Catbuilder, I don't know the answers to most of your questions, since I did not do the work, nor did I witness the work done. He did not show me the type of caulk (he does this for a living--I trusted him to use what was appropriate). He did not report seeing any visible mold (I asked.) There was no delay between removal and recaulking. It dried for at least 24 hrs, maybe a little longer--I cannot recall. I presume the surround was *adequately* waterproofed, but again I did not do the work. I saw that they did do the waterproofing.

I am a DIY'er and did a pretty significant bathroom remodel where I did all the tile work. On my shower, I used Laticrete Hydroban and durock for my walls. At all corners and at the tub flange, I used fiberglass tape embedded in thinset, sort of like your video. Much cheaper I imagine. The Schluter Band is water and vapor proof I believe. You will be using Redgard to achieve the same water management goal, so I don't believe you would need the Schluter product. All changes of material and planes will be covered with the fiberglass tape and thinset. All the fasteners will be covered with thinset. All valves are set with tape and thinset, or the product included with the valves. My valves came with a taping product that I thinset into place. Then everything is coated in the water management membrane such as Redgard or Laticrete. I filled in all small voids with thinset. I don't have a picture of the bottom of my shower pan and Durock, but I think I taped it with the fiberglass tape. It has been some time since I did this job. Below, is my thinset and taped cement board. True Confessions, I don't think I have enough fasteners, nor the right kind, in my wall, and I worry about this flaw in my shower. I had drywallers hang this for me when they did the rest of the room. I assumed they used the correct fasteners, but they didn't. They started out with galvanized nails, which I believe would have been ok, but I wanted screws, so they switched to the drywall screws. I had the Durock screws, but didn't give them to the workers, assuming they had their own. They didn't. So after they left and I saw the, I tried adding my Durock screws into the wall. I couldn't do it, I just wasn't strong enough. DH was out farming and wasn't available to drive more in for me. So I proceeded. My mistake, as I learned later the drywall screws deteriorate in cement board over time because of the alkaline conditions. I confessed to DH that the walls might fall down in a few years. He said, "well when they do, we'll just fix it." What a relief I felt, I no longer carried this burden of knowing that I flubbed up: Here is the bottom where the coating is onto the shower pan. It hard to see, but the pan and walls are totally sealed in the Hydroban. Click it open to see the bottom of the walls at the shower pan, where I taped a plastic sheeting to protect the pan. Be sure to follow the recommendations for thickness with your Redgard. This is Laticrete Hydroban: If you click the picture open you might be able to see the valves sealed with the Hydroban. This green tape is by 3M and is very strong used for taping concrete I believe. It was great to use to hold hanging tiles into place until the thinset cured. You will want this tape for your tiling job, I loved it:

Yesterday I went back and applied the Epoxy Grout to the tub. I used Laticrete's SpectraLock Pro Epoxy grout and only mixed roughly a 50% mix. I added a hair more powder to make the mix a little stiffer than specified on the package. First thing I did was clean the tub again and buff out the edge on top. Then I taped off the area that would not see grout and protected the blower holes from dropping epoxy grout. I rammed the grout into the little void again with my finger and smoothed it close. I did this all around and then before using any sponge removed the tape. This left the job a little rough - so then I went back with the sponge and my finger (this time without the glove) and smoothed things down. The uneven height change made it hard to keep super even so I took my time and slowly added and removed a little grout here and there. I found using the baby sponge that came with the grout perfect if I used it like a block plane and gave almost no pressure. Then a smooth with my finger and it looked great. Took me two hours just to prep for grout, grout and clean up. Quite a change from last week. No more shadow lines and the colour is almost a dead match. I find that epoxy grouts darken a little as they dry and have not yet used LAticrete's white so I hope this will not happen much. Right now or rather yesterday when I left it was like Laticrete made this grout colour for the Blizzard Ceasar Stone Slab. Looks so much better and hopefully will stay put and make cleaning the tub a little easier for my client.

Thanks for your response Cook's! We had another company come in and inform us that they thought we just had a tub liner. Are you saying that it's impossible to just have a tub liner with no bathtub underneath it? We recently removed some of the silicone caulking and found wide gaps between the tub and the surround. Here's a picture of where the tub meets the surround (and how the company left our floor).