Broken tile installed in shower - worried about water damage later.
Kristel Quintana
2 years ago
I've been fairly happy with my contractor up until this point. The floor looks good and was satisfied with the subway tile and the window installation exceeded my expectations. I came home to a finished shower niche that is less than perfect. I don't love but can live with the less then perfect miters on the Schluter trim but I'm concerned about the breaks in the thin piece of tile in the photo. don't think the rest of the niche is a 'bad' job - acceptable for the price - it's sloped correctly. Should I be concerned about water damage or should I have it fixed before the job progresses? If this has to be done will the backer board and niche need to be replaced or will it survive the tile removal? Please see photo for breaks - also included pictures of the rest of the job. Am I being to picky
?
Thanks!
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Kristel Quintana
2 years agoRelated Discussions
DIY shower wall tile and shower door install
Comments (0)I've been reading last few weeks on proper shower wall install since mine leaked bad enough that I'm tearing it down to the studs. House is only about 15 years old but, IMO, improperly built like so many other tract homes. I'm discovering It's greenboard with no vapor barrier or waterproofing of any kind. At first I thought leak was from cracking grout, then running around the prefab shower pan and exiting the front where the shower door and curb are since there is no flange. I siliconed the wall-pan interface 3 years ago when I discovered a small leak, also tried to seal various shower door channels. Now, 3 years later and wiser, I think the combination of wall and all those channels/panels of the shower door was the bigger problem. Silicone on the wall bottom only helped trap some of the water running behind the wall from coming out while any water on the shower curb went straight out the side to the floor. So I'm pretty much set on cement board and few coats of paint on waterproofing, reusing the plastic pan, but one thing I haven't seen addressed much is the shower door. I believe that is a big problem because any water that gets on the "threshold" channel may run straight into the wall and out the front, no matter how much waterproofing I have on the walls. And the only line of defense is silicone at the time of installation. I'm the kind of person that likes a physical barrier or redirection, not rely on cualk to keep water out. I feel no matter how well caulked, it's only a matter of time when water works its way to open up a gap since daily use by 2-3 people is a lot of use. It's not like I can check daily if there's water outside the shower. Everything is nicely hidden so I don't know failure until it's bad enough and there's evidence of damage. I think with the cement back/waterproofing paint I'm comfortable with the wall install, but how is a guy supposed to properly install a shower door and never worry about it? Sorry for the long read, but I wanted to give some rationale on why I'm concerned about the shower door instead when there's so much discussion on the wall/tile itself....See MoreRemoved carpet and tile but now worried about asbestos
Comments (12)"klem1: valid response but the job is done....what is there to test?" Exactly why i didn't try to analyze the conditions and reccomended op call in pros or just forget about it. But in typical fashion,alot of misleading information was posted by I.Herd and Tha Said. What to test? The air by taking swabs from surfaces in various locations in the home. Does that answer the question to your satisfaction sdello? Misleading information to name a few. "If it can't be crushed by human hand,it's not dangerous". If asbestos material is broken by a sledge hammer there's dangerious dust in the air. "it's gone now and you were only exposed for a short period". Dust can settle in places where it might be made airborne again next week,next year or 5 years later and that can equal long term exposure. "A little bit of exposure is nothing to worry about". Most particles that enter your lungs stay there forever. Tolorance varies widly and it's unheard of suddenly falling dead but most everyone is effected. Soooo,is loosing only 3% of your lung function something you would be indifferent to? Remember,there are hundreds of other things that can effect your lungs in hundereds of different ways but all tend to be cumunlative. 3% here,1% there and 5% over yonder can add up to copd or worse. But leave it to houzz regulars to dip their toes in anything that show's itself. I'm sorry folks but environmental and medical sience is simply over our heads so how about letting those trained in such handle it....See MoreIs water supposed to leak under shower floor tiles?? Pictures included
Comments (27)I know this is 4 years later but the missing grout is obviously why water has leaked under the tiles. Yes floor tiles will have the odd pinhole in the grout and also as you learned grout does absorb water and moisture/water does inevitably get under the tile but a large chunk like that would increase the amount of water under ur tiles. Even with weep holes, everytime your shower water will soak under the tiles and it'll never dry off. Your base is waterproofed but it'll also increase mold etc bc it'll never really dry. What I would've done was not use the shower until everything was dry. Maybe even use a shop vac and suck out as much water as you can from that one large area. Then regrout all the areas with holes and voids. But this would've been a potential temp fix as the entire grout job could've been bad and powdering if it wasn't mixed properly. I have mosaic floor tiles in my shower and I regret not getting larger ones because I hate all the grout lines. More grout lines means more maintenance and cleaning of it. 😑 But I do wonder how many people have shower floors that are constantly wet under the tile and not know it. I'm sure more people than not. Most people don't even realize whether or not their grout is in good shape or not. Btw. 4 years later, what did you end up doing?...See MoreCan you waterproof tiled shower walls after they are installed?
Comments (36)@Jeff Meeks said, "Your peace of mind is worth more than the cost to redo dubious work." While well meaning, this is simply not true. Your peace of mind may be worth more than the cost to redo work or it may not be, depending on several factors. If you take this approach with everything in a house then you would need to practically tear down your entire house and rebuild it every 10 years. My refrigerator is functioning properly but is out of the warranty period... should I spend money to replace it for my peace of mind? My roof was installed 12 years ago, it isn't leaking and has never leaked, should I replace that too for my peace of mind? How about a shower that wasn't waterproofed properly...I have a shower that I am pretty sure wasn't waterproofed properly, I had access to the back of it not long ago and there were no signs of leaking at all, should I tear out a shower that hasn't leaked in 12 years and fix it for peace of mind? People on these sites are really great at spending other people's money. In reality, their house isn't perfect and they are also making decisions on what they can afford to replace. It is generally wise to do things right the first time, if you are tearing your shower out it just doesn't make sense to rebuild it improperly. However, when that becomes impossible you need to evaluate your situation from where you are now. The fact that it wasn't done right the first time is immaterial, you now have to decide if the cost of redoing it properly exceeds probable cost of not doing it. ---- This same thing goes for code compliance. The cost to bring your shower up to code should be weighed against the cost of not bringing your shower up to code. ---- My advice was and remains: if redoing it is in the budget and the tile is not on a massive backorder, you should redo it. I would personally leave it alone if it was not in the budget or there was an excessive backorder and take the risk. It is not really a big risk and is not likely the biggest risk you have in your home right now....See MoreKristel Quintana
2 years ago
PROJoseph Corlett, LLC
2 years agoKristel Quintana
2 years agoHi Joseph! I did a to scale size model of both walls (back with window and niche walls) in Photoshop. Following the diagram meant he would have had to shorten every tile in the first row and the top row - which he did not do.
The Dremel tool is a good idea but I'm having him redo the niche like the photo on the box - it will do away with the little sliver but it won't line up exactly. With the current layout there will be another sliver about an inch long over the window. The only way this can be remedied is by taking out all of the tile and starting with a shorter bottom row. Do you think that one inch pieces over the window will hurt anything? - its boxed in with a header. I can live with it if it will be okay. Thanks!
Kristel Quintana
2 years ago
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