Building a new Tile Shower

[slicbrat]

So I have a GC working on removing an existing fiber glass shower 3' x 4' and putting in a new tile shower. He removed the fiber glass enclosure all the way to the studs and installed denssheild tile backer board (menards) just above where the shower pan goes and followed it with multi surface bonding primer. He then went ahead and try to put the joint tape between the boards and realized it did not stick due to bond primer already being on, so applied some form of a gap filler between the boards and said it should be ok. I am worried if there is a chance that water would seep through once its all tiled and grouted through the gap that's between the boards. He also has went ahead and tiled all the walls at this point (has not grouted it yet) and was planning on doing the shower pan last. Is that normal?

Now onto the Shower pan and curb, he laid down the shower pan liner and made a hole in the center where my drain is. Drain is atleast 3 inches on top of where the shower pan liner is. For the curb he is using 2 2 x4's and nailed the denssheild backer board as the one on the walls on top of it. He poured the TEC Floor Mud mortar 050 for the shower pan yesterday which I thought was very watery and I noticed a spot on living room drywall thats being wet apparently leaking because of the wet concrete that was poured yesterday. I called him today and he indicated that his water pail had a little hole that he did not realize and might have seeped underneath the curb.

I have every reason to believe he is not lying since he has done a lot of work for our house and has been excellent with his work so far.

Do you have any recommendations, thoughts or anything he has done so far looks out of the ordinary or concerning?

Thanks in advance!

[Lazarus]

I have serious doubts as to whether or not he actually put in a pre-slope, covered with a liner and then used a mud bed on top. The "leakage" concerns me. It shouldn't be there. There are also concerns about the nailing or screwing on top of the curb. Not the way to do it...

Once the liner is in, he needs to do a leak test for 48 hours. I suspect it will not pass, if for no other reason than the drain cut out seems to not be code.

Is he a handyman or an actual tile mechanic? If you don't get good answers...it may be time to cut your losses and back off. Get someone competent for your build.....

[Davy]

I would put a halt to this job. As Laz said, there shouldn't be any penetrations on the top or inside of the curb once the liner is in place. The mud bed over the liner should be dry pack, not concrete. Sorry to say but this guy doesn't know what he's doing.

Can you post a picture of the drain and curb?

[slicbrat]

I don't believe he used a preslope covered with liner and then a mud bed. Unfortunately I was at work, when he was busy working on creating the shower pan. From what I see I don't see a liner. He is a GC who does more than tiles.

[Davy]

If there's no liner, I'd ask him what type of waterproofing he was planning to use on the floor.

[slicbrat]

Davy - It was my bad, I edited the post to indicate he used a TEC Floor Mud Mortar from Menards instead of "concrete".

[slicbrat]

Pictures of the pan and curb as it stands now!

[Davy]

Ok, I'll edit this since you posted pictures. Looks like a mess.

You said that he installed Denshield down to where the top of the pan liner begins. What is the blue material? And is that green board on the inside of the curb?

[slicbrat]

Its the multi surface bonding primer that's colored blue on top of the denshield board. No its the same denshield board with primer on it on the curb inside.

[Davy]

Ok, with screws right thru the liner. This isn't the proper way to build a shower. All penetrations on the walls are supposed to be 3 inches higher than the top of the finished curb. This will not be a long lasting shower.

I still wonder about the leak that ended up on the ceiling below. If the liner won't hold wet concrete, it sure won't hold water.

He's done a lot of things wrong.

[slicbrat]

Is there a way to do water test at this point?. Also is it the curb and the pan that needs to be done right at this point or all of his work?

[Davy]

I'm not trying to be harsh but again, there's a lot of things done wrong. If you were to hire me to fix it, I'd rip it out and start over. There's no telling what else is done wrong that we can't see. I wouldn't waste my time water testing it. The redo might include a whole new ceiling below.

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Hi, Mahi.

This forum isn’t about telling folks not to do something. No, rather, we go out of our way to encourage DIY’ers and pros to find proper ways to correct mistakes and help people succeed with long lasting installs.

So, when we start piling on and saying, “whoa...this is not good...I think it needs to be torn out”, we really mean it. I know a lot of well-intentioned, caring contractors who miss the vital importance of properly preparing a shower. This shower is one of them. I agree with everything that’s been said and want to add that the Densshield is being used improperly at least with two mistakes: 1) the open gypsum seams have to be waterproofed before installing them (not a coat of waterproofing to the face) And 2)...Densshield prohibits their board from being installed down low where it will end up being buried in the mud. This has a gypsum core and can’t tolerate the environment of a continuously damp mud bed.

Sorry to say.

[slicbrat]

Thanks Davy & Bubba for all your insights! I guess I will need to have the hard conversation and put it to stop

[Dave Gobis]

As unpleasant as it may be, you need to have the conversation. It isn't going to work for very long and you will have the expense and inconvenience with or without his assistance.