Re-doing bad tile installation - remove Durock?
mcladd66
8 years ago
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Joseph Corlett, LLC
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Removing tile floors: how bad is it?
Comments (6)It's one of the most difficult demolition tasks. Since you're in Florida, I'm thinking maybe your tile is on concrete. Here, you can use a tool called a demolition hammer; it's like a heavier version of a hammer drill. You'd use as wide a chisel blade as you could get, and work from an edge, cutting the bedding mortar line underneath the tile proper. you would still be left with a lot of mortar on the slab to be ground or abraded off. If a mud job on wood, you can usually find the tarpaper layer and start cutting and prying from there. The wire reinforcement in the mud bed will fight you, and be wary of sharp metal edges that want to cut you. If thinset on wood or cement board, well, that's probably the easiest to break up and pry out. I have yet to demo one of the isolation membrane type jobs, so I can't tell you how easily those come up. Casey...See Moreinstalling acrylic bathtub and durock
Comments (9)Our contractor also just installed an acrylic tub for us and we have durock on the walls surrounding it. I can't really understand the context of the picture you provided. I am not a builder, but having just seen ours installed, I pretty much know what the contractor did. We have a concrete slab floor and the legs on the new tub were adjustable. The builder and his helper went thru great pains to make sure the tub was level. The manual said not to put concrete under the tub except maybe some around the legs. It was optional and we didn't do that. Then he glued the centre of the legs, where they adjust to sort of lock them in place so they won't change over time. Likely not necessary but just a precaution. He used 1 x 4 or a 1 x 2 (not sure) strapping behind the tub as per instructions just for the tub to sort of rest on. Then with the tub full of water, he used stainless steel screws to screw thru the holes in the flange along the edges of the tub into the studs in the wall. The durock was put on the wall just to the top of the flange. Our finished solid surface (or tile) will be put on it once waterproofed with redgard and will hang over the flange but not touching the tub. That little space will have silicone caulking to seal it. Ours doesn't have a removable apron or any flange on the side so I am not sure which part you are showing in your photo. What good would putting a screw above the flange do?? I think you should fire this guy and find someone else to carry on with the install. Editing: I just Googled your tub style so I think I see what that piece of flange is. Since it is on the side and outside the rim of the tub, it is likely safe from much water. I would likely fit in a small piece of durock if you can and when it is all taped and waterproofed it should be good. Hopefully some of the experts will weigh in but if there are holes in the flange, they need screws in them. Your manual should explain the proper way to install it....See MoreHELP! Bad Design, Bad install. WHAT SHOULD I DO? Any Suggestions?
Comments (61)" I would attack’s it with a sponge at least to see if you can clean that up." You do that and you own the entire thing, make him clean it up better. Sooner the better as grout hardens over time. Also as alluded to above he needs to remove the grout at all chnages of plane and use 100% silicone caulk....See MoreBad Kitchen Tile Install?
Comments (16)Hi Everyone - thank you for the responses! @User, We did a ton of research on this company before hiring and he had 5star reviews across the board (all previous work we reviewed looked great), which is why we've been questioning if we're being unreasonable in what we expected. Our GUESS now (through some conversations, of course he hasn't said this outright) is that the contractor may have given this job to one of his new guys or even hired someone (that doesn't typically work for him) to do the job, since we were on a timeframe and he wanted our business. We can't be sure, but it just seems odd that such poor work came out of this company. Either way, thank you for the link you provided - we will definitely be using that in the future! @SJ McCarthy Thank you! You're correct - the original floor was hardwood (which was sadly too damaged to refinish) with a basement underneath. We had tiles over it previously that had been there for years and never moved. They were all perfectly leveled, no grout was cracking anywhere, and nothing even squeaked in the kitchen when you walked. If the subfloor wasn't up to snuff (which could be the case!), shouldn't it be the responsibility of the installer to correct/prep prior to laying the backer board, or at least telling us what needs to be done in order for the tile to be laid correctly (perhaps having to increase the cost to us - which would have been fine)? When the job was quoted, they said the place looked fine and they could just lay backer board over the hardwood. @hallettco@millworkman Thanks for the info! I'm trying to do some research on liquid nails but am finding all sorts of information. Those tiles pictured are the ones he had to relay (which had originally been moving). I'm wondering if he used liquid nails to speed up the install process - is that why they would generally be used? If they are in fact liquid nails, should we expect those tiles to start shifting around much more quickly than if he had installed with a mortar? The company is willing to come regrout for us now (to at least get it all the same color), he said he will chip away some of the old grout in between each tile and just regrout over the top throughout the entire kitchen. We're hesitant on this solution, but really don't have it in our budget to hire someone else to redo this entire floor. We're debating between using grout paint ourselves (since we're worried about these guys making more mistakes when they regrout) or just letting them do it and see what happens. Of course, the company will not give us any money back so we're either stuck trying to fix this ourselves (and grout paint is really our only option we can think of) or letting them take another stab at it and see what they can do (or mess up :) ) THANK YOU everyone for your input! It is so helpful!...See MoreUser
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8 years agoJoseph Corlett, LLC
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