I noticed the rug on floor outside the tile shower was wet long after the shower was used. Initially I thought it was just from water dripping off the shower door when opened. Then I removed the rug and noticed water is coming up from the joints around the curb as shown on the attached photo. A look in the crawl space revealed water slowly dripping from the joists. The leak is apparently coming from the shower pan and NOT near the drain or supply lines. I don’t “think” the seal around the door is leaking. The top of the curb remains dry when the shower is in use.

Thoughts on what has gone wrong and how to repair it?

Anybody have a tile shower guy they recommend around Jasper?

Insurance claim and fix it correctly. Complete tear out and proper waterproofing

If you don’t want to do that, tear out 2 rows up wall around shower, shower floor, curb and drain and do the best patch you can

Would bet money the shower door guy drilled through pan over the curb (edit: or knowing some of the stuff I’ve seen there is no pan over the curb)

Could be a saturated mud bed too. I’m not near pen and paper or I could draw it.

If you have a traditional shower pan with mud bed above, the water goes through the grout joints into the bed, and soaks it, once it reaches a certain point of saturation the water level rises, until it can eventually work its way out of the waterproofing (assuming the waterproofing isn’t faulty, which most are)

We do only Schluter waterproofing systems for that reason, all waterproofing and drain is above mud bed (it never gets wet). All water goes straight down drain.

I'm no expert, but I think this is a fairly common problem. The liner is torn and leaking or was not properly installed. Bust out, rebuild the pan and curb, retile. Also replace the rotted sub floor..

I would be surprised if insurance will cover it.

I do it all the time. They will.

Usually it ends in subfloor/cabinets/countertops all having to be replaced depending on layout and if we can’t find the tile to match/patch it back

had this happen because the "shower pan" ( or whatever the plastic liner is underneath tile) was insufficient and developed a leak that showed up 10 feet away in my closet. had been going on a while. biggest issue you may need mold remediation, which may not be covered. shower pan may not be covered either. if you have drywall I would be sure to look at that ( behind kickboards) if you have a bathroom or closet behind a door.we took out 12 inches of mine all the way around until we stopped finding mold.......
my remediation/ remodel person helped with the insurance claim and we got as much covered as possible.

I’m with bama1971. Saturated bed pushed up over the waterproofing. Good news looks like you found it before it was completely rotten. If you can find the tile again they can just cut the bottom 14-16” out. Remove everything from the area it will get dusty. Doors don’t stop dust FYI. I had this done 3 years ago, mine was bigger and a fancy pattern $2800. I’m in Shelby county where everything is higher. Probably would have been half at my lake house in Talladega county.

Two types of tile showers. Those that leak and those that will.

Oh and if you can’t find the bottom just go with another coordinating tile since it will all be removed. The walls are your problem.

Historically, I would agree.

Schluter systems offers a lifetime warranty. If installed properly, it will never leak.

Justin is right on all his posts in this thread. Pan leak, need to totally rebuild it IMO.

There is no "easy fix" to this problem.

Doing a master bath remodel now. Putting in a big tile shower using Schluter system . That stuff is impressive. If there's a way to do one that won't ever give problems, that's it.

I don’t think an event that happens gradually over time is covered by most homeowners insurance. I think there is language about sudden event or something like that. Maybe you have some special coverage or rider hopefully.

DC is correct

This is correct, there are ways to work it out. Like I said, we do them regularly

I'll be shocked if an insurance co would cover it

Apparently you don't work for nationwide

Plan on a major redo. Our subfloor looked similar to yours. After tearing out the tile I found out that the builder held the thick rubber liner in place by nailing it down. (Insert choice words here). Was a 6x6 foot shower with 10 heads. Now it is a 3x6 insert with 2 heads. That also freed up room to put in a separate tub. Worst two months of my life. Did all of the work myself. Wife almost left me because it took so long, but she loves the tub now. And also the window she had me put in while the Sheetrock was down. It may start out as a small job, but it can grow into a monster.

We went through exact same issue. Contractor did crap job of putting pan in, nailed it in as deadeyesdads did. We tore it out to the studs and installed the schluter system.