"Mongoct-- (sorry OP) If not using Kerdi shower pan, but just a mudbed/liner, can you use a topical membrane for a shower floor? I've posted previously, but it didn't catch your attention. I'm trying to understand this more as well... " Sorry if I missed your previous post. I seem to be hit and miss on the forums these days. I'm a little confused by the "mudbed/liner" comment and the desire to use it in conjunction with a topical membrane. So let me ramble a bit: I consider "liners" to be the CPE or CPVC thick shower membrane liners, the ones where you use a deck mud preslope, then install the liner over that with a clamping drain, then top the liner with another layer of deck mud, and you tile upon that. If that's what you're asking about, no I wouldn't use a topical membrane on top of all that. Here's what I consider to be a liner installation. Now back-tracking a bit: There are folk that use a topical membrane with a clamping drain, but they have to "dish out" the sloped mud bed as it gets close to the drain. It's sometimes referred to as the "divot method". That way the topical membrane will drain to the drain's weep holes. If you don't use a divot, then the raised part of the clamping drain can sort of act like a dam, causing water under the tile to pool around the drain. The area around the drain might appear perpetually wet. The divot method is not a technique I embrace. Nothing really wrong with it, it's just not my cup of tea. Here is a photo showing the "divot" carved out of the mud base: Virtually every shower I do is a one-off size or shape, so I'm almost always doing a sloped deck mud base. As to which topical membrane to use, when using Kerdi, I'll do a sloped mud pan and then cover that with Kerdi. If using Hydroban, then I'll still use a Kerdi drain in the sloped mud floor but then use Hydroban on the floor and walls. So if you want to use a topical membrane, then no , do not also use a liner within the floor. One membrane is all you want. Does that help?

I'm not formally trained in this, but I've studied it some, and would offer these opinions: If I understand you correctly,the 4 brass vents around your firebox, 2 to the right and left slightly above it and 2 to the right and left close to the hearth, are connected to a duct system that circulates air that has been heated by the fire. There may be a blower fan connected to the ducts to promote greater circulation of heated air into the room. Whether you have a blower fan or not probably does not matter. So you want to cover these vents for cosmetic reasons in your re-design of the fireplace. I think there might be a concern if you are covering the vents with combustible material (wood), for 2 reasons. (1) If the air in the duct system gets very hot, it could degrade the wood over time. You might be able to avoid that problem if you stuff some insulating material into the ducts. (2) I think there is one other issue you need to consider to assure yourself that you are not incurring a risk of fire: the clearance between the edge of the firebox and the edge of the combustible material. If the latter is too close, it could theoretically catch fire. I do not know how minimum clearances are calculated, or even if there is a general formula for doing that. It depends on how hot the fire gets and how combustible the combustible material is. You might be able to sort this out on your own by making a really good roaring fire, letting it heat up for a good 15-30 minutes, and seeing how hot the vents get, especially the sides of the vents that are closest to the firebox. If they are too hot to touch or almost too hot to touch, then you know that you don't want to put anything combustible like a wood surround that close to the edge of the firebox. But if it gets just slightly warm to the touch, you can probably put a wooden surround that close without any danger of fire. Incidentally, since heat rises, the clearance between the top of the firebox and any combustible material above it will probably be more important to be concerned about. If I were you, I would consider a black metal fireplace surround, to replace the brass surround you have in place now and to extend out so that it covers the vents. Sheet metal fabricators can make one that looks like cast iron (which is too expensive), and that would blend in very nicely with your brick, and you would not have to worry about clearances. You can still get your wooden mantel, positioned one step removed around the metal. Of course, that's a matter of personal taste. You have a really nice fireplace, and with a little careful planning you can make it even nicer. Good luck.

I was having a lesuirely read through when I spotted your thread... I threw down my cup of tea...and have issued an Alert from London England!! Quite simply Backerboard is not suitable for a sub-strate under travertine. Your man should build up his levels with Marine ply using counter sunk screws to secure. Once the level has been reached then a layer of Ditra Matting should be adhered to it. This should be left to dry for a min of 12 hours before the travertine laying. A flexi adhesive should be used under the travertine and there should be no foreseeable problems going forward. Now I worry if your tile contractor knows his stone...stone is very diff to ceramics...Make sure he seals it at least twice! or I will be choking on my cup of tea again! Kindest Regards Lynn in London

We just got our tile! We were also skeptical of ordering from Tile.Expert, but the online reviews and local pricing quotes on tile we really liked convinced us to give them a try. We've been planning far enough ahead on our remodel that a 9-week lead time was workable, and we were excited to have our small but heavy (1,377lbs!) pallet of tile delivered this week; with the freight driver noting that the tile was really well packed compared to some he's seen. The boxes were each tightly strapped to ensure no rattling or movement, then wrapped with a very strong, very thick shrink wrap that kept everything solidly in place, and then all that was strapped down further for it's trip from Italy to the PNW. We unpacked all of it the last two days to find there was not one single broken tile in the shipment, and it was exactly as we'd ordered, at a price well under what we could have gotten locally (we had local tile shop quote on the exact same material, with our designers discount, and it was still significantly higher). We'll try to post some pics once it's all installed in a couple of months:) but wanted to share our experience and recommend the tile.expert folks in the meantime!