Quote:
Originally Posted by wooohooo
What's behind the tile is drywall? Or do you mean hardy/cement board?
If memory serves me right (I'm not an expert), you should have vapor barrier, cement board, tiles. Old houses used this green board which aren't better than drywall at repelling moisture. It could potentially have large water damage behind, so it would be probably better to rip it out and start over again.
But anywho, it might be pretty hard to get that exact tile to match up and even different shades would stick out like a sore thumb.
For the grout, you could try this touch up paint I think from Maipei? you can get at HD which works pretty well. It's def a PITA but it's great stuff. But try some grout cleaner first like vinegar and water. If not move over to something stronger... like muratic acid or you could just paint it.
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A comment on this post too...
I am an "expert" on this. I use standard grade 1/2" drywall in all of my builds but I cover this surface with an impermeable membrane and seal the membrane to the deck joint with an elastomeric caulking. I set my tiles over the membrane and grout with urethane based "Quartz Lock2" grout; on steam showers I use Laticrete's "Spectralock" epoxy grouts.
The year of our OP's house represents the absolute nadir of tile construction for wet areas: "water resistant" drywall, tiles stuck to this with mastic, and cement based (fully permeable) grouts. Like I said in the post above, I've torn tons of these things out in the last ten years.
What were they thinking?
Oh yeah..."Cheap? Cheap is good, get it up, get it done. We won't be around when it all falls apart in X number of years"
There are probably 100,000 moldfest tub/showers in Calgary alone...and it's only going to increase with the passage of time.