of pieces of 2x4 ripped down the middle as braces up thru the hole against the plywood an sitting on top of the tires. After that cured I put in a couple of verticle braces between the subfloor and the new pieces of wood. I held those in place with a lot of construction adhesive. Took me about 4 hours of cutting and tweaking but the shower pan is rock solid now. Why they don’t they just cut the base to fit the entire pan. Hardest part was just the limited space to work.

[knucklehead]

Originally Posted by Pilobob

I got access to my 29M shower pan thru my right rear wheel well access panel. I had the same issue with the spongy floor in the area of the drain. I was able to cut a piece of plywood to fit where it was cut short. I held that piece up with double sided tape to keep it in place. The next piece of plywood spanned the filler as well as the main floor that the pan was sitting on. That piece was held up with construct adhesive that was fast setting. To make sure it set I wedged a couple of pieces of 2x4 ripped down the middle as braces up thru the hole against the plywood an sitting on top of the tires. After that cured I put in a couple of verticle braces between the subfloor and the new pieces of wood. I held those in place with a lot of construction adhesive. Took me about 4 hours of cutting and tweaking but the shower pan is rock solid now. Why they don’t they just cut the base to fit the entire pan. Hardest part was just the limited space to work.

Looks like a pro job to me. Thor could do a lot of things so failures are kept to a minimum but that takes time and money, RIGHT!!? My shower pan problem was self inflicted but Jay at Camping World service put in supports when they replaced the pan and side walls with no problems in 2 years. Good to know about your design. One day when I have the time I may take my access panel off and see if there's something more I can do to support it. Won't last forever; RIGHT? Bob

[mackcolin]

After calling a local mobile repair guy and finding out that he was backed-up 6-8 weeks on repairs, I decided to tackle the shower pan repair in my 2018 Windsport 29M myself. The engineering of the pan installation is terrible. The lack of bracing under the front third under the floor enables the cheap, brittle pan floor to sag so much that it cracked and leaked large amounts of water on the floor under the pan. Obvious, toxic black mold formed and every morning water leaked out into the kitchen. Here's what I did:
- first purchased the repair "tape" that is available on Amazon and found that it helps a little for a while, but the cracking continues and water eventually works its way under the tape and leaks again.
-cut a hole in the thin wood wall outside the shower along the floor toward the sink end of the shower stall. Also removed the inspection door above the right rear tires.
-measured and cut a piece of 1/4" plywood to fill the gap between the wood "floor" engineered below the pan and the thin styro-foam pad that is unsupported in the front third of the pan floor. Then glued the plywood piece to a 3/4 x 4 x 12" piece of oak plank and glued three 2 x 4 x 5 1/4" scrap studs on end to support the oak against the floor pan and (with some difficulty) moved it in place from the cutout along the bath floor and the inspection door.
-I drilled 3/8" holes in the shower pan at the end of each crack to stop future cracking.
-Using foam insulation/crack filler, I inserted the tube in the holes and added foam until it worked its way to other holes and seeped out. Care was taken that the holes were located above my support.
-using 80 grit sandpaper I roughed up the repaired area. I cleaned it with alcohol and made certain there was no more tape goo from the first patch I had used,
-after letting the work set for 24 hours I used Dr. Bob's quick cure two-stage epoxy to pour a patch that covered the repair area.
The result is a slightly flexible 1/8 inch epoxy patch AND I can see the cracks behind the patch aligned properly. There's now no sag in that area of the pan.

I hesitate to paint it right now until I am convinced that it will hold-up over time.
Meanwhile we have found an 18" x 24" bamboo shower "mat" at Home Depot that is sturdy and will provide additional support to the floor. It will require constant disinfecting and drying daily to prevent molding, but we feel it will help prolong the life of the crappy engineering and low quality materials used by Thor in the shower.
Hope this helps relieve some of the misery you might have with shower pan problems.

[Mom & Dogs]

I recently found out that my shower pan has no support under it at all. Not even a partial wood support as referred to in many of the replies to my thread.

Is this factory issue common to all 2015 Axis owners??? Or is just my rig???