3 Day Repair on Failing Shower --- Redgard and Purple Drywall Disaster

Comments · 93

• PE

  @perplearner · 22 hours ago

  a one tile repair on a shower with a bench? dang you brave

  3

• ER

  @Ericsson_Construction · 1 day ago

  That's gotta' be the widest curb I've ever seen!  I never lay tile on top of a curb, especially no Schluter or tile edging, too many grout lines to crack and leak.  All of my curbs get piece of quartz to match or complement the tile - way cleaner.

  6

• AN

  @angelo57a51 · 14 hours ago

  People get crazy with trying to build a 100 year shower. I understand doing everything you can to build a good, water tight shower, but man, people get nuts. Sat what you will about Starr tile, but he is not wrong in what he says. The walls don't fail. It is ankle below that the problems arise, so why do we need 100% water proof boards, schluter, etc. A simple durarock with a waterproof membrane for piece of mind is just fine. I tore out my shower that was 50+ years old. Built with sheet rock, a  fiberglass pan and 4x4 tile. The sheet rock behind the tiles was 100% fine! No issues with it at all! Most of the issues with these showers is installer error

  2

• BO

  @BobTheBoss1 · 1 day ago

  I would wear safety goggles myself if I were breaking up  tiles.

  8

• JU

  @justinofboulder · 1 day ago

  Isaac, I’ve been watching your videos for many years, and I genuinely appreciate how much you care about helping people. You’re willing to take on some pretty miserable failed projects and try to give homeowners a solution when others might simply walk away. That’s admirable.<br><br>That said, as a professional tile contractor, I have to question whether repairs like this ultimately help the professional tile industryor, unintentionally, do it a greater disservice.<br><br>One of the biggest problems we face as professionals is competing against installers who underbid projects by cutting corners on the preparation and waterproofing. The homeowner gets a cheaper installation, the installer gets paid, and then several years later the failure shows up. At that point, someone else is expected to come in, assume the risk, and somehow make the whole thing right without completely rebuilding it. In my opinion, that can inadvertently normalize the idea that fundamentally bad tile work is something that can simply be patched and salvaged.<br><br>I personally believe there are situations where the most professional answer is, &quot;This needs to be removed and rebuilt correctly.&quot; Not because we don&apos;t know how to repair it, but because we do know what the risks are when we attempt to preserve questionable work. We&apos;re taking on responsibility for something we didn&apos;t build, and if it fails again, we&apos;re the ones standing there explaining why.<br><br>There are also a few things in this video that I think could be misleading to less experienced viewers.<br><br>First, the three-day timeline makes this look considerably more straightforward than it really is. A professional who understands all of the variables involved in a repair like this may look at that timeline very differently than a homeowner watching the video and thinking, &quot;Great, I can fix my shower in three days.&quot;<br><br>I would also question the use of Speed Set primarily to save time. Obviously, rapid-setting products have legitimate applications, but if we&apos;re talking about demonstrating the proper way to rebuild a failed shower, I&apos;d rather see the emphasis placed on doing the work correctly than on how quickly we can get the shower back into service. There is a difference between a product being appropriate for an application and choosing it primarily because it allows us to compress the schedule.<br><br>I also noticed that there was no flood test. Is it possible that everything will be fine without one? Absolutely. Is it a relatively small risk in some circumstances? Perhaps. But it&apos;s still a risk, it&apos;s not the correct procedure for a shower pan that has been rebuilt. You know as well as anyone that the flood test is there to verify the waterproofing system before we cover everything up and put the homeowner back into a finished shower.<br><br>Another detail I think deserved considerably more attention is the curb.<br><br>When repairing an existing shower, the curb dimensions aren&apos;t simply a cosmetic consideration. They need to be restored accurately enough that the existing shower enclosure can be reused. If the curb is made wider, narrower, taller, or otherwise changed enough, you&apos;re potentially looking at replacing custom glass. That can turn what appears to be a relatively simple tile repair into a substantially more expensive project. Getting those dimensions right requires another level of skill and planning that I don&apos;t think came across in the video.<br><br>And that&apos;s really my larger point.<br><br>I don&apos;t question your intentions at all. I think your intentions are exactly the opposite on that you want to help people. But I think we as professionals also have a responsibility to educate homeowners that waterproofing and substrate preparation aren&apos;t areas where they should expect shortcuts, bargain pricing, or &quot;good enough&quot; workmanship.<br><br>Sometimes the best repair is no repair. Sometimes the right answer is to tear it out and build it correctly from the beginning.<br><br>I realize that doesn&apos;t make for nearly as satisfying a YouTube video and it certainly isn&apos;t as fun as &quot;saving the day&quot; but it may be the more responsible message for the industry and, ultimately, for the homeowner.<br><br>And for what it&apos;s worth, I&apos;m not commenting from the sidelines. I&apos;ve been installing tile professionally since 1999, and I&apos;ve spent plenty of time fixing other people&apos;s work. There are times when a repair is absolutely justified. I just think we need to be very careful about where we draw that line, because every time we successfully make a fundamentally deficient installation &quot;work,&quot; we potentially reinforce the idea that the original workmanship was acceptable in the first place.

  2

• PR

  @Promaster4200 · 1 day ago

  Amazing video!

  1

• NY

  @nylonstringninja · 10 hours ago

  Pretty amazing that you were able to get this done so cleanly. &nbsp;I don&apos;t care if the manufacturers or other &apos;professionals&apos; say that it is ok to use drywall or anything not water-resistant in shower construction; there is no reason to and it is also a bad idea. &nbsp;It isn&apos;t any more work and the cost is negligible. It wasn&apos;t the worst you&apos;ve seen but with the pan, the walls, the globbed thinset and the curb there are enough red flags to warrant a redo, and it is not like it is especially attractive. &nbsp;With someone of your skill there anyway it is a shame to not do it all over right and really make it beautiful. &nbsp;But sometimes you are stretching your money just to keep going and you need to at least have your shower function asap so I get it. &nbsp;It is just in my experience with things like this, there are more hidden problems and you end up having to do it all anyway sooner than you thought. &nbsp;I&apos;d be pretty worried about that large tub deck edge opposite the shower head and the niche. &nbsp;I got my flofx drain and liner from you and used goboard on my last shower. &nbsp;I used the extra wide membrane to do my giant shower floor in one piece, and wrapped it over my waterproof foam curb the way you did here. &nbsp;I really recommend the FloFX products, I was impressed.

• FI

  @fishynut8252 · 2 days ago

  Another fine repair!

• TO

  @TobiasRaphael1 · 1 day ago (edited)

  It could be something unrelated to the drywall, redguard. &nbsp;That much cracking seems like structural or movement issues. &nbsp;My first shower tile job consisted of closing off a master/ bathroom to make just a hallway entrance to use that master doorway entrance wall space to install a jacuzzi tub. &nbsp;I framed in the doorway and always secure it with extra screws to make it solid. &nbsp;Within a year, there was a crack in the grout where the new stud was installed. &nbsp;So, shrinking new growth lumber is a factor. &nbsp;<br><br>I know a contractor who installed a schluter system shower on a main floor &nbsp;new construction build. &nbsp;12 x 24 inch tile on the walls. &nbsp;He got a call from the new homeowner and his floor tile was practically standinng vertical. &nbsp;It was determined that the weight of the wall tile was too much for the floor I joists used by the builder, popping the tile. &nbsp;<br><br>So, I wouldn&apos;t pigeon hole my assessment soley to tilework/products. &nbsp;Do due diligence.<br><br>Time will tell on this repair.

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• AS

  