There is miss information every where online. Mistakes in cross sections and install advice easily found online. Differences of opinions around North America depending on whats used locally and what's viewed to be the best vary depending on the posters expierence and prior training. I have been doing research. I had Bob Weins from Schulter at my house - on my deck and asked him the best install. I called Dave from Custom Building Products as well. Surprise surprise I got two different opinions. You (Antss) yourself suggested I call the tech departments - I did. These men and their companies position themselves for market share - each feels their products are the best. How do they install? Best to ask the solidiers who do it every day I think. Is it wrong to discuss new ideas? Should we all just quote specs? If you read everything blindly and follow all the rules - who pays if it goes South? I have found mistakes online and have contacted the companies directly about their over sights - I'm working with two of them as we speak on revisions for their installation guidelines and specs. What if I just followed their advice? What if their advice is wrong? Internet advice is hit and miss. I have found and studied most of the top internet posters advice online and there is among these men differences in opinions - items for debate. I do not think of myself as "The Next Mike Holmes" and do not think I'm smarter than the engineers at these respective companies. But why do they keep talking to me? Why do they send me drains for testing? Why is it that one drain company all ready started working on new drawings? I know - I started the ball rolling... I want to discuss these points online. I think people enjoy reading about their options and hearing from Contractors who actually get paid to install these products. I don't like change and need to understand the science on a new product and then test it before I own the install. Ditra has been around for half my life. I have been installing it for more than 7 years. Why are the install specs slightly different in the UK than North America? Makes me wonder... I seek and crave knowledge. I love what I do. I'm am trying to be the best! I have not build many exterior decks. I am educating myself on the finer points of exterior deck construction and have always seek'd out the best advice online. My own drawings where approved from the District of North Vancouver for my home renovation. Why is it that the framing spec'd for my decks construction would fail a deflection calculation for exterior stone? Why is that? Code is code but this code many times is not good enough by my standard, Mongo's, Bill's and Mike's... Why can't we all build better. Why do we have to build the same way all the time. I have been teasing Mongo that I can't find out any information on him - but reading his posts for over a year I know he knows his stuff. Bill and I have battled online and yet he still offers me help. This shows his character and the simple fact that he tells me that he does not care what the techs tell me and that he uses this and that and this is the best way to do it - is exactly the type of "Solider Advice" "Solid Advice" I'm seeking. I bet Bill and Mongo have seen between them hundreds of exterior decks over living space. I build fireplaces and bathrooms. i am not a spec builder or custom builder. I'm a small fish in the Bathroom Fireplace renovation game. I have never built a home, a large addition or any project over $250,000 to date. Now I'm building my "Palace" "My Castle" "My kids home". Is it wrong to want the best for them? Is it wrong to seek opinions and advice from seasoned pro's? is it my fault that someone reading this thread does not do their own home work? I take my advice my spec sheets and I go to city hall - I ask my inspectors is this OK. Sometimes they say No and sometimes they say Yes. Most times they say "yes" if it is installed as per factory spec. I'm returning my CBU and installing more plywood. I have used Ditra in 95% of my projects and am sold 100 percent on the uncoupling properties of Ditra. I read in Fine Homebuilding years back about a builder in Chiacgo who switched to Ditra and his call backs went from 15% down to 1% in regards to tile installs. I was like wow! I researched Ditra. I paid for training. I talk to Bob from Schulter 2-10 times a year and have every year. Bob is a great guy. So is Dave. These men help me but I cross check their info with you men online. I have never had a callback since I switched to Ditra and started complete waterproofing of my projects. Not one call back in over 6 years! This is my process. If you want me to write these ideas in a new section of this site please suggest one for me. If you have a disclaimer you would like me to add to every post in this "Gray" area please forward it to me to attached to my posts. If you are so confident of your abilities and your finished projects please post some of your work for us to see. I know I would respect your advice more if I could view your work shots and know for sure that you are in the trades and can offer me first hand expeirence. Perhaps you can offer me some insight into my channel drain installations. Perhaps you would like to test one of these babies for me? I will stick my neck on the line and offer up my insight - I have a thick neck and am not afraid of looking foolish online (this I have proven I think in the past time and time again). I am far from perfect but strive to be the best in the industry. I produce job after job of 5 star finished projects. My home will be my best work. I'm looking for help - I'm looking for knowledge - I'm looking forward. Things should be built better, stronger, greener. This is something we can all do. Something we can all do better.

