Matt arrived this morning ready to work, and by noon he had the lower tier of tile and backer board removed along with the floor tile and the layer of thin-set below it. Matt told us that if Andy had just screwed the drain top up to its full height, we would not have had to go through the whole hassle of removing the floor; however, in the end we are fortunate that we did so.
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| Matt did an excellent job of cutting out the bottom tier of tile without damaging the tiles above that row. |
Had we not had to remove the floor, we never would have discovered that the way the drain was installed did not meet code in this city. It would have leaked. While we do not have a basement into which it would have dripped, we do have a house built on a cement slab foundation. Water leaking under the slab for years is not a good thing. Thoughts of muck, mold, and mud fill my mind. With my luck, it would have cause the whole floor to sag and to eventually cave in. I am not happy that we have to incur more expense to get the drain replaced, but I am happy that we will be solving the problem of a leaking drain.
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| We will get rid of the poorly-installed drain and actually have a curb rebuilt that will be tiled correctly with no awkward cuts. |
We talked to the plumber today to schedule their workman. He will be here tomorrow morning, so perhaps by the end of the week we actually will see real progress on the rebuilding of the shower. I asked, since he will have to break up the terrazzo and concrete floor to get to the drain pipes, if we should just replace the whole trap while we have the floor open. After all, I am sure that the plumbing is original to the house, which means that it is 55 years old. I am sure a lot of gunk has built up in the pipes during that time. The plumber agreed that since we will have the floor open, this might be an ideal time to replace the trap with a new, clean one before we add a new drain on top. We will have to see what the plumber finds when he comes in tomorrow. This whole venture will probably cost us $600 - $750, but in the end we will have a safe, functioning drain.
We also learned from Matt today that Andy must have run out of grout earlier than we thought because he "filled in" one corner of our shower with a lighter, almost white grout. No wonder the right side of the shower floor looked lighter than the left side! Matt suggested that we might want to choose a grout that was slightly darker than the grout we used in the walls just to contrast the floor a bit more with the walls. We'll have to see what we find tomorrow.
Late this afternoon, Rick and I treated ourselves to a short drive to Safety Harbor, a delightful little village east of Dunedin that is nestled on the west side of Tampa Bay. As the name implies, it is an old harbor town that has maintained its quaint cobblestone streets and downtown atmosphere. We drove there partially to see the sights and also to have dinner at a restaurant called Crispers.
Crispers is a Florida chain of restaurants that offer deli-style sandwiches, soups, and salads. Rick had a delicious French Dip sandwich and chips while I had a turkey "cranwich" -- turkey, apple, and cranberries -- on delicious homemade bread. The food was great and the prices were reasonable. We are going to St. Augustine with Stephanie in a few weeks, so we will have to eat at the Crispers there when we visit that fair city.
This turned out to be a good day. I could feel the tension get chipped away from both Rick and me with each blow of Matt's hammer. We hope by next Friday to have a new shower completely installed and ready for use before Stephanie comes for her visit. Maybe without the shower to worry about, we actually will be able to sleep tonight. That, too, would be a minor miracle.
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