Terriks, I guess I was not clear when I said membrane - I meant the pastic/vinyl(??) thing that goes down on the deckmud pre slope. Not a vapor barrier as in kerdi. Mongo and Bill, the upstairs flooring is pretty sturdy as far as I can tell (I am no expert, as you can tell :) no creaking when walked on, it is a 10 year old house. I believe what I saw when the carpet was ripped off, was plywood. I could be wrong, again. The wood was about 1 1/2 to 2" thick. I made him pull out a small portion to check for water damage, if any, which we did not find. The cement board was only screwed in, not thinsetted. So I know better, they should both be done? How about on the walls? Just screwed in to the wall studs? We are starting on the Master bath tomorrow, and want to incorporate all the changes that I have now realized are required, except for the kerdi, which I dont have access to readily. We are going to use Redgard (topical) on the walls. One more questions- as for water proofing the shower floor when builing a deck mud pan, do we use redgard on the cured floor before tiling (pebbles in my case)? My handyman has never used epoxy grout and I am not willing to experiemnt, as clean up can be a pain and if there are any problems, I am told that it can be pretty hard to get the stuff out once hardened. So I am going the tradtional route - sanded grout,(no admix) and then seal with a penetrating solvent based sealer. Is there anything that I need to do differently for a better result? Thank you all so very much, mrao77

Your post reminds me of a mistake I made years ago with some ancient Nova Scotia white pines logs I had, muffler. After having it sawn, I rented a garage and carefully stacked and stickered the whole lot with dreams of having beautiful wide boards the following year to panel my new house. Something didn't seem right when I came back in eight or nine months to take it to the planer. Seemed to be a dampness about it. As I worked down into the stack, my worry turned to horror as board after board had turned into mold farms, with slimy discoloration all over all but the ends. I forget how much I lost, but the moral is keep your eye on it once in a while. Don't make the foolish mistake I did ignoring the importance of proper circulation.

Chris...Most paint companies recommend 48 hours after washing for the house to dry properly assuming its sunny and humidy leveles aren't too high which would slow the drying process. Regards, Mark in Buffalo

I just read an article about Consumers Reports testing. In it, Consumers Reports said that they test an 8-pound load using the Normal Cycle(the Energy Saving Cycle) with it's with its most aggressive setting. and without options. For Miele that would be the Normal Cycle using heavy soil. They further stated that you can get a shorter cycle if you are using the Normal soil setting on washers. For Miele, using the heavy soil and for an 8-pound load you might well expect an hour and 5-minute cycle, it will be a lot less on the Normal cycle with normal soil. In real life, if you have heavy soil, there are other cycles that will be better suited for this. When you set up the machine, the first run you make is the calibration cycle in which the machine asses your incoming water temperature and electrical input and from that it will set up the times for cycles, so your cycle times will depend on your own home environment. The other thing to know is that the times displayed at the start will be for the maximum amount of clothes, and for Normal that will be 18 pounds. After a few minutes, the machine will have an idea of the number of clothes in it and will adjust the time down for smaller amounts of clothes. If you are considering a Miele machine I would advise that you log on to the Miele web site and download the operation manuals for each machine before you purchase. This way you can tell the differences between them and what they offer.