Okay kids, get comfy; long story. Thank you in advance to anyone who gets through it and comments. I love you.
September 2016: We move into our new house, built in 1952, remodeled extensively in 2008 by homeowner, a "soil engineer". Yep, we bought an engineer's house. First red flag. We did have an expensive if incompetent home inspection done, that somehow totally missed the fact that the acrylic shower pan in the guest bathroom was cracked and flexing upon pressure, resulting in observable but mild water damage to the adjacent baseboards. Complained about this and other problems; got our inspection money back. Had to ignore it for a while and get settled.
November 28, 2016: Engaged a contractor to remodel bathroom, primarily involving the construction of a concrete shower pan, installation of backer board and drywall as needed, waterproofing, shampoo niche, light plumbing work, and tiling. Job was estimated to take 5-7 days.
December 2016: Delays due to cold weather, illness, no-shows, non-communication, Contractor out of state doing side-work, etc.
Without consultation with us, the contractor and sub installed DensShield wallboard, waterproofed entirely with Redguard (two coats over joints and screws). I understand what DensShield is and how it works, and I'm okay with RedGuard, but I would have preferred Durock or Wonderboard. What I didn't know at the time was that the Sub also used DensShield on the surfaces of the curb, which is clearly and expressly forbidden by every single DensShield document. Sub installed the shower pan, including a preslope (hot mud I presume), Oatey membrane, lathe, mortar layer, marble "bow tie" pattern mosaic. Sub installed subway tiles on walls and niche.
Round one: The shower floor was visibly wavy and contained a number of areas out of slope towards the drain. The tile in the niche was indisputably badly done. Numerous field tiles had proud edges and a few were cracked (where thin sliver pieces were needed). Contractor (on one of his very few visits) agreed that the job was "an epic fail" and told Sub to redo entire shower floor (with new materials on him), entire shampoo niche, and any proud or cracked tiles.
Every time we raised an issue with the Contractor, the ONLY option he would give was to have the Sub fix the problem. Every time he defended the Sub's skills and methods, and offered a flimsy (IMO) excuse for why our concern was not really a problem (e.g., "The valve isn't leaking, it's condensation due to temperature change." It was in fact leaking from connections and had also been nicked by a screw farther up). We allowed that a few times, but when even the do-overs were poor quality, it seemed like the best course was to just stop. It wasn't the quality we had hoped for, but it would be functional until we recovered enough financially to pay someone to redo it properly -- maybe a year or two.
Round Two, Dec. 2016 - January 2017: Do-over job was just acceptable enough (aesthetically) that we decided to just pay them and be done with it. Negotiated a large discount for the aggravation, but still paid several thousand for all the labor (included acceptable electrical and drywall work and floor tile) and paid 100% of materials minus the cost of replacement materials for do-overs.
mid-January 2017: Used the shower exactly three times. Noticed that a small amount (a couple of tablespoons) would leak from the outside front corner of the curb after a few minutes of water running (and hitting the top surface of the curb). See picture below. Texted Contractor. Contractor sent Sub (UGH!!!) whose diagnosis was that it had been very cold during installation and that the grout at the miter on the curb surface (solid marble slabs) and at the inside edge where the slabs met the skirt tiles had shrunk and cracked; he would remove the cracked grout and replace with sanded caulk at the miter and interior plane changes, and with new grout at other places (unclear). We asked that he not do it that day since we had guests, and Contractor said he'd come Friday. Never came. After texting, Contractor said Sub would come the next morning at 8am. Never came. I texted Contractor later that morning to ask him to wave Sub off. He said Sub would be there in hour; we said no, thanks.
Visited our local tile store and asked for some advice. We were informed that the diagnosis was probably not too far off, and that we could easily remove the affected grout and replace it with either sanded caulk or just a better grout job (using an additive instead of water) and then seal and silicone.
Went home, started removing grout. Noticed what appeared to be a void beneath the curb slabs. Probing with the grout tool, I also noticed what appeared to be "play" in one of the slabs; i.e., a slight "prying" motion with fairly light pressure increased the gap between the slab and the skirt. I removed the shower doors (that Contractor and Sub had installed upside down on the DO-OVER trip), and in addition to water under the rails, found that the curb slabs could be lifted pretty easily.
What I found underneath was:
- Wet blobs of uncured adhesive; no buttering of either slab or curb. Wrong adhesive?
- A few wads of crumpled masking tape; shims? garbage? who knows.
- DensShield screwed into the curb, rust on several screws. DensShield literature very clear that you aren't supposed to use it on curbs.
