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Anyone have experience with Ultra Set?

| Posted in Construction Techniques on December 8, 2002 08:18am

I was involved in discussions on this forum about 2 years ago related to my building a soaking tub in my house. It’s done now, and is built of a layer of plywood, Durock cement board, Ultra Set waterproofing, thinset and ceramic tile. For the first year and a half, everything was great. Now I see that I have a leak (I have access in the crawl space to the sunken tub). I was extremely careful to apply the Ultra Set according to instructions and even spoke to their tech people to make sure I was doing things right and that all materials I used were compatible. I used 3 layers of Ultra Set, so don’t see how that could be a problem. Yet I can see the general area where the water is coming from and there are no fittings in the area of the leak.

My question is: Does anyone know of problems with this product? I see on Bostik’s website that they no longer market Ultra Set as a water proofing, and it has disappeared from the shelves of my supplier. Now days, they call it a floor adhesive….no mention of waterproofing, even though that was its primary, advertised use when I applied it. This raised a red flag to me. Does anyone out there have any ideas on this dilemma? I’m assuming I will have to rip the whole thing out as I don’t see any way to repair a leak, even if I can find it.

I have been lowering the water level a little bit at a time to try to locate the leak and I think I’m close as the water flow is just about down to nothing where it had been a constant drip before.

Help!

Tom

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Replies

  1. alias | Dec 08, 2002 03:53pm | #1

    tom- there's a great amount of in formation here, and this my personal favorite. but also the journal of light construction has posting place for specfic tile procedures and material. i've lurked there and was pretty impressed so my point...... if not here try there i'll post again with the address.......bear

    lets see if this works;

    http://www.jlconline.com/cgi-bin/jlconline.storefront/3df341420042b82327a401eld2905e9/catalog/11376

    hit forums,then scroll down you'll see it.......cheers

    Edited 12/8/2002 8:03:14 AM ET by the bear



    Edited 12/8/2002 8:05:08 AM ET by the bear

    1. User avater
      bobl | Dec 08, 2002 11:43pm | #2

      Re: JLCOnline

      their site says it's for professionals only.  There are different moderators for the different forums.  Most of the moderators will not delete a non-professional from posting if you are not asking something you can easily find the answer to the question.

      I have seen more than one comment regarding the tile forum of the moderator deleting questions he considers simple, whether or not you consider it simple.

      I mention theses things so you know what you are getting into.

      If it was me, and I didn't get any info here, I would post there. Providing the details of what you did and who you talked to before doing it.

      BTW it's one of 4 sites I regularly visit.

      bobl          Volo Non Voleo      Joe's cheat sheet

      Edited 12/8/2002 3:45:19 PM ET by bobl

      1. User avater
        BillHartmann | Dec 09, 2002 08:06pm | #3

        John Bridge has good forums with lot of expericenced people and accept DIY's from the little I have look.

        JLConline treatment of DIY's varies a lot from forum to forum. Gary Katz and most of the people responding in the finish carpentry section will gladly accept questions from anyone.

        Most of the other forums will accept most question if they are asked in a professional manor. But ask a question like one that I saw a while back, "I have my foundation what is the next step in building a house" and expect the worse. Of course there would be lots of laughter in BT also with a question like that. Some of the others sections have even ignored questions from "building pro's" that are working outside their specialty.

        But the moderator of the tile forum is gone. It is now a user to user forum. But I don't read it so I don't know what the tone of the users are.

        1. User avater
          bobl | Dec 09, 2002 09:51pm | #4

          u said it better than I did, cause most of what u said is what i ment to say

          I didn't know the tile forum moderater was gone, I just remember some of the comments I saw, just wanted to warn. I don't think I was there more than once or twice and that was a couple years ago.

          I have and will occasionally post at JLC, and for the most part I would guess BT regulars (that includes the so-called lurker) would not have any problems there.

          BTW folks who don't want to subscribe to JLC should get their library to subscribe.bobl          Volo Non Voleo      Joe's cheat sheet

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