Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - Wood Lip in Shower Pan

I have a bathroom downstairs with a tiled shower that is built on the concrete floor. The shower floor itself has a slight slope on all four sides to a center drain. I discovered while replacing a couple of broken tiles on the 4" high lip between the shower floor and the main bathroom floor that the lip is made of wood. Four boards 4 inches wide and 4 feet wide were nailed together with tile installed on bothsides and top. I guess broken tiles had caused the top board to rot out over time with water leakage.

Since I have company coming in 2 weeks and I plan eventually to renovate this bathroom in the next year or so, I am looking for a quick, temporary fix. I have removed all the rotten wood on the top, the sides with tiles are intact (no obvious rot and the tiles are still tight) as is the bottom strip of wood. I was thinking of brushing wood hardener on the remaining wood then filling the center with plastic wood. Then just retiling the top. Would this work for the time being? What about using the foam insulation that comes out of a can for the bottom layer so I won't have to use so much plastic wood?

You might want to post this over in the Ceramic Tile forum for a faster answer from one of the pros over there or go to http://www.johnbridge.com and post the ? on John's board.
He has written a book on Ceramic Tile, and knows it from a-z.
I personally would put a piece of solid, pressure-treated wood back in there, rather than what you're thinking of doing, but ask a tile pro (I'm not one).
Good Luck!
Mike

Well, it's going to be Mickey Mouse, whatever you do, but I would follow Mike's advice about the solid piece. Should last a few months. It sounds like you'll need to eventually tear everything out and start over.

John

Thanks for the plug, Mike. Our new board (like this one) is located at: http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin

TY, John.
Mike