Bought a house which my son is living in. All the baths had been redone prior to moving in. Home Inspection found nothing. In one bath (so far) there is a tile floor over cementitious (sp?) board, a walk in shower with a smaller tile floor and walls to the ceiling and a small corner seat built in and tiled. The guy who did this work apparently used OLD materials – mud and grout. I know this (I think) because most of the floor tiles have come loose from the floor and the grout is extremely soft (can be dislodged and abraded very easily with a grout saw). The floor and corners of the walls of the shower retain moisture and water seeps into the crawlspace below. Mushrooms ( wonderfully tasty straw mushrooms 🙂 ) grow in the grout. A few of the floor tiles have come loose in the past but were repaired. The corner seat weeps water at its base long after a shower. The tub has a tile surround that appears sound – most of the tile here is vertical and extends up above the tub by about 36″
I know the floor to the bath room will need to be replaced – many cracked and broken tiles – and probably the floor of the shower. It seems logical that the vertical tile in the shower will need to be replaced at least below the splash line – and my guess is that while I am redoing all this, I might as well just remove it all. Ok. Can anyone give me an idea if removing the vertical tile above the wet line where the shower water soaks it, is a need to do thing or not. Also, grinding all the mud (this stuff is pure white) off the cementitious (sp?) will probably be necessary?? or just lay on another layer of good mud?? and set the new tile in that.
Please don’t ask me about the contractor that did this work!! If you do I will name names and recount all the rest of the lousy work he did and go generally nuts. I have already unloaded on this guy on Angie’s List. He did the work for the previous owner so I am guessing he has no responsibility to me. When I called him he was non-responsive. When I wrote him he replied through his attorney.
Replies
I think you already know the answer to completely tearing out the hacks work.
Given the failure of his materials and techniques why not completely remove his stamp from the place, find out what other underlying issues are there and move on.
Partially fixing defective work is generally lipstick on a pig. No making silk purses out of sow's ears.
Perhaps getting the present century with some Schluter Kerdi would be a thought for the shower.
Thanks - you were right that I was on the right track - but for one who doesn't entirely take oneself too seriously - I am looking for some 2nd opinions. 'preciate yours.John
If the sh. floor holds water, the mud base was done wrong (should not be ponding).
If water leaks into the crawl space-it was not properly waterproofed.
Remove the tile, and the wonderboard and do it (or have it done)correctly.
Don't try to re-use the wonderboard that is there. The time and effort it will take you to get it to be acceptable to put new tile on it will not be near worth it.
As s crough said, if you can see this much of what he did, imagine what other shortcuts he took that you can't see (i.e. maybe he used green board in the shower?). It's not worth doing half a good job over top of a bad one.
Sounds like a bad situation all around. I hope this all works out for you.
No Coffee No Workee!
Edited 11/24/2008 3:32 pm ET by Jed42
I don't think you can state that he used old materials based on what you found. If water is getting to the morter as badly as you say, it's going to go mushy. Best thing to do is rip it out to the studs and do it right.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt