Please pardon me for chiming in, but this subject has recently peaked my interest. Someone has just mentioned about the floor being level, which I think further complicates this subject for the antagonists of using the mortar bed. I believe what they are talking about is the parallelism between the ledger board and the floor, since we can get too hung up with the floor being level. I am the first one to admit, that when you consider something very simple some comes along and says , not so fast, and someone tells you something that is hard to comprehend as to why. I must admit that this whole subject is very new to me, but I think what the people instructing us here are trying to get us to visualize is, imagine the tub sitting flat on the floor with no ledger board, and then if you could somehow put the ledger board in after the tub is already sitting on the floor with just the same pressure pushing up on the board as the pressure of the tub has against the floor , that would be Ideal. I think that is what they are trying to tell you!

I am definitely not a pro, but if it is a large portion of the floor and staying wet for a week+, then I would say yes. To me that would indicate a good amount of water not draining and standing water with no place to go is never a good thing. Alternatively if it is that the ratio of water was incorrect when mixing the grout, then the grout will be weak and crack/crumble fairly quickly. As I mentioned in some of my comments from my original post, after 2 years with our contractor we gave up as they were useless, but our area at the end of the process was relatively small and it was clear they were not going to fix it. I would press hard for them to fix the problem, it really is the right thing to do. May require them to rip out the floor and pan, but a good contractor should accept that and you will be much happier.

Robin & Gudang's hep and advice... robin98(NZ(9b)) 23 hours ago Len, don't be too down! Of all your plants this one is the trickiest, if that's any consolation. How was he when you got home? 1 Like Bookmark Edit|DeleteLen M 21 hours ago Thanks so much for the reassuring words, Robin. I have to say that I am much better today than I was when I left out for work on my last trip. I returned home last night to find Fürguson was not as bad as I imagined he'd be. His leaves at the bottom of both stems were dry, curled up and pretty much dead. Some of his larger leaves had brown spots and he was drooping extremely badly....To the point where I'm wondering if his petioles will ever rebound & lift his large heavy leaves back up? Also, his stem seemed a little shriveled from midway down & the greener part of the stem toward the top was quite soft. Last thing I noticed was the soil was SOOOO dry almost throughout. Of course I refrained from watering him, but I do wonder if this is normal for the gritty mix or is it b/c I failed to soak the bark for an adequate amount of time? I sure hope to receive answers and advice soon. I'll sit tight until then. In the meantime here are the photos I took of him before flying out this morning... Not as brown & shriveled as I thought he would be... Dead looking shriveled bottom leaves :( Some browning on the larger leaves... The 2 new leaves that sprouted on top of the stem w j-hooked roots. Still very flacid. They're being supported by a branch I found in my backyard & I wrapped the limp new leaves with one of the only leaves that had broken off from the bottom of my Fiddle during the repotting. Again, thank you, Robin for taking the time to show interest in my Fiddle's well being. Len Like Bookmark Gudang TropEq 20 hours ago Yeah, seem good enough for plant that just got extreme root pruning. For healthy tree, i don't clean soil on the rootzone since too many root hair in there. I just fix root position and cut only the root that extremely circling, so after repot, no need to wait till it rebound to it's normal condition. On your case, the tree need to regrow root and root hair, so it will need more time to metabolism normally. During developing root, the leaves will suffer since no suply energy for them so some will fall. In extreem, it will reduce stems so only few inches of the trunk above the ground that it keep alive, with new buds as old stem replacement. On your case i ussualy give foliar feeding since root still unable to give nutrients for the leaves. Only few absorbed, but it's better than none. robin98(NZ(9b)) 20 hours ago You're very welcome. I'll try to give you some advice, but first off have to say I've never made or used gritty, hopefully someone experienced with that will chime in to help you. And I'm a bit useless with the root pruning - I had to smile when I read that part, because that's pretty much what I do : trim the long roots straight across the bottom but chicken out of doing anything major! It will be a week in the new mix by the time you get back, so I wouldn't pull it out again. He'll have been putting energy into growing new fine root hairs, and you'll just set that process right back again, making it harder to recover. It sounds it was best to change the old mix, if it was staying wet that long. That would have been trouble in winter. I'd let it recover now, get through winter, build up some energy reserves in spring then repot with more thorough root pruning in summer. I'd also suggest using 511 for the soil mix as it retains a bit more water (while still being aerated) which gives you more leeway than gritty. If it gets hot where you live in summer, and your job takes you away for a few days at a time, you might find the gritty dries out too fast. Right for now its care will be a bit different, while it's recovering. Put it in a warm bright spot, out of direct sun or drafts. Keep its roots moist while it is re-establishing (my understanding of gritty is that the top levels dry out pretty fast so you might need to water more often and/or put something on the surface to keep moisture in the upper levels, correct me people if I'm wrong...) Usually you're not supposed to fertilise until you see new growth, but that also might be different with gritty. New growth means roots have regrown and now energy can be directed to the leaves. When you see this move it to more sun and let it dry out more in between waterings. I wouldn't cut any leaves just yet. Hope some of that helps :)

Hi again, he is travelling so I just spoke to him in the phone. LMK if this doesn’t make sense. The silicone seal is the last step and primarily is to protect the wallpaper, not to prevent water infiltration, although of course it helps. First step is the cement board - wall and deco says you can install over regular drywall, probably okay but my contractor put in cement board appropriate for a wet space. Then waterproof Kerdi (Schluter?) membrane covering pretty much everywhere, overlapping appropriately. Wall and Deco have a water proof product that is applied to seams (and the whole wall I believe). This requires three coats over a number of days. Finally the silicone, which my contractor recommends be reapplied or touched up every year or so to provide additional protection the very bottom of the wallpaper. This video about Kerdi membrane and Kerdi band may help. We’ve been using the shower for a year now, still love it and no signs of wear or damage. Good luck.