Greetings,
I am a home owner and a DIYer whenever possible. I have a situation in my shower stall where 2 of the tiles in the bottom row (right above the pan) have fallen off. I guess the grout or caulk has allowed water to get in because the green rock has crumbled. Upon closer inspection I noticed that other tiles are also ready to fall off. I’ve never done tile work before so I don’t know how to fix this. How many tiles do I remove? How do I attach the new green rock to the wall? How do I remove the old grout from the edges of the tiles? How to I attach the tiles to the green rock? How do I seal everything? I appreciate your help.
$ Bill
Replies
Bill.....first try to tell if the tile/grout was damaged from the inside or outside...so to speak. From the grout failing....or from a leak inside the wall.
Gotta fix the problem before ya cover it up.
How many to remove.......as many as needed! Just keep taking them off till they don't want to come off. Then take off one more row around the opening. You have to get back to a solid backing. This could be just a few....this could be 2/3rds of the wall. Now......ya gotta check the framing. Let things air out for a few days if possible...to get a look at things once they dry. If just the grout just failed....chances are things are fine.
About replacing the green board. You can splice a piece in by cutting it out square...or rectangle.....back to an undamaged area......and using pieces of wood or ply to act as an inner lip...around the opening...
If the cut out is 6" x 6"....a scrap of ply say 3 x 5......on each side.....with the 5 running up and the 3 divided half behind the green and half showing....screwed thru the green board and into the ply......shat give ya a wood lip to catch on each side of the hole. Just cut your new green board 6x6...and screw it to the wood lip. Tape.
OR...even better.......cut your hole. Get a coat hanger and bend it......use that to find the studs on each side...and open the hole till it splits a stud on each side. Your tile gotta be a bit bigger....because once again....you have to tape the joint.
If it's a few tiles loose....I'd take the easy way out. If it's more than a few....and seems like almost half of the bottom coupla rows......I'd think about popping the bottom rows...all the way around....and putting in concrete board.
You can use either mastic or thinset. For just a few I'd ask at the tile store....but be leaning toward a premixed mastic.
Grout comes out not too bad with the little grout saws....hand held things...like a gritty razor blade. The new backer board is either screwed to the studs or to the nailers ya stuck it. Tape the new joint. Back butter the tiles if you do the few at a time......or trowel on the mastic/thinset if you replace enough to get a trowel in there.
I'd be inclined to cut out all the old grout and regrout. What fun that is! Opinions vary...but the last company I worked with made it a point to stop grouting inside corners and using the matching color caulk from the tile store. Ask at you local tile store. Jeff
* Jeff J. Buck/ Buck Construction/ Pittsburgh, PA *
2nd Generation Buck Const, 3rd generation Craftsman
Edited 4/8/2002 7:06:30 PM ET by Jeff J. Buck
"How many tiles do I
remove? "
How about all of them?
"Gotta fix the problem before ya cover it up."
For a shower, you should have cement backer board, not green board.
Tear it all out to the studs and look for a book or magazine article on how to.
It's an involved process but not too hard. Maybe HD has a video or you can catch one of their weekend displys.
Excellence is its own reward!
IMHO I would do what Piffin says...remove and replace! Whatever has not failed already will soon enough, water and green board do NOT mix. Take it all apart, dry it out, check to see if the used a real shower pan liner while you are at it and fix it.
Good luck, Bill
You asked!
better a complete fix than half a mess... right onOld Pro, not quite old, not quite pro, but closer every day on both...