Per Code: Greenboard (water resistant gypboard) may not be installed over a vapor barrier. Ref: IRC 702.4.3 & UPC 2512 GB okay for direct adhesion of wall tile, except in shower enclosure. GB may not be put on the ceiling if the framing is greater than 12" OC All cut or exposed edges MUST BE sealed with a water resistant sealant. Cement Board required in the shower enclosure until you reach an elevation equal to or greater than 72" above the finished drain opening. Cement board MUST BE installed over a building paper or other approved membrane. Some jurisdiction will permit GB in the shower enclosure with a KERDI membrane finish. (Requires expressed written consent of local inspector.)

Thank you creative tile. Yes, these feature tiles are at the end of the bath in the main shower area. I don't believe he put anything behind the tiles. I'm sure he just stuck them to the plasterboard as he did with all the others. He did treat the tiles with Lithofin as these are stone but then I believe he just grouted them. He's been this morning and can't see where the leak under the bath is coming from (please see picture) and he's added some more sylicon around the taps but I wonder if this has anything to do with the tiles too if you say he should have put something behind them but the plasterboard was bone dry so hopefully it isn't. What a nightmare. Thank you for the advice. We'll have to see what the boss says tomorrow but I'd like to give them the opportunity to rectify it first and I'm so glad I posted this else I'd have been scrubbing at the tiles for weeks but now I know I need to get them back in Thank you again for all your help.

I have an update and would love to get some feedback before I order the final accessories. (Demo begins one week from today!) I got a quote for replacing the vanity with white cabinetry complete with a sitting area, plus hardwiring of sconces. The costs all added up to too much for me, so I'm sticking with my vanity and overhead lighting location. I feel great about my choices for tile, bath tub, paint, and fixtures. My worry is that all the little accessory details won't quite work together, diminishing the beauty of the bathroom as a whole. I need to buy the accessories soon; here's what I have in mind. With overhead lighting instead of sconces, I prefer one large mirror. The mirror is by Pottery Barn, a wooden frame with gold gilt, 72" x 36". Perfect size for the space, very very very hard to find. This is technically a floor-length mirror, so I hope it can be mounted horizontally! PB customer service was useless when asked. The lights are also PB, polished nickel. For practical reasons, I ruled out any overhead lights that take type B bulbs (too dim) and have fabric shades (too hard to clean). As a big plus, these are on sale for $170 each. Do they go with the mirror and the rest of the room? Chandelier is PB, 18" diameter, antique brass, UL-listed. This will be over the tub on a dimmer. It was hard to find a chandy that's not too big, ornate, and/or expensive. Knobs and pulls are glass and polished nickel from Restoration Hardware. Towel ring, TP roll, and hook are Ballard Design in polished nickel. Fabric for the roman shade is gray on cream linen. Shower bench is Signature Hardware in teak. I hope this will help tie in the wood of the vanity with the other side of the room. Towel warmer is polished stainless steel (no nickel option) from Signature Hardware. If anything doesn't quite mesh or looks wrong, I would love to hear, as well as any suggestions for alternatives!

