Leak in tile shower must be the grout need something to seal Surface
HU-360380111
4 years ago
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cpartist
4 years agoDragonfly Tile & Stone Works, Inc.
4 years agoRelated Discussions
tile guy says don't seal grout - is that right?
Comments (22)If I had tile in a "public entry room" like a mudroom or foyer, and the tile had light grout, I'd seal it. Unlike an upstairs bath that gets barefoot or sock-covered foot trffic, a downstairs public room would be prone to dirt encrusted shoes, etc. In tiled bathroom tub surrounds and showers it just doesn't seem to be a problem. A few years ago my wife read some review on bar soap...might have even been Consumer Reports...and Zest soap had the least "soap film residue" or whatever they called it. We switched to Zest way back when. Not sure if that's the reason, but our showers have never been nasty. If I had a natural stone shower surround or floor and the stone needed to be sealed, I'd seal the grout as well. Today's showers (Kerdi, etc) and grouts (anti-microbial, admixed) are better performers than what was available years ago. Mongo...See MoreMust I use same product to re-seal grout?
Comments (8)Hummmm! We set a lot of tile, and I have never heard that you could not use a "no rinse" shower cleaner on it. I do it all the time. Urethane is more expensive, but taken as a percent of the cost of the whole tile job, it's peanuts compared to years of having to clean and reseal cement grout. As for "pre-sealed" grout. That's not urethane, and I generally would not recommend it because the pre-sealing sometimes affects the product's ability to adhere properly. However, it you take care of the shower properly, it will give years of faithful service. 1. Don't use hard soap. Use a body wash instead, and make sure it does not contain talc. Hard soap is the source of soap scum. Soap scum in cement grout has to be scrubbed out. 2. Use a shower rinse like Shower Clean or the (more expensive) Tilex version after EVERY shower. This is just a liquid that breaks up the surface tension of any water drops left in the shower so they don't dry, leaving behind mineral deposits. I make my own home made version for about 25â a gallon. There are several recipes on the web. 3. Inspect the shower about 1xmonth for any sign or mold or mildew and kill it quick with a 10% chlorine bleach solution, or Oxi Clean. 4. Thoroughly clean the shower 1x week. Best wishes....See MoreRiver stone shower floor leak and tile displacement
Comments (26)"@MongoCT - thank you - I visualize your explanation - can you elaborate as to how they would have avoided that situation ? should the drywall not drop all the way down? or the waterproofing should have taken care of it?" Jim, here are the installation instructions from the manufacturer. If the link does not work, which can happen with links to pdf documents, just google "denshield installation instructions". See the drawing and text on page 6. The general idea is that: 1) A preslope of mud should have been placed on the shower subfloor, properly detailed. 2) On top of that sloped mud goes your waterproof membrane. The edges of the membrane get turned up the walls. With the membrane going on top of a sloped surface, the membrane is now sloped to the drain, which is a requirement in the building code. It is a code violation for the membrane to be placed directly on a flat surface/subfloor. The membrane itself needs to be sloped. 3) On top of that membrane goes another layer of deck mud. 4) The bottom edge of the Denshield gets held just above the deck mud. The Denshield should not contact the mud. 5) The gap between the denshield and the mud gets completely filled with sealant. The objective is to get sealant on the entire 1/2" thick edge of the denshield panel so the exposed gypsum core will be sealed, so it will never see moisture from the mud. On the curb? If yours was a wood core curb, built up from stacked 2x4s? There are various ways to do this, however... The membrane gets wrapped over the wood curb, with the membrane fastened to the curb only on the outside face of the curb. No fasteners go through the membrane on the inside face or top of the curb. Most folk will then wrap the membraned curb with an upside-down "U" formed out of expanded diamond lathed. No fasteners. It's a somewhat loose friction fit. You want the lathe to follow the shape of the curb, but you don't want the metal edges to contact the membrane. The lathe is coated with a thickness of Mortar/mud. Mortar gets placed on the inside, top, and outside face of the curb, completely encasing the expanded lathe and the curb within. It gets shaped as needed, with the top pitched slightly into the shower. The lathe provides structure for the mud to prevent it from slumping. When the mud cures, you tile on the mud. That gives you a sturdy curb base to tile on with no holes in the membrane on the top and inside "wet" faces of the curb. The Denshield instructions I linked to earlier show a rough sectional of a wood core shower curb covered with the membrane and mortar. They do not show the upside-down "U" of lathe that I wrote about. If installed, it would be centered in the thickness of mortar that covers the curb. With all that written? I agree with the others, that surface applied membranes are indeed superior. In the age of computers? Installation instructions are available from the manufacturers' websites. While you have to sort through them and discard the whackos, there are also good youtube videos available. Any shower system is only as effective as the person installing it. While I'm not a fan of Denshield myself, if it had been installed properly you should have had a properly performing shower. The gypsum core is the weak point with Denshield. Any exposed panel edge, or any drilled hole? The exposed gypsum needs to be protected from exposure to water. Referencing your last sentence: "...or the waterproofing should have taken care of it?" In a Denshield shower, the wall waterproofing is the acrylic surface of the Denshield panels. Any panel edges or drilled holes, the exposed gypsum core needs to be sealed with sealant. The shower floor, the waterproofing is the membrane. At the base of the walls where the two meet, the Denshield goes OVER the membrane. With the Denshield alone, your installer failed to protect the panel edges. He buried the bottom of the Denshield panels in mud that, for the most part after the first week of showering, the mud will become saturated with moisture. And he also used Denshield on the curb which is a no-no. I wrote a lot, I do hope it makes sense....See Moreshower floor grout not drying...need advice
Comments (40)I just finished a remodel in California which used cold mopping for the pan as hot mopping isn't allowed in a high rise. Cold mopping is flexible so won't crack when the high rise shifts. My shower floor is very sloped and the small area around the drain is sloped very markedly so that I can see the slope there. There is never any water or moisture on my shower floor between the slope and the fan which runs automatically based on moisture level in the room. I am surprised that your shower was not inspected though. My shower was inspected at least three times - when it was framed - for the 24 hour flood test and after construction. It might have been inspected an additional time as well :-)....See MoreHU-527663426
4 years agoHU-360380111
4 years agocpartist
4 years agolive_wire_oak
4 years agoClaudianne Young
4 years agoAvanti Tile & Stone / Stonetech
4 years agolive_wire_oak
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoCreative Tile Eastern CT
4 years ago
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