So, I've been lurking a long time, and have learned sooo much. Thanks to you all, I think we dodged a major bullet yesterday with our bathroom remodel.

The day before yesterday our best friend who is remodeling our bathroom started the shower stall. I ASSUMED (why did I do that--slapping forehead....) that given his superior skill level he would "of course" do the shower the state-of-the-art way. But to my distress I found that at the end of the day he had installed one lower level of cement boards right to the studs, and the upper level of boards is that purple "Gold" kind, with no vapor barrier. He had installed the plastic sheeting membrane flat on the plywood floor, nailing the membrane to the top of the curb, and was planning to install the sloped mud bed on top of the membrane, but hadn't done that step yet.

Gak! So I stayed up late into the night reading every post from Bill V and Mongo, or about Kerdi, or one on waterproofing a shower, and also researched all over the net, so that I'd know my stuff. Then I had to tell my husband's best friend, who was our best man, who's wife is MY best friend, that the way he had done our shower, and the way he'd ALWAYS done showers, was not the way we could do OUR shower. Let's just say it was a bit awkward, and I shed many tears.

But then I had to find a solution. I had seen many posts on Kerdi, but didn't think our regular shower would need it. I considered Redguard, but the plastic shower floor sheeting was already up behind the cement boards with no vapor barrier.The standard drain had already been glued in, and would need to be accessed from my living room ceiling if I wanted to cut it out. I thought at first we might be able to use Kerdi for everything but the drain, and take the membrane as close into the drain hole as possible, using the existing weep holes in the drain assembly--kind of a patch job, but then ruled that out--no Kerdi drain, no Kerdi.

Fortunately, I found a great tile supply place about an hour away and went down to throw myself on their mercy. Although they are big fans of Kerdi, in this case Dave, my savior, recommended that due to the drain situation I use the Nobelseal TS, using their Noble Flex drain flashing, which can be used with a standard drain.

So tomorrow I am going to take the plunge and will be waterproofing my shower with the NobelSeal TS on top of the sloped mud bed.

Do you have any tips or pointers? Thanks in advance.