Over zealous tiler

[Rima]

We are in the middle of renovating two bathrooms and have hired a tiler to do the floors.


Our tiler wants to waterproof everything so when he did the floor he put urethane around our copper pipes that come up through the floor into a baseboard radiator. Is that a bad thing? He wants to make sure that any toilet overflow does not go through into the ceiling below. My concern is that the copper pipes get hot and what does that do to the urethane? Will there be fumes? And also the copper pipes will expand and shrink, will the urethane restrict this?

Thanks

[jadnashua]

Probably not an issue. Once cured, I don't think it will outgas any more, and it should remain flexible. The true tell, though, would be to read the manufacturer's spec sheet. Baseboard supply lines rarely use more than 200-degrees, and less is much more common.

Unless there's a waterproof layer beneath the tile, the tile installation itself isn't waterproof, but it would take awhile to soak through the grout joints. FWIW, in a shower, the tile is a wear layer, not the waterproofing layer if it is built right. Same thing is true of a floor.

[Rima]

Thanks, we don't have manufacturers info as these came with the house which is 17 years old. But I feel more comfortable now. He's a bitty nutty about waterproofing everything and I was going to ask him to remove the urethane.

He waterproofed the floor with ditra so no worries there. There was a bit of play in the toilet flange so he unscrewed it, shoved the ditra under it , but didn't screw it back in. Then he grouted over all of the screw holes and the bolt holes. Plumber installing our toilet was not happy at all having to dig that all out to just get the bolts in. And we're not sure if he's put undue stress on the toilet pipe because he's raised it.

[jadnashua]

FWIW, Ditra itself is waterproof, but the floor won't be unless the seams are sealed with KerdiBand. Plus, unless you make a cup out of it by going up the walls, it would just run to the edges and leak there. Then, what do you do about the doorway or up the tub, or under it? Same thing with the toilet flange.

There are ways to make a room a true 'wet room', but it's rare in a home. My mother just spent some time in a rehab facility, and the bathroom there was a true wetroom. The shower was a handheld, the room was a roll-in room, and there was no shower curb or curtains - the whole room was tiled and waterproofed - you could transfer yourself to a bench and shower away, not worrying about where the water went.