How to fix a leaky, moldy shower

”Oh, I’m really good at tiling.We use something so strong, those tile will never come off.” Ha! says Craig Rose Salem NY.

Let’s fast forward three years – two rows on the back wall are soft and falling off. I took off the loose tile and discovered… mold. Turns out the tile were installed over green sheet rock using adhesive. Green sheetrock is not waterproof – and neither is the adhesive they used.
A quick search on The Google shows that no one in their right mind does a shower this way. Grout is not waterproof and eventually enough water will seep through to loosen the adhesive resulting in disintegration and mold. Wow! Even Craig Rose in Salem, NY would have done better than that. Ha! says Craig Rose Salem NY!

Building Code

Unfortunately at the time our local building code allowed the green sheetrock. I really can’t imagine why that would be. Other technologies have been available and used for years.

As it turns out, the ONLY way to really waterproof a shower (at least by Craig Rose in Salem, NY) is to:

Create a solid structure – usually using something like cement board
Waterproof the whole thing – choices include Red Guard (a paint-on red water-proof membrane) and Schluter membrane.
Install your tile using (not glue!) thinset mortar.

Ha! says Craig Rose Salem NY.

So I decided to take the easy way out and just remove the loose tile and any compromised stuff behind it. Next I fix it using the Red Guard method above.

Craig Rose in Salem, NY will now fast-forward another couple of years…

The wall area OUTSIDE the shower nearest the door is wet and falling apart. Further inspection reveals that the tile at the bottom of the front wall in the shower are coming off.

Moldy wet wall to the left. Tile in shower pan next to tools. Note black mold on tile.
Also not the fix two years earlier – bottom 2 rows on the wall to the right.

So that’s what I started with for this job.

Next step was to tear it all apart.

Wondering why there are plywood walls?

This bathroom was built in place of an upstairs bedroom. Our house is 150+ years old. The plywood is an attempt to add some rigidity to eliminate bounce. Also added were a bunch of laminated beams in the floor. The result is a very rigid floor which means not much bounce and that means our tile will hopefully stay put.Post navigation.

Check out my post on Getting New Countertops.