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cracks in grout/concerned about mold

13 years ago

Hello everyone,

We built a new home (production, not custom) this year. We closed in June so we are still under warranty. Our guest bath has a walk-in shower with a tile pan and tile walls. My in-laws came and stayed for an extended visit and did the cleaning of that room while they were here, so I really didn't go in there for a while.

My parents came and visited last weekend and noticed that there are cracks in the grout (and some pieces of grout came up loose) in the seam where the pan meets the wall and up the corner of the shower bench.

I am concerned that the cracks were there while my in-laws were visiting and that water accumulated underneath. My mother thought some of the floor grout looked discolored, but it is a dark color to begin with. I sealed all the tile before we moved in.

My question is - how should I address this with the builder? Should I have an inspector, plumber, or some other outside expert look at it first so I know what I'm dealing with? I don't want a patch of grout put on top - I want to be sure that there's no moisture underneath.

Thanks!

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Comment (1)

bill_vincent
13 years ago
Get the builder in and express your concerns to him ASAP. Let him know this is NOT due to settling, that being that the shower pan is only connected to the structure at the drain, there should be no movement in it sufficient enough to cause grout to crack and especially not to come out. Ask him if he knows for CERTAIN that the bench was waterproofed, and how. Does the pan membrane come across the front of the bench, or does it go under? One way or the other, something is happening there that shouldn't be, and it needs to be fixed, and not next month.
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Wow, this also happened to me. It was my bathroom floor which was mercifully small. Fortunately (or maybe not) it was my brother-in-law's work, a great guy who was just helping me out. :( He finished the job and left for home, on the other side of Calif. I was just cleaning up and noticed chunks of grout would pop out and/or turn back to sand. The tile store said it was because my grout was old and it would have to come out and be regrouted. As I was on hands and knees removing grout, entire tiles began to lift off. So, not just the grout was bad, but he had screwed up simply laying the tile. It was a total Charlie Foxtrot. At the time I was undone by this, the last in a series of well-intentioned blunders that made my poor bathroom a disaster. I paid a guy to redo the entire floor with new tile. The bathroom and I recovered. Hopefully you and your floor will too.
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The contractor is what you should be concerned about, not the tile. Smells like laziness - people like this will tell you anything to get out of doing a job that requires anything beyond the basic bare minimum. IMO, they’re showing you firsthand how lazy they are by dismissing something right off the bat rather than educating themselves on the product and its differential properties. There’s nothing worse than someone unwilling to learn. The inability to admit playing a role in a product’s failure is a sure sign of people unwilling to take responsibility for anything, which is definitely not something you want in a contractor!
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