Toilets, Sinks, Showers, Tubs and Disposals - Shower test and repair questions

Hi, I'm a home inspector and I'm hoping that you may be able to assist me in finding some documentation of test techniques for shower walls.

1) My first questions results from the fact that developers and sellers often attempt to "explain away" problems I find by claiming that my testing methods are unreasonable.

For example when I find leaking shower pans by testing them with standing water, I'm often told that "that's not what it's like when people are taking a shower, and it's not a fair test ". My answer in that case is to point to the test procedure in the lining manufacturer's installation instructions: "This isn't some special test I made up, this is what every line or manufacturer recommends every time a shower liner is installed." The sellers still may not agree to fix the problem, but at least my clients understand that there really is one.

The problem I'm currently having is that as people build more and more large tiled walk-in showers with "turbo" and soaker heads, I'm increasingly finding leaks by directing water onto the benches.

Recently I inspected two new-construction townhomes where three out of four showers are leaking - and not just a little, we're talking about streams of water coming through the recessed lighting and drywall seams on the floors below - after a half hour or so of operation with water directed at the bench and walls (the fourth shower is on a slab, and may well have the same problem, but there is no easy way to test for it).

Meanwhile, I've got a developer standing there waving the IRC at me and saying "All I'm due the buyers is a standard of reasonable care, I've run the liner 3 inches above the curb, and what's happening is your destroying my building because it's completely unreasonable to suppose that anybody will ever direct water at the bench like that".

Now, I don't take this sort of answer seriously, and neither does my client.

But it does leave me wondering if anybody can point me to a liner manufacturer's installation instruction or to some industry-group standard or general installation instruction which states that it's reasonable to test benches, shelves, niches and the like by running water on them.

2) The second difficulty I'm having is finding documentation for the correct repair procedures for leaking shower pans.

At the same property I was pretty certain that the actual mode of water entry was through the pan (there was too much water getting through, too fast for it to have been anything else).

We re-tested the three showers, this time being a careful to keep water off the walls and in the pan only. Again we had three dramatic leaks to the floor below.

Where the developer seems to be going with this it to have his contractor carefully remove the mortar above the liner, repair leaks as they are found until the liners passes testing, and then rebuild the pan above. (The contractor has actually been successful in removing the mortar from a small section of one liner without damaging it, so it appears that this is in fact possible).

I would like the opinion of the tile professionals here as to whether this could be considered a practical and reliable method of correcting this problem (that is, if done this way would you guarantee it to the same extent as a complete pan rebuild), or if the pans should be demolished down the sub floor and rebuild from there.

Again, if anyone can provide documentation in support of either method, it would be much appreciated.

3) Any suggestons as to how to test the shower on the slab?

Thanks in advance for your time.

i found this, don't know if it will help or not
www.thetiledoctor.com/installations/st_showers.cfm

tile instute of america
doctortile@aol.com

good luck