Flooring Tile - Cultured marble shower floor cracks

Hi,

Our cultured marble floor in the shower starts cracking and discoloring. I've called a couple of contractors to lay tile but nobody ever shows up, presumably the job is not worth their time so I need to do it myself.

Are there any precautions (sealing, etc) I have to take? One problem is that the floor has a slight lope to one side so I need to slope all 4 sides to the center. Can someone give me any advice on how to do this?

Thanks,

Ed

more'n likely the underlying mud's in poor condition, too,,, you need to talk w/1 of the guys who works FOR the contractor,,, no, its not enough for a contractor to do but its a skill that's not easily/quickly gained, either,,, however, you could diy w/time,,, best place for you to start's h-dlowe'sacehdwelibrary,,, as you probably know, ' cultur'd marble ' is a blend of marble & cement.

WAIT A MINUTE!!!

Is this a one-piece cultured marble shower receptor?:)

It's a one-piece cultured marble shower floor, if that's what you mean by receptor.

It's not cracked to the point that water leaks through, it's more like the surface is flaky.

It's not cracked to the point that water leaks through

You couldn't know that for sure without doing some invasive exploration somewhere.

That unit originally had a gel-coat finish on it. Once the gel-coat begins to deteriorate from age moisture will then have the ability to wick into the interior of the casting and do untold damage down below. To tell you the truth that unit has served its usefulness if it is beginning to "flake" on the topside.

You may be able to salvage it for a while but she's a goner in reality.

It really isn't at all feasible to put tile over something like that and that may be why you aren't getting any response from contractors. If you look long enough you will find an inexperienced hack to do the job but that wouldn't be advisable.

I know there are curves in that thing, how are you proposing the curves be tiled?:)

I'm not sure I understand what you are talking about. I don't want to salvage anything, I just want to cover the flaky floor of my shower (no curves at all) with tiles. It doesn't leak, otherwise I would see water damage on the ceiling below.

What exactly is your advice?

Thanks,

Ed

Caulk the crack(s) and enjoy.:) Tile won't stay very long. The unit is at the end of its life.:)

Why are you talking about a "unit"? What unit? It's a flat shower floor that needs to be tiled. Why wouldn't the tiles last? What are you talking about?

Is there anyone out there who can actually give me some usable advice?

:wall: Unbelievable!!! :wall:



:wall: Someone please help this person to hear what it is they want to hear. Obviously I don't know what I am talking about or I'm missing something somewhere!

If you want tile, you need to remove the existing [cultured marble] UNIT and build a proper base from there. You can't just tile over a flaking cultured marble base. I can't explain it any differently than Bud did...but I did try to type slower...did that help?

But that would be usable advice.


SO...


Go ahead and tile away on what you've got.:wall: :wall:

Thanks for typing slow!

Thanks for typing slow!

See Bud, you just were going too fast :D

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h178/normanmj/hide.gif

Is this last post supposed to mean anything?