The Pan Beneath the Tile
Liners, membranes, mud beds — the layer your shower stands on.
Not every floor job needs a pan rebuild — roughly half the Farmington floors we open have sound liners worth keeping. This page explains how we test (flood test protocol, weep-hole check, slope mapping), the two rebuild systems we install (PVC liner + mud bed, or foam tray + sheet membrane), and why we photograph and flood-test every pan before it gets buried in tile again.
- Flood-tested diagnosis. Plug, fill, mark, wait — proof of pan integrity or failure.
- Two proven systems. Liner + mud bed (classic) or foam tray + membrane (modern).
- True pre-slope. Water reaches weep holes instead of sitting under tile.
- Clamped drains. Membrane mechanically locked at the drain, never just cut around.
- Photo + test record. You see the pan and the test results before tile covers them.
Pans that hold in Farmington
Floor systems we set across Farmington — grip, slope-fit and grout that lasts.
Farmington notes
Farmington sellers refresh the shower floor and re-grout the walls before listing — it reads as a renovated bath in photos for a fifth of the price. In Farmington we flood-test free whenever ceilings below show staining: The Farmington pattern: a 1980s fiberglass shower pan gone dull and flexy next to dated brass trim. Shower-floor and pan re-tiles outnumber full redos here, and buyers notice new shower floors first. A sound pan saves you $500–$1,000 — we prove soundness instead of assuming failure.
Common questions
Keeping sound walls saves 60–70% versus full rebuild. A floor+pan job at $1,500–$2,800 replaces a $6,000–$12,000 gut when walls qualify.
Properly built: decades. 1970s lead and flat tar pans are expiring now across Farmington; modern liner and membrane systems outlive the tile above them.
Always — photographed membrane plus witnessed flood test. Any bidder burying untested work is scheduling your next leak.
We plug the drain, fill the pan two inches, mark the level and wait — typically 24 hours for diagnosis, shorter for post-build verification. Any drop means pan failure, located and shown.