Sent a video of this to Contractor. I won't share the entire text, but the first line of his response was, "That looks right." I think I'm within my right mind to conclude gross incompetence at this point. He also suggested that I "should have just let them fix it the first day" and that it was a quick fix. I did not reply.
Other issues:
- Second round of shower floor tile still a bit wavy.
- No blocking installed between studs supporting the membrane.
- Crappy, hodge-podge blocking behind shower valve and (wobbly) shower head.
- Lack of plumb at bottom inside corner of shower walls (i.e., no shimming behind backer), resulting in a visible "wave" of the grout line.
- Redguard and DensShield membrane were scraped off when the shower niche was retiled; I don't believe they re-applied RedGuard (to exposed gypsum).
- Re-do shampoo niche tile job still crappy.
- Tile on walls just "okay", but not "pretty".
At this point, I will obviously not allow these guys near my house. I've left out a number of other examples of poor workmanship that I believe justify my position unrelated to the tile job, so trust me. The question is: What do I do next?
Since last week, I've watched about a jillion hours of YouTube videos and read dozens of articles about concrete shower pans, shower waterproofing, and tile. I'm above-average handy, have good tools and can buy what I don't have, and have installed Durock on a kitchen wall before, but have never done anything like this. I'm feeling extremely tempted to re-do the entire shower myself, less because of the cost (probably $2,500) to pay someone to do a proper job, but because now I don't trust ANYONE to actually DO a proper job. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, and any other tips and suggestions you want to offer.
Should I just hire someone to try to repair the curb and hobble along? Or should I rip it all out on the grounds that it's probably all garbage? Bonus round: Do I take Contractor to small claims court to pay for this or just call it a lesson learned?
If I do it myself, here's what I'm thinking:
1. Demo shower walls and entire shower pan/curb down to slab.
2. Pay a plumber to inspect the work done on the shower drain by Contractor.
3. Assuming #2 is okay or is addressed, install blocking between studs where needed, and install new tile backer: Durock w/ Schluter-Kerdi membrane or full Schluter-Kerdi system. (Anyone ever used Kemperol 022 over Durock? That stuff looks COOL)
3b. Install shampoo niche using pre-formed niche.
4. Construct new shower pan: Schluter-Kerdi? (but open to suggestion that I just do a full concrete pan)
5. Re-tile it all my damn self; slowly, carefully, following any and every tutorial and pro-tip I can find.
6. Enjoy my awesome shower.
Okay folks; let 'er rip.
September 2016: We move into our new house, built in 1952, remodeled extensively in 2008 by homeowner, a "soil engineer". Yep, we bought an engineer's house. First red flag. We did have an expensive if incompetent home inspection done, that somehow totally missed the fact that the acrylic shower pan in the guest bathroom was cracked and flexing upon pressure, resulting in observable but mild water damage to the adjacent baseboards. Complained about this and other problems; got our inspection money back. Had to ignore it for a while and get settled.
November 28, 2016: Engaged a contractor to remodel bathroom, primarily involving the construction of a concrete shower pan, installation of backer board and drywall as needed, waterproofing, shampoo niche, light plumbing work, and tiling. Job was estimated to take 5-7 days.
December 2016: Delays due to cold weather, illness, no-shows, non-communication, Contractor out of state doing side-work, etc.
Without consultation with us, the contractor and sub installed DensShield wallboard, waterproofed entirely with Redguard (two coats over joints and screws). I understand what DensShield is and how it works, and I'm okay with RedGuard, but I would have preferred Durock or Wonderboard. What I didn't know at the time was that the Sub also used DensShield on the surfaces of the curb, which is clearly and expressly forbidden by every single DensShield document. Sub installed the shower pan, including a preslope (hot mud I presume), Oatey membrane, lathe, mortar layer, marble "bow tie" pattern mosaic. Sub installed subway tiles on walls and niche.
Round one: The shower floor was visibly wavy and contained a number of areas out of slope towards the drain. The tile in the niche was indisputably badly done. Numerous field tiles had proud edges and a few were cracked (where thin sliver pieces were needed). Contractor (on one of his very few visits) agreed that the job was "an epic fail" and told Sub to redo entire shower floor (with new materials on him), entire shampoo niche, and any proud or cracked tiles.
Every time we raised an issue with the Contractor, the ONLY option he would give was to have the Sub fix the problem. Every time he defended the Sub's skills and methods, and offered a flimsy (IMO) excuse for why our concern was not really a problem (e.g., "The valve isn't leaking, it's condensation due to temperature change." It was in fact leaking from connections and had also been nicked by a screw farther up). We allowed that a few times, but when even the do-overs were poor quality, it seemed like the best course was to just stop. It wasn't the quality we had hoped for, but it would be functional until we recovered enough financially to pay someone to redo it properly -- maybe a year or two.