Here's my latest response from my GC on how the shower was installed and his thoughts on fixing the project. ========================== The Shower pan was installed with a pre-slope. A positive weep hole protector was used during installation. The waterproofing system is a 30 mil pan liner that extends up the walls 18" on all sides. I did ask the tile installer about the typical time for a shower pan to dry out, 24 hours is not unreasonable, but 5 days is not typical. If the discoloration is caused by persistent moisture there is something not functioning properly. That being said, he is very confident in the installation of the pan liner and was personally on site while the work was being completed. He feels the discoloration is likely not related to the Pan holding water. However, we will reserve judgment until we have had a chance to inspect the shower together. "Assuming" we do not have a problem with the pan draining. One Idea our tile installer offered would be to replace the grout in the floor with an epoxy grout. Epoxy grout is going to discolor less with moisture, if we remove all of the existing grout on the floor we should get a more consistent color when we regrout, and epoxy grout will allow less water to penetrate through the finished surface to the pan liner. Of course, first we have to be sure that everything is working as designed. ======================

Yes, there are DIY ways to improve the appearance of the grout and some of the etching. And I can understand you not wanting to deal with this bozo. Only you can decide the point at which conflict avoidance tips the scales on your personal cost/benefit ratio. That said, ask yourself.... if this is what I can see, and the tiler is defending it, wth is underneath it all that I can't see? This could be way more than a cosmetic fix. Aside from the sloppiness of the grout, I'd also be concerned with the grout at the ceiling line. I presume he also grouted the shower floor joints at the wall, too. Hard to tell what the vertical joint is from the pic. The point is, wherever there's a change of plane, it should be caulked. None of this suggests your tiler would have been any more conscientious with water barriers, shower pans, etc. that are now tiled in. Before you touch anything, be very sure you're preserving your rights along the way. In many locales, you have to give the contractor a chance to fix things before making any claims against his insurance, initiating legal action, withholding money, or filing a complaint with a licensing body.

We have addressed flush ceiling vents several times here, and these threads may be worth reviewing. In the context of a choice limited to pop-up side draft vs. flush ceiling, then I would have to vote for flush ceiling, so long as the requirements are met. This is because most cooking plumes will reach the ceiling, albeit spread out by plume expansion and by cross drafts and people motion caused turbulence. I think the following requirements are important, in no particular order: Ceiling joist revision must be practicable and structurally sound. Make-up air must not short out the plume path to the vent aperture. To introduce the MUA, use another room, hall, the kitchen floor, several toe kicks, or a ceiling diffuser with vanes directed away from the vent register. The vent register area must accommodate at least a 10-degree from vertical expansion from the locus of pan bases. The tangent of 10 deg. is 0.176. This value times the distance from cooktop to the ceiling is the overlap required past the cooktop edge all around the cooktop. This may require more than one ceiling unit. Even larger than this may be needed based on whatever the normal room air motion is. The plume velocity vs. angle is a distribution function; some plume exists at wide angles. Hence the farther a ventilation system is from a cave like shape, the greater the potential for escape of small amounts of plume. So expect some of the cooking effluent to be removed (or deposited) as a room ventilation process rather than a vent hood process. A means of cleaning needs to be determined that will keep safe the cooktop surface as well as any counter top stone not exceptionally well supported. I have no plume velocity data applicable to the ceiling distance above a pan, but I would expect some reduction from normal hood separation distance due to increased cooling. If we go with 0.6 m/s, or 120 ft/min, and assume a 50% fill by the ceiling baffles or mesh filter, then I'd aim for 60 ft/min average across the large vent area. This makes the required volumetric flow rate (CFM) equal to the total venting area in square feet times 60 ft/min. The blower rated CFM will need to be 1.5X that flow rate for pressure loss compensation. A real analysis based on pressure losses due to whatever the filtering is may be helpful. A flush ceiling unit generally has zero reservoir volume. Large cooking transients may not be fully captured and contained even with these requirements met. Blower power control will have to be brought to the island or a nearby wall. An induction motor blower may be the easiest to obtain a controller for. Some ceiling units may be supplied with remote controls simplifying this otherwise awkward wiring necessity. As usual, the duct size to the outdoors should be such that the air velocity in the duct is in the 1000 to 2000 ft/min range. Successful testing (with MUA functional) requires watching the plume behavior when subjected to smoking peanut oil, not just watching steam rise.