How can I repair a hole in shower wall ?

[Paul J. Dudley]

Hello,

We are working on an old mobile home. There is a large hole in one of the walls ( the wall opposite the faucet ). The wall appears to be a sheet of sorts, reminds me of formica laminate.

A very long time ago I did a repair in a fiberglass shower floor. I used fiberglass resin to repair it and it worked well. It seemed to me that the fiberglass resin would stick to anything. So my idea now is to try using it to repair this hole.

Question: Does this sound like it will work (would the resin stick to the wall material and be water proof ), or is there some other patch method I should refer to ?

TIA

Paul

[Lawrence]

Your idea will work although epoxy resin would be more flexible and durable. A new shower enclosure is not so expensive and is the preferred fix.

[DerbyDad03]

Epoxy and some fiberglass sheeting would work, but probably be ugly.

If you choose to go this direction, you may want to rough up the sorrounding area to give the epoxy some bite.

There are all sorts of products for building shower stalls, from fake tile sheeting that attaches to a substrate with adhesive to retrofit fiberglass sorounds that come in multiple pieces - base, side walls, door/curtain.

Any of those will probably look better and last longer than fixing the existing hole.

Of course this assumes you are repairing a actual shower stall - you didn't say specifically - and not one of those mobile home bathrooms where the whole room is the shower stall.

[Paul J. Dudley]

: snip :

Ooops .. Actually there is a bath tub, three walls have sort of masonite type paneling, and of course shower head/faucets. No green board backing. Directly across from the faucet is the wall in question. Looks like someone punched a six inch hole in it. I had hoped to put a few strips of wood behind the hole secured in place by wires or such, and then filling in a couple of layers of fiberglass resin/cloth combination. Squeejee(sp?) each coat as flat as possible, sanding between coats to keep it somewhat smooth/flat. We aren't as concerned about looks but do hope to keep water from seeping through.

= Paul =

[DerbyDad03]

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re: We aren't as concerned about looks but do hope to keep water from seeping through

I hope you will have a way to check your repair periodically - in other words - see behind the wall.

It would really suck if water was seeping through and you didn't know it until major damage had occurred.

[Paul J. Dudley]

Good point ... No. Actually there is nothing else 'tween it and the hallway isle. Hmmmm .. I'll have to double check on that tomorrow though. I'll check back in tomorrow eve when we knock off work. Lotsa piddley things to do - it's an old trailer.

= Paul =

[Paul J. Dudley]

Well ... after careful consideration and advice from replies, we've decided to go ahead and replace the whole sheet of panel.

Thank you DerbyDad03 and Lawrence for your valuable input.

= Paul =