Replacing shower base

[VacantlyOccupied]

Okay, I don't know how I did it, but I stepped a little too hard with my heel in my shower and put a damn crack in the base.

Aside from dieting suggestions, I could use some tips on how to replace the damn thing. It's a tile shower with a square-ish plastic base, so hopefully I can just replace the base without having to screw with the tile very much.

Any advice on how to go about this, from getting the original base out to the rest of the job, would be appreciated.

And yes, "call a plumber" is being considered.

 

[BigWill]

Bad news. You must remove at least the base course of tile (first row). The pan has a lip which goes under the tile.

Unless you're really in love with it (the shower), perhaps you should bust it all out and replace the whole thing with a fiberglass stall unit?

Or, simply repair the fiberglass base with a patch kit. Cheap and easy, but slightly ugly.
And, I'm guessing you and the Mrs. were bouncing around like a couple of kangaroos when this "crack" happened?

 

[VacantlyOccupied]

Nope, just my dumb *** was in there.

Patching it and replacing the whole thing later might be the best bet.

Still, I kinda want to try to replace it. But I get in more trouble that way....

 

[horn4life]

What you do not want to do is do nothing.

The fun you will have after not doing anything and the area underneath the pan is wet and mildewed along with the adjacent base studs and potential wall board will make you very sad indeed.

If you want to replace with another plastic base then you will indeed ahve to remove the bottom layer of tiles. You MIGHT be able to come back in and simply do a tile base with those tiny tiles.

You might talk to a tile guy about this. Seems you can "float" a base that angles down toward the drain and then tile over this making a permanent tile base that will NOT crack no matter how wild you and the Mrs and her cousin get in the shower...

Think of all the tile showers in the world with tile bases?