Guides
How shower pans actually work
Ten years of answering the same questions on the phone, written down. No prices, no sales copy — just what we tell people who call.
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What is a hot mop shower pan?
A hot mop shower pan is the waterproof floor underneath your shower tile. It is built on site from hot liquid asphalt and felt paper, mopped on in alternating layers over a sloped cement bed, turned up the walls and over the curb, and reinforced with fiberglass mesh in the corners. Done properly it is the longest-lasting way to waterproof a shower floor.
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Can you just patch a leaking shower pan?
Sometimes you can patch a leaking shower pan, but it depends on how the pan was built and where the failure actually is. If the tile is already in, sealing it from the top almost never works. Send photos before anyone commits to a repair, because the honest answer changes completely depending on what is under the tile.
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How long before you can tile over a shower pan?
A hot mop shower pan is normally dry enough to walk on about two hours after it is finished, and tile can usually go on the following day. The gap is not drying time — it is the flood test. Nobody should tile over a pan that has not held water.
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What does a shower pan cost?
Every shower pan is priced job by job, because the size, the location and how well the shower has been prepped all change the work. We quote on the phone the same day if you send photos, measurements and the address, and there is no charge for the quote.
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Why a shower pan needs a pre-slope
A pre-slope is the sloped bed of cement laid under the waterproofing so that every part of the shower floor drains toward the drain. Without it, water that gets through the tile has nowhere to go and sits against the membrane. It is the step most often skipped, and it is invisible once the tile is on.
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Getting a shower pan past inspection
A shower pan passes inspection when it is built on a proper pre-slope, sealed up the walls and over the curb, reinforced at the corners, and proven with a flood test that holds water. Our pans pass any city inspection in San Diego County. Most failures trace back to prep that was not finished before the waterproofing went on.
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Hot mop compared with sheet and liquid membranes
Sheet membranes, liquid-applied coatings, plastic liners and hot mop all waterproof a shower floor, and all of them work when they are installed properly. We build hot mop pans because in ten years of opening up failed showers, it is the method we have seen last the longest.
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Still not sure what you need?
Call or text with photos and measurements. We will tell you straight.