Cracked Bathtub Mystery: Is Cat Pee the Culprit?

Factual Questions
1

Our 8-year old fiberglass bathtub has bitten the dust. Specifically, it has developed a crackly, veiny fracture in its floor. This won’t do for a 2nd floor bathtub. We had it replaced last week.

We’re all quite stymied as to how such a thing could have happened. Nobody jumped in it. Nobody dropped anything. There are, thus far, two suspects. One likely and one intriguing (to me, at least):

  1. The tub was simply defective. My son (who is the main user of the shower/tub) said that there had always been a “soft” spot in that part of the shower. Seems reasonable that after eight years of stressing, the fiberglass over the “soft” spot just gave out.

  2. We had a cat who peed in that tub for 7 years. (She had issues.) Cat pee being the vile, acrid stuff that it is…is it possible that it somehow chemically rendered the fiberglass more brittle or susceptible to fracture?

Having no chemistry knowledge whatsover, I figured I’d run this up the SD flagpole and see who salutes.

Thanks,
Leslie (aka Girl Next Door)

2

I wouldn’t be too quick to blame the cat. Fiberglass bathtubs crack inexplicably often enough that there are sizeable online resources for “how to fix a cracked fiberglass bathtub”, not to mention the existence of fiberglass bathtub repair kits such as this one available from Lowe’s.

3

It’s insufficient strength for the weight and stress of movement by the occupant. The shower in the basement was cracked years a go and last week the crack went made a loud snap. Hello large crack. Plastic does lose strength as the years roll on too. The cat pee could have quickened the break down a minute amount, but it’s basically because of your son being in it.

4

My money is on improper installation, not a chemical reaction. Without the proper bed of supporting concrete under it, even a cast iron tub will crack.

5

I’ve never known cat pee to crack a plastic litterbox. Seems like fiberglass would be a bit stronger.

6

Yet my 80 year old clawfoot obstinately refuses to develop leaks.