Round Two, Dec. 2016 - January 2017: Do-over job was just acceptable enough (aesthetically) that we decided to just pay them and be done with it. Negotiated a large discount for the aggravation, but still paid several thousand for all the labor (included acceptable electrical and drywall work and floor tile) and paid 100% of materials minus the cost of replacement materials for do-overs.
mid-January 2017: Used the shower exactly three times. Noticed that a small amount (a couple of tablespoons) would leak from the outside front corner of the curb after a few minutes of water running (and hitting the top surface of the curb). See picture below. Texted Contractor. Contractor sent Sub (UGH!!!) whose diagnosis was that it had been very cold during installation and that the grout at the miter on the curb surface (solid marble slabs) and at the inside edge where the slabs met the skirt tiles had shrunk and cracked; he would remove the cracked grout and replace with sanded caulk at the miter and interior plane changes, and with new grout at other places (unclear). We asked that he not do it that day since we had guests, and Contractor said he'd come Friday. Never came. After texting, Contractor said Sub would come the next morning at 8am. Never came. I texted Contractor later that morning to ask him to wave Sub off. He said Sub would be there in hour; we said no, thanks.
Visited our local tile store and asked for some advice. We were informed that the diagnosis was probably not too far off, and that we could easily remove the affected grout and replace it with either sanded caulk or just a better grout job (using an additive instead of water) and then seal and silicone.
Went home, started removing grout. Noticed what appeared to be a void beneath the curb slabs. Probing with the grout tool, I also noticed what appeared to be "play" in one of the slabs; i.e., a slight "prying" motion with fairly light pressure increased the gap between the slab and the skirt. I removed the shower doors (that Contractor and Sub had installed upside down on the DO-OVER trip), and in addition to water under the rails, found that the curb slabs could be lifted pretty easily.
What I found underneath was:
- Wet blobs of uncured adhesive; no buttering of either slab or curb. Wrong adhesive?
- A few wads of crumpled masking tape; shims? garbage? who knows.
- DensShield screwed into the curb, rust on several screws. DensShield literature very clear that you aren't supposed to use it on curbs.
Sent a video of this to Contractor. I won't share the entire text, but the first line of his response was, "That looks right." I think I'm within my right mind to conclude gross incompetence at this point. He also suggested that I "should have just let them fix it the first day" and that it was a quick fix. I did not reply.
Other issues:
- Second round of shower floor tile still a bit wavy.
- No blocking installed between studs supporting the membrane.
- Crappy, hodge-podge blocking behind shower valve and (wobbly) shower head.
- Lack of plumb at bottom inside corner of shower walls (i.e., no shimming behind backer), resulting in a visible "wave" of the grout line.
- Redguard and DensShield membrane were scraped off when the shower niche was retiled; I don't believe they re-applied RedGuard (to exposed gypsum).
- Re-do shampoo niche tile job still crappy.
- Tile on walls just "okay", but not "pretty".
At this point, I will obviously not allow these guys near my house. I've left out a number of other examples of poor workmanship that I believe justify my position unrelated to the tile job, so trust me. The question is: What do I do next?
Since last week, I've watched about a jillion hours of YouTube videos and read dozens of articles about concrete shower pans, shower waterproofing, and tile. I'm above-average handy, have good tools and can buy what I don't have, and have installed Durock on a kitchen wall before, but have never done anything like this. I'm feeling extremely tempted to re-do the entire shower myself, less because of the cost (probably $2,500) to pay someone to do a proper job, but because now I don't trust ANYONE to actually DO a proper job. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this, and any other tips and suggestions you want to offer.
Should I just hire someone to try to repair the curb and hobble along? Or should I rip it all out on the grounds that it's probably all garbage? Bonus round: Do I take Contractor to small claims court to pay for this or just call it a lesson learned?
If I do it myself, here's what I'm thinking:
1. Demo shower walls and entire shower pan/curb down to slab.
2. Pay a plumber to inspect the work done on the shower drain by Contractor.
3. Assuming #2 is okay or is addressed, install blocking between studs where needed, and install new tile backer: Durock w/ Schluter-Kerdi membrane or full Schluter-Kerdi system. (Anyone ever used Kemperol 022 over Durock? That stuff looks COOL)
3b. Install shampoo niche using pre-formed niche.
4. Construct new shower pan: Schluter-Kerdi? (but open to suggestion that I just do a full concrete pan)
5. Re-tile it all my damn self; slowly, carefully, following any and every tutorial and pro-tip I can find.
6. Enjoy my awesome shower.
Okay folks; let 'er rip.