Flooring Tile - Is there a monster behind that wall?
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robert smith
08-09-04, 10:31 PM
hi
i had to get cute with the title of this thread because i think you guys must get very tired of answering the same type of questions. thanks for what you do!!!
we just bought a new house (built in 1992)(new for us) and we love it. it seems really well built for the most part.
the problem is with the master bathroom. it has a rather large shower. i heard it referred to as a california shower but it is about 6 ft long by 3 feet wide. it is all tile: on the floor, on the wall on the ceiling. It feels like a miniature gymnasium shower stall like you might find at the YMCA. It has a small built in bench (also tile) on the far end away from the shower head.
we like the shower but in the 2 months that we have been in the new house, some things have happened. While showering one night, my toe lightly brushed up against the wall where the shower head is and I noticed that it sounded hollow. I pressed my fingers against the tile and noticed that it flexed quite a bit as if there was nothing behind it. It also opened up a crack where the wall meets the floor. I dug out the old grout, and applied caulk.
Later on, I noticed a crack under the marble threshold where you exit the shower. When I pressed on it, I noticed the same flexing. I dug out the grout preparing to do the same type repair as earlier but when I did, I noticed there seemed to be water in the crack. I let it alone for a couple of days to see if it would dry. No one used the shower during this time. It didn't dry. I used a heat gun on it and noticed that nothing happened to the small amount of standing water that I could see in the crack. I stuck a rag in the crack and it quickly filled with water by the wick effect. I went through 5 rags before I noticed it start to slow down. The water seemed to be coming from behind the wall tile but I can't be sure.
Anyway, I finally got it dried with a little more heat gun and then I put in a good bead of caulk.
My question is: should I tear this apart and find out what is going on? I have never done ANY bath work but I am a pretty serious do-it-yourselfer who has had some success with past projects but this seems potentially huge.
Should I just wait to see what happens to the caulk of did I just cover up a monster?
I see no signs of staining on the ceiling below the shower in the guest bedroom.
Sorry for the long message, but I wanted to give the detail.
i had to get cute with the title of this thread because i think you guys must get very tired of answering the same type of questions. thanks for what you do!!!
we just bought a new house (built in 1992)(new for us) and we love it. it seems really well built for the most part.
the problem is with the master bathroom. it has a rather large shower. i heard it referred to as a california shower but it is about 6 ft long by 3 feet wide. it is all tile: on the floor, on the wall on the ceiling. It feels like a miniature gymnasium shower stall like you might find at the YMCA. It has a small built in bench (also tile) on the far end away from the shower head.
we like the shower but in the 2 months that we have been in the new house, some things have happened. While showering one night, my toe lightly brushed up against the wall where the shower head is and I noticed that it sounded hollow. I pressed my fingers against the tile and noticed that it flexed quite a bit as if there was nothing behind it. It also opened up a crack where the wall meets the floor. I dug out the old grout, and applied caulk.
Later on, I noticed a crack under the marble threshold where you exit the shower. When I pressed on it, I noticed the same flexing. I dug out the grout preparing to do the same type repair as earlier but when I did, I noticed there seemed to be water in the crack. I let it alone for a couple of days to see if it would dry. No one used the shower during this time. It didn't dry. I used a heat gun on it and noticed that nothing happened to the small amount of standing water that I could see in the crack. I stuck a rag in the crack and it quickly filled with water by the wick effect. I went through 5 rags before I noticed it start to slow down. The water seemed to be coming from behind the wall tile but I can't be sure.
Anyway, I finally got it dried with a little more heat gun and then I put in a good bead of caulk.
My question is: should I tear this apart and find out what is going on? I have never done ANY bath work but I am a pretty serious do-it-yourselfer who has had some success with past projects but this seems potentially huge.
Should I just wait to see what happens to the caulk of did I just cover up a monster?
I see no signs of staining on the ceiling below the shower in the guest bedroom.
Sorry for the long message, but I wanted to give the detail.
Daniel Wachtel
08-10-04, 06:46 AM
Robert, there are a number of reasons that water could be behind the tile. On the showerhead wall I would recommend checking the plumbing connections, faucet stems and things like that. Those are the easiest to check, they are behind the wall in question, and you don't have to damage the tile to check it. There should be an access cover on the opposite side of the wall, remove it and look for wet walls.
Carpets Done Wright
08-10-04, 10:07 AM
Sounds like it wasn't installed to standards.
You may be in for a big mess!
Sounds like the infamous "GreenBoard" has been used. Sheetrock with a water "resistant" coating(total junk!)
Or even straight sheetrock!
The wall should not flex at all.
You may be in for a big mess!
Sounds like the infamous "GreenBoard" has been used. Sheetrock with a water "resistant" coating(total junk!)
Or even straight sheetrock!
The wall should not flex at all.
trance
08-11-04, 11:41 AM
well - let's face it, custom showers can be difficult. They rely on the waterproofing ability of tile to keep the water going down the drain and not into the house. to really do this right, the tile needs to be thick set, not thin set on backerboard or some sort of drywall.
any water that seeps through the masonry is supposed to be caught by the shower pan.
likely, lots of water is seeping through your mansonry and for some reason isn't doing what it's supposed to. possible reasons include a faulty (or non-existant) shower pan, bad flashing, or a bad tile job.
what you describe, with the backer material moving, indicates that, yes, you do have a monster. it's good that the water isn't coming through the ceiling. it's likely that the shower pan, or something else, is holding the water for some reason.
(it's also possible that you have leaky pipes, as the other poster described.)
the fix will likely include redoing the tile job. i'd recommend requiring that the new tile get thickset, which will be more durable. if you're lucky, they will only have to take out the floor and maybe part of the walls, depending on the quality of the original job & extent of damage.
the upshot? call a good tile guy to take a look.
any water that seeps through the masonry is supposed to be caught by the shower pan.
likely, lots of water is seeping through your mansonry and for some reason isn't doing what it's supposed to. possible reasons include a faulty (or non-existant) shower pan, bad flashing, or a bad tile job.
what you describe, with the backer material moving, indicates that, yes, you do have a monster. it's good that the water isn't coming through the ceiling. it's likely that the shower pan, or something else, is holding the water for some reason.
(it's also possible that you have leaky pipes, as the other poster described.)
the fix will likely include redoing the tile job. i'd recommend requiring that the new tile get thickset, which will be more durable. if you're lucky, they will only have to take out the floor and maybe part of the walls, depending on the quality of the original job & extent of damage.
the upshot? call a good tile guy to take a look.