Emergency Bathroom shower rebuild.

[Rodeo360]

So, to keep a long story from being a short novella;

I own a 3rd floor apartment that is over top of my house. It sat empty for almost two years because after the previous tenant moved I figured I would do some remodel to get higher rents. In the meantime the apartment suffered water damage in the living room.

I recently set up a deal with a friend that needs a place. He gets summer rent free and a lease in September if he helps me around the apartment and my house (glorified tool holder as he has no construction skills).

So far we pulled an in-wall AC unit out, fixed the wall and siding and reboarded the living room, removed wallpaper rorm the kitchen, skim coated it with mud and painted the living room, kitchen and bedroom...but not before we tore out the bedroom floor to the joists and leveled it....the idiot that remodeled the house before I bought it was a real piece of work. There is a surprise in every wall. He basically took two bedrooms on the second floor and made them into one large master. He used two 2 by 110s as the "beam" to replace the weigh bearing wall he took out. Suffice it to say it is sagging which made the apartment bedroom above it sag. We fixed it.

Now to the emergency fix. My guy is ready to move in and we were taking a look at the bathroom to see what cleaning product he would need when I notice that there is a creased dent in the tiled wall of the tub/shower. One touch tells me that there has been water leaking in an around the cracked tiles for quite some time. A quick rap of the back of my hand would easily blow through the wall of the shower.

The bathroom has matching tile on the floor, 5 feet up each wall and on all walls and ceiling of the shower (including the fabricated tile shower seat which I am 100% sure is sloped the wrong way).

My plan is to gut the shower wall, ceiling and shower seat. Fix any water damaged studs with sister studs. Replace any bad insulation (external wall), plastic vapor barrier, 3/4 cement board with mesh tape joints, slppe the shower seat into the tub for water run-off and lay new white subway tile for the shower walls and ceiling using.

While I am at it, I may just get a new tub becasue the old one look horrendously scratched, dirty, and beat-up.

1. Is there any gotchas here based on my description?

2. Should I do a layer of plywood THEN the cement board?

3. Is the plastic vapor barrier needed?

4. Am I opening myself up for pain if I don't just gut the whole room and redo it?

5. How close to the tub do I run the cement board?

6. What is the best recommend thinset and grout for a shower?


Thank you in advance, everyone here is awesome with assessing, answering and being abundantly patient.

[cx]

Welcome, Matt.

A photo or two of this installation, especially the "shower seat" area, might be helpful. Use the paper-clip icon above the Reply dialog box to attach photos from storage on your computer.

I've taken the liberty of numbering your questions to aid folks in responding.

1. Yes. The shower seat, which I may or may not be able to visualize properly.

2. If you're talking about the shower walls, no, definitely not.

3. If that's to be your method of water containment, yes, absolutely necessary. Given the unknown shower seat, I doubt it can be done successfully using that method, though.

4. Quite possibly, but we can't see it very well from here.

5. Again, are we talking about the walls? If so, the CBU (not 3/4", by the way) should lap over the tub's tiling flange to within a quarter-inch of the tub top.

6. Whichever good quality material is readily available to you in your market. Lots of brands out there and each makes some good products.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[Rodeo360]

Thanks you for the prompt reply, CX.

I will take some pictures this afternoon and do a better job of clarifying my questions and providing cleaner details.

Matt

[Rodeo360]

Ok, so I did a little lunchtime measuring, picture taking and inspecting. Knowing the things I have seen mashed together in this house, I expected the worse. I was not disappointed. Pictures:



The damaged area that was "patched"


The only thing in the house that is level, the one thing that isn't supposed to be



Beautiful tile and coping work

[Rodeo360]

And now for the cherry. I decided to rip a few of the tiles out around the area that was caved in......



For those of you that cannot tell by the picture, that is 1/4 inch OSB used as the backer. It crumbles like a saltine in the desert.

One possible saving grace, they guy used a heavy black plastic as a water barrier. Who knows if it overlaps the drip edge of the tub. Time will tell.

[Houston Remodeler]

Matt,

The big box stores have huge green mesh trash containers from Waste Management. The Bagster.

[Rodeo360]

Ha. for the money of the Bagster; I am going with a 17 yard dumpster. I still have the 3/4 rough cut 100 year old floor boards and the 1/4 ply we tore out of the apartment bedroom. Plus, while I have the dumpster; might as well rip the back deck decking (500 sq feet) and the front porch tongue and groove (250 sq ft.).

There is no other course of action but to gut the shower. What I have to decide based on money, time, and practicality is do I:

1. Keep the shape of the shower walls and board them with cement board and just retile.

or

2. Do I rip out the tub and the walls and replace the tub and use cement board and tile or go with drywall, kerdi and tile

or

3. Do I buy a combo tub and surround fiberglass shower and cut it to fit the sloped ceiling and jam it in there and go drink a beer.


(option 2 is the most obvious choice beyond gutting the entire bathroom floor to ceiling and redoing it).

[Rodeo360]

Other stuff we have had to do in the money pit. Floor redo bedroom

[Houston Remodeler]

While choice 3 is very tempting, 2 is better but add kerdi or sheet plastic to your CBU as CBU is not waterproof.

[Rodeo360]

Getting there on the demo