I'm sorry this is happening to you. This happened to me a couple years ago. So I recommend you do the following: Tell the contractor (whoever hired the tile people) to stop work and schedule sit-down meeting. Make the meeting be something like Friday so that you have some time to prepare. Do this communication by email. (Do every single syllable of communication by email from now on. Nothing verbal. If any verbal words are exchanged, confirm them by a follow-up email confirming your understanding of what at was said/planned/promised/agreed, and ask for confirmation in the email.) Get ready for your meeting: Document your understanding of everything that was done wrong. Put all the blue tape all over in the bathroom. You can download an online version of the TCNA handbook here: https://www.tcnatile.com/products-and-services/publications/218-english-publications/188-handbook.html It's a manual of industry standards for tile. It's less than $40. It also includes information about waterproofing. It's long, but you don't have to read the whole thing. Read the introduction (about 50 pages) and the stand-alone shower sections. You can skip all the other parts such as swimming pools, etc. Read about waterproofing and tiling on this forum and on the John Bridge forum. You need support for the meeting. Ask someone (a spouse, adult child, friend, neighbor) to attend the meeting with you as your support person and as a note-taker. Create your list of questions/concerns. Make them open ended and a bit broad, such as "How did you waterproof my shower?" "Do you have your TCNA manual with you; can you show me in there what method you used?" (probably he doesn't know what this is) "Why does the tile look so messy?" "What is your plan to fix all the problems?" Let the contractor talk and make sure your note-taker writes everything down. Don't interrupt of start arguing with the contractor. Always stay business like and calm. If the contractor gets upset that's his problem. Have the meeting. If they don't show up, send an email inquiring why. Go through your whole list of questions/concerns. If the contractor gets off track, always come back to the important question: "What is your plan to fix all the problems?" If the contractor gets upset, says things like "You're too picky", "We've never had a complaint before", or "You're too hard to please" ask them to stay on track regarding the sub-par work. If the contractor yells at you, stands up or starts pacing around (happened to me), ask them to stop yelling at you in your home and tell them to take a minute and let you know when they are ready to proceed calmly. If, through your research and the contractor's answers, you are reasonably convinced that the waterproofing was done wrong, and/or the tile mess can't be fixed without compromising the waterproofing, ask the contractor to re-demo and start all over with a new, qualified, certified and experienced tile professional in charge. Your contractor doesn't change; you don't pay more; this is on the contractor's dime. If they say anything about you paying more, or making a payment now, say that you don't feel that that is reasonable given the problems so far, but that you look forward to the new, competent crew, and if the work is truly professional you don't foresee any reason why full payment would not be reasonable at the end of the project. They will either agree to redo it or not; or they might want more time to think about their plan over the weekend, etc, etc. You might not get a definitive yes or no during the meeting. In our meeting (which was on a Friday), the contractor went off the rails several times saying we should hire someone else to re-do the shower and they would just finish the rest of the bathroom; that they didn't want to touch the shower anymore. DH kept bringing them back to "We hired you to complete the whole project and we trust that you will be able to figure out a plan to fix the waterproofing; so what do you think you will do?"...stuff like that happened 4 or 5 times. At the end of the meeting the only agreement was that they were going to work on their plan over the weekend and would contact us on Monday. After the meeting we confirmed this understanding by email. After the meeting, send an email with a general summary of the meeting, based on the notes, and re-cap any agreements, quitting, or what you perceive as the result of the meeting. Keep all your language business-like and clear. They might have agreed to re-do with a new, competent crew. Great! In your email, express how please you are at their business like approach to these waterproofing and tile problems. Say something like "We look forward to seeing you and the new tile crew on Monday for the re-demoing and starting fresh on the project. Have a nice weekend." They might flat our refuse and get mad at you (refer to the yelling comments above). If they flat out refuse, say "Oh my; so you are quitting the project?" After the meeting, confirm this by email. They might have huffed off, in which case you also confirm that my email. Something like "We were disappointed that you left our meeting this morning without letting us know what the plan is to fix all the waterproofing and tile problems on our bathroom project. After you have some time to thing about the project, please let us know how you plan to proceed. If this means you are quitting the project, please let us know right away so that we can start the process of hiring a new contractor. Hope to hear form you on Monday..." After the meeting, whatever the conclusion was, post the contractors answers here and/or on John Bridge where I hope you will get continued support from the pros on the forums. In our case, the contractor wanted to think over the weekend and then they quit by email on Monday. We had to start over. Months later they later sued us saying that we fired them illegally. We had no choice but to respond. It went to District Court where we were awarded ALL our money back plus extra for materials that they ruined. Why did the judge award to us? Because ALL communication with the contractor was done by email, and the judge could clearly see that they quit; she threw out their suit and award us everything that we put in our counter suit. Another huge reason is because our new tile pro, who is an experienced, over-qualified, certified pro, testified as an expert witness about all the things done wrong by the quit-GC. And don't be scared - we did all the legal stuff ourselves. It's not as hard as everyone thinks. Again, I'm really sorry this is happening to you. We also live in a Wild Wild West area (North of Houston) and the township doesn't care what anyone does in their house. You could string extension cords all over the house for every single thing, put an outhouse inside your bathroom, install a firepole in place of your staircase, and no one would care til you sell the house and finally an inspector comes inside.