Not at all, and I don't remember writing anything that should leave anyone with that impression. If I had to identify the crux of the thread, it would be that to take advantage of highly aerated media and their sharp drainage, it's essential to start with a very large volume of coarse ingredients, and there should never be enough fine material to fill all the spaces between the large particles. When you add a marble/perlite) to a jar filled to the rim with sand or peat), aeration of the medium in the jar DECREASES, and continues to decrease as you add more marbles/perlite. It is only when you have added a volume of marbles/perlite) so large there is not enough sand/peat) to fill all the desirable pores between the large particles that aeration begins to INCREASE. This is called the "threshold proportion". Al

I've tiled my own two bathrooms and my kitchen backsplash, so when my adult daughter's shower sprung a leak at her "new" (circa 1950) home, DH & I came to the rescue. Ripped out the whole tub surround (it gave up without a fight), fixed the plumbing, reinsulated, added backerboard, taped, mudded and commenced to tiling. Got complicated around the tub; being an old steel tub, it has about a 1" flange around the top edges as though it's supposed to bolt to something? We ran the backerboard down to within 1/4th" of that flange, did the tape /mud/dry time thing and then commenced to tiling. When I got to the grout, I must say, the grout was a tad drier than I'd liked for it to be, but I worked quickly and thought I'd done okay. We spaced the bottom row of tile to cover that backerboard/flange gap, which it did okay. Then I left my daughters to finish grouting the normal 1/4th gap around the edge of the tub. I would have used caulk, but since the gap varied some, the girls used the regular grout to finish off that bottom edge and the corners. Are you with me so far? It looked really nice. Now I notice a lot of little tiny cracks in the grout all over and I'm thinking I'll be okay to just smash in another coat of it. (She hasn't used any tile sealer, yet.) EXCEPT.........she called tonite to say the whole bottom row of that grout is soaking wet, coming out in big soggy clumps and some of the tile with it. My thoughts are that she didn't let the tile cure enough before going in and using it, so now we need to pull out all the soggy stuff and redo it from there. So, the questions are: did we handle the backerboard/tile/grout around that flange right? Or is there just enough movement in a steel tub to disallow a grout (vs caulk) to flex. If that makes any sense.......And the second question is: am I on the right track to fix it? How long does it REALLY take for tile to cure enough to take a shower? Please tell me I don't have to take down this whole job.....this is a single mother with a TEENAGE daughter who will just DIE if she doesn't get to shower. Thanks for reading this far............. mm

This old thread got revisited. @dani_m08 to answer the question about extra probe, I believe I ordered an extra one when I bought the set up. The probe wire is just setting in the junction box I think but honestly I cant remember. When I laid out the underfloor heating and the probe, I just ran another probe near the first probe, and it was then sealed into the floor self leveling compound as per instructions. then the end was just threaded into the wall like the one that would be live, and not connected, but just laying there in the box. Regarding the tile layout. I just decided to run it this way, after getting instructions on the 90Degree way, IIRC. The herringbone that I love is from my childhood and the side walks in my neighborhood that all ran at 45Degree. so that to me is herringbone. I know you posted on @sochi thread about her amazing bathroom and a wall mounted faucet. I would totally do it if I had the right sink for it. In my case I had made my sink out of soapstone and an integrated backsplash. The pictures of this bathroom reveal are no longer available because of the use of photo bucket, when it was Gardenweb. I did not keep my account with photo bucket. I'll add some of the reveal pictures so you can see the sink and floor. Regarding the sink there is no ledge for water to drip from my hands when using the faucet. The water drips right into the sink. In my other bathroom with a deck mounted faucet I am always wiping up drips and it is a nuisance. I much prefer the setup for this sink. Below: I love the flush finish from the faucet to the bottom of the sink. nothing drips on a counter or edge of a sink. Below: looking in from the doorway. Below: Here I am finishing up the sink. the backsplash was epoxied on as a separate piece. The whole soapstone install in the room took next to nothing to buy as they were all small pieces that I epoxied together with a 3 part stone epoxy. Below: this is the counter at the tub, and is in 2 long pieces but I was able to epoxy them together at there edges to make a wide slab for the top. All the soapstone was finished with a 60 grit sandpaper to be rough and this lovely soft tone of blue/green/gray/white. I did not oil it so this color tone would remain light. Below: If I recall correctly @sochi helped me decide on this Hubberton Forge Mirror. I have 3 different metals in this room, but they are all a cool silver to black color. Below: the center of this tower shares space with the kitchen on the other side of the wall. there is also some extra space that houses some electrical wiring. this is an old simple house. this bathroom was an add on when it got move to the farm in the 30s IIRC. The plumbing was all rearrange and some of the details that were orignially there I kept but updated it, such as this tower feature. The old one went and the carpenter did a wonderful job with this one. Below: This feature was another thing I kept from the old bathroom but flipped it from the other end and had the carpenter put drawers in it. Before it was a hell hole. things got lost and the build was soooo old and creapy I didn't like using it for storage. Now it is perfect for storage.

It's too bad, because with the exception of the sheets being set too far apart, everything else looks quite nice. Clean lines, good corners, I only see one or two divots in the entire installation and they may just be from your camera phone. The sheets being that apparent is just nasty. As a GC, this is between you and your GC. You deal with the GC, the GC deals with the tile guy. Removing the glass tile after the thinset has fully cured will likely peel the fleece off the Kerdi, but as Bill wrote, that's not your concern. That simply part of the remediation. Regardless of your conversation, document this in writing and do it ASAP. Write your GC a letter and send it certified mail, return receipt requested. Just the facts. Step by step. What happened. What was said, when it was said. Try to keep the emotion out of it. Close with what you want. Mail the letter. Have your conversations and see where this leads. Things in your favor are that you objected to the tile spacing prior to it being grouted, and you voiced those objections to the installer. Also in your favor is that a "standard installation" for glass mosaic is that the sheets are spaced so the installation looks seamless and "sheetless". Again, that letter is independent of your conversation. And start documenting your timeline so you don't lose track of details over time. Your choices will be to go for a complete redo, and everyone will be fighting you on that, because it could require new Kerdi, new tile, etc. Or to settle with some sort of financial compromise. Although I'm not recommending this route, as to me it's more an unknown than a known, I'll ask Bill or Bud (or anyone else) out of curiosity, as they are much more knowledgeable about thinset then I am... Is there any way new sheets could be set over the existing? Prep the existing glass with a belt sander? Grind it with diamond pads? Etch the glass with a chemical rinse? Then skim coat or just set new glass over the existing? Tiling over ceramic is fairly straightforward, but tiling over glass mosaic is something I've never heard or seen done, I'm not up enough on thinset technology to advise that route. Mongo