Where have I said a pro can't often do beautiful work? I appreciate their skill and the ease with which they can do a job I may struggle to accomplish, if at all. I also read that the TCNA says that 75% of the tiled showers in America are built incorrectly. The vast majority of those are built by supposed pros. I also saw the pros results on my sisters $500K custom house where they installed tile on inadequate subflooring over 24" OC supports that failed and the tiled shower leak (no waterproofing even attempted over the bench). All of these jobs were done by 'pros'. So, there are lots of people out there that don't have a clue on the industry standards and are doing work that call themselves pros. THen, there are some very conscientious, extremely talented, very creative people out there that are what I call true professionals. I do not have personal experience with the people who post here work. Yes, I see the finished 'bragging' pictures, and an occasional in process picture, but some of the descriptions just don't add up to meeting the industry standards - looks aren't everything.
Most of the 'disagreements' I have here are with John Whipple, who implied you cannot make a Kerdi shower work properly by following the NA established instructions, or his feeling that what the industry says works is inadequate, and says the only way to do things is to way overkill the situation. Sure, if the customer is willing or coerced into it, fine, but to promote that it is the only way for reliable way to do things, or to install products that violate the intent and design of some products as a good example of how to do things is just wrong. What is the TCNA actually doing when they perform testing and procedure validation? Why do they and the ANSI specs exist? To define and promote methods that work. Why do the manufacturers spend sometimes years and lots of money developing a product to be second guessed by someone that then uses it in a different manner? Ignoring them is kind of foolish, IMHO, and not the sign of a professional.
Maybe you've heard of Dave Gobis...I met him when he was the Director of CTEF where I was taking a class nearly 10-years ago and he is one of the most respected forensic tile people out there today - IOW, a wealth of both technical knowledge and how they are supposed to be used. He related this following story about one pro that had called him out who had years of experience and a good reputation...
The guy was complaining about a thinset so Dave watched as he mixed it up. Being a pro, didn't measure, did things by eye, determined by look and feel when they've mixed the stuff 'correctly'. He was complaining about the texture and 'feel' of the stuff when he used it. Dave said I'll look into it.
A month or so he went back, brought a bag of thinset and asked the guy to try this one. He started to mix it up, finished, and Dave says, keep mixing. The guy looks at it, feels it, gives him a look then keeps mixing. This goes on a couple of times. They let things slake, and Dave says, wait a little longer. Then, he remixes, and Dave says keep going when the guy stops. Finally, the guy goes and starts to use the thinset. He says, this stuff is great, a BIG improvement over what I had last time. What did you change? Dave told him, you mixed it per the instructions, it's the same stuff.
The whole point of that was: pros get into a rut sometimes. They do not use the products as designed thinking they know better. The bag says mix for 4-minutes at a certain speed, they look at it after maybe two, and say that looks right or maybe add a bit more water to make it 'smoother' (it very well may be what they've been using for years, doesn't mean it's right or as good as it could be). Sometimes, people need a reality check - I actually read the instructions. I believe, for the most part, the people who make the stuff actually know what they're talking about and how to make it work at its best. With the case of Schluter, they do not produce products that they haven't tested and they are very conservative about their results - they know it will work if you follow the instructions and it does not require extra steps, multiple redundancies, and the associated extra time and expense to make a reliable product. They are by no means the only company out there like that, but may be the most conservative.
I've helped lots of people build a conventional shower, and install cbu rather than any Schluter product, but those that get the most controversy are disagreements with John on what's required to do it and make it reliable. When people ask, I recommend other methods, because I truly believe, while a conventional shower, properly built will last as long as the owner wants to keep it, one made with a surface membrane has lots of advantages. And, since Schluter's patent ran out last year on Kerdi, there are a bunch of imitators out there now promoting their version - if it didn't work, why would they? As to cbu, it works. As to ease of installation, an uncoupling membrane offers lots of advantages, and the original happens to be Schluter's. As to John's backyard so-called shear tests, they're unreliable, inconsistent, and he admitted that he added more water to the thinset than the spec's call for. The fact that they all exceeded the industry standards is just a verification that the industry and the tests run in a controlled manner in a scientifically repeatable manner should be enough. He does not understand what an uncoupling membrane does and that it radically reduces the bond stresses on the tile, so the difference between thinset types is pretty meaningless over one. It IS important when directly bonding tile, but the whole purpose of uncoupling is to do just that, uncouple them.
So, don't take this personally, but while it takes years to become good at a job, there are a lot of people out there that think because they've been doing it this way for decades, it's the best way, or the only way, and feel they have too much knowledge to go to a training session to try to understand some of the newer products or to verify that they're actually using the both correctly and to their best advantage. The 'old way' doesn't always work in the new world. There are lots of pros in Massachusetts that still believe a copper shower pan installed flat on the floor is the best way to do it because they've been doing it that way for many decades. They promote this as a major upgrade. Deluded, and not uncommon with lots of 'pros'. Anyone that tries to promote similar things as the way to do it, should expect someone to potentially call them on it. On this forum, when I can back it up with reliable references or experience or discussion with people I consider true pros, I'll offer a counterpoint.