Mason :

My home is 12 years old, in beautiful Beaverdam. My heel went through the shower floor of the Lasco one-piece pre-fab 47"W x 34"D x 72"H fiberglass shell.  The break is 4.5".  While on my hands and knees, I noticed two small sets of spiderweb cracks in addition to the big break.

My wife says time for a tiled shower. I say let's get it repaired.  How do we decide? 

Steve S.

Steve,

I am sure you've heard that old joke about how men shower versus how women shower.  It starts with the man undressing in the bedroom, leaving his clothes on a heap in the floor, laughing as he shakes his stuff at his wife, sucking in his gut as he passes the mirror (nope - no six-pack or firm pecs!), and so on.  Now we can add that the man busts the shower floor.  That's our job, Steve - holding up our male-slob stereotypes!

Depending on which product you have, Lasco shower units have a three or five year warranty.  That relatively short term tells us something about the manufacturer's confidence in their quality.

Lasco, along with most other manufacturers of these units, recommends (but does not require) that a foundational base of plaster or mortar be placed under the floor of the unit during installation.  If this were done in your case, it probably would have prevented the severe failure that you have experienced.

It is likely that your unit is gelcoated fiberglass-reinforced polyester construction.  This is quite similar to the construction of a boat hull, and may be repaired with a fiberglass overlay and refinishing.  Certainly, this would be a job for a professional specialist, and I would think that a repair would be more costly than pulling and replacing the unit (as well, the repaired stall may be prone to continued failure, especially since you don't likely have the foundational base installed).

Alternately, certainly, you might tile the shower stall.  Sounds like the greatest benefit of that would be to please your wife!  Certainly, you would want to set-up the stall space with all the proper substrates - there are many systems from cement backer boards to newer fiberglass-coated sheathing.  This is a more significant investment, but may be done to achieve interesting color, pattern or other design effects with the broad range of tile products available.

Expect that replacing the existing one-piece shower might run in the neighborhood of $1,200 - 2,500, done by a professional plumber.  The fully-tiled shower would be something more like $2,500 - 5,000.  As with all things, the type and quality of the materials and manner of installation will affect your price range.

Bear in mind that your shower is where you likely start your day, or wind-down at the end of the day.  Your environment influences your mood and outlook, so investing in a wonderful shower is typically of great psychological value!

Good luck, and happy showering!

Mason

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