wrote:
Hi there,

I have a late 1920s shower that sprung a leak in the wall from the
shower controls. I'd like to redo the bathroom completely in the
future, but not just now. So my goal is to repair that hole that the
plumber made to fix the pipes and install a new shower control,
diverter, head, and tub filler.

The problem is, because it's so old, the wall is made of concrete and
wire mesh, and I'm not sure exactly what approach to take in fixing it.
The goal isn't to make it perfect (that would be impossible because I
can't find tile to exactly match the originals), but to have it be
useable until we rebuild completely. I'm fairly handy, so I think I
should be able to handle this, once I have an approach and a plan.

I find pictures to be the most descriptive, so, a
href="http://holeinmyshower.blogspot.com/" target="blogspot"take a
look/a and let me know what you think. (If the link doesn't work,
you can just go to http://holeinmyshower.blogspot.com

I appreciate your thoughts.

Regards,
Philip

I've got a 1930 vintage bath that needs similar work but I'm going to
be redoing the entire shower stall.

I cannot see in the photo but I'm assuming there was tar paper over the
studs just beneath the tile base.

Depending on how "temporary" the repair will dictate the method.

The bottom line is you want to protect the framing from water intrusion
to prevent dry rot. My shower stall had a cracked shower pan & the
leaking water (before I bought the house) set up the conditions for dry
rot that consume most of the shower stall framing.

That said I would try to slide a water proofing membrane behind the
existing tile, install wire & reapply concrete substrate for the tile.
(or use cement backer board over membrane) Then set tile over it all.

OR

It might be easier & cleaner to break back ALL of the tile / concrete
on that wall so you just have to deal with the "corners". Install
water proofing membrane over the studs & then cement backer board. Set
the tile over it.

I'm not sure how to deal with the wall / pan joint but the fact that
the shower output is on this wall means that the wall, corners & pan
joint will only be subject to splash not a huge heavy stream that an
opposite wall would see.

cheers
Bob