[GaryS]

I have what I hope is an easy problem to fix. Pics are Here. Bought house 3 years ago, the bathroom was an addition in 1994. Plastic shower pan with glue-on wall panels, and linoleum on the floor.
The shower enclosure sealer/adhesive at the shower pan has leaked some, and has caused baseboard rot. Also some mildew around the bottom wall edges of the pan where caulking came loose. I have taken the enclosure off and am going to clean/bleach and let dry around the wall lip of the pan, then re-install the enclosure with a good sealant/adhesive (haven't looked at what to use for that yet - and recommendations?).

What I mainly need advice for is the linoleum was installed around the shower, not under it, and caulking where shower meets floor keeps cracking and separating, I guess because the linoleum is flexing and starting to lift a bit around the shower.

Could a tile baseboard that flares out at the bottom be applied to the plastic shower pan to cover the linoleum to shower joint? The pan's outside surface is smooth plastic or fiberglass. It would have to adhere to the shower pan and maybe to the linoleum (I guess it could just be caulked at the edge, but if there is such a thing as a tile to vinyl adhesive I'd give that a try) to help cover and hold down the linoleum edge. Either way I guess I'd have to caulk along the tile/linoleum line and may still have the same issue, except that the tile will hold down the edge of the linoleum.

I'd also like to do a row of bullnose tile around the outside of the shower panels on the wall (there is an open gap at the top of the corner shower panel - the wall panels don't extend all the way to corner, so if water gets in there, it's nothing but wall board - that I want to seal up, and it would look better with a tile row). I'll also do a tile baseboard around the rest of the bathroom matching what I use on the shower pan, replacing the existing wood.

I've never laid any tile before, and I considered making this my first tile project and doing the whole floor, but then I'd want to put in a nicer shower, and don't want to spend that kind of money right now for this guestroom/office bathroom.

 

[Bud Cline]

Gary generally speaking you can't install ceramic tile over those plastic shower facilities but in your case I'm sure what you describe will work fine. I would use 100% silicone to attach the tiles to the shower base and then use caulk (not grout) to fill all the joints. The shower base should be scuffed in the areas to be covered with tile.

In the case of modernizing the baseboard around the room, regular grout may be more desirable. Allow the tiles to stand off the floor about 1/16" then caulk that juncture. That tile is called "cove base" and it comes two ways. One way is for cove base that is going to be included in a tiled wall and it has a flat top for continuation of the wall tile. The other is the same tile but with a rounded and finished top edge, usually referred to as "sanitary cove base". That's the one you want.

Above the wall panels inside the shower the walls are sometimes also tiled to eliminate the need of paint and to create a watershed effect for the collecting of steam vapors.

 

[GaryS]

Great, thanks Bud! I'll give it a go and post some follow-up pics.

I'm letting everything sit to be sure it dries up between the wall panels and the pan lip, so it'll be a few days. Cleaning up the enclosure in the meantime.