Quote:
Originally Posted by Bindair Dundat
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.
|
Replacing the gypsum board with a proper tile backer like Dens-Sheild, or FibreRock Tile Backboard or DiamondBack Tile Backer should still be done, regardless of how good the waterproofing is. If anything in the assembly is going to get mouldy, it's the paper faced gypsum board (and possibly the wood framing if it gets really bad). So, why not eliminate a major source of the mould and replace the paper faced gypsum board with a paperless gypsum product? I know it's 5 times the price of regular gypsum board, but you don't need that many sheets of gypsum board to do a tub enclosure.