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I recently built my addition which included a 4 x4 shower stall. The shower was built with a mortar bed and lathe. I was going to use tile backer board but my tile man insisted that a mud bed would be the better way. He did a great job but I am experiencing hairline cracks in the corners of the grout. I filled them with grout but they re-occured. They are very small. Most of the tile jobs I have done myself also had the same problem, as well as other fresh tile jobs I have seen by other contractors. I can only assume that this is the movement of the studs. Is this a correct assumption? Is caulking the joints with a flexable sealant the answer? Thanks for the input
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*clean and dry joint well and then use silicone to "match" grout colorBill
*Wherever two tiled surfaces come together (wall-to-wall, wall-to-floor), use caulk, not grout. Most grout manufacturers have sanded and non-sanded caulks to match their respective lines of grout.
*Another neat way to do corners are preformed ones from Schluter. They are thinseted into wall-wall joints or wall floor joints and are a cove type corner. They are made out of aluminum and PVC and come in a variety of colors, one really neat one is a stainless steel.
*Never seen those, do you have a web site or linkBill
*b Advice wanted for repairing a custom tiled shower stall threshold.Our stall has a copper pan with a sloped mud substrate for the floor. At the threshold our plasterer overlaid backerboard on all three sides. Six months after I tiled the shower, laid a marble threshold, and had a custom door and short side panel installed, we have a slow leak at the bottom corner of the door where the glass panel above was draining. This leak dripped through ceiling below and penetrated the threshold, I believe, flowing to the side around the marble threshold and backerboard underlayment and into the wood -- as it has swelled. None of the tiles on the sides of the threshold have popped, but the top grout line is flaking and the thresholds' 1/16"-1/8" overhang is gone.The shower door people identified the source of the leak in their system and will remove the door so I can replace the threshold. This time I plan to install a membrane and adhere it to the copper pan and the new wood for the threshold under the backerboard. I am concerned about how to attach the membrane at the sides of the door frame. Can I possibly do it without removing the tiles (on one side, there are 12" marble tiles, 6" ceramic on the other) and sections of backerboard? I have lots of spare ceramic tiles, but the 12" marble tile are discontinued and I have only small scraps left. I am hoping to salvage the tiles from the threshold but am worried about shattering the larger marble tiles if I try to get them up for the improved waterproofing we need. When we replace the threshold, there should be about 1" of backerboard showing on each side above the top surface of the wood and membrane. I know the membrane should go under the backerboard up the sides 3-6", but its too late now, or is it?All help welcome!Tile Gal, Cambridge, MA
*Tile Gal,please give me more information about this installation. Is the floor of your shower tiled over mortar or is it a pre-made pan? If tiled, what sort of pan liner or waterproofing membrane was used? Were you able to determine how the water managed to leak behind the tile and damage the wood of the threshold?If the shower door people say it's their fault, I hope they're paying for you to rip everything out and re-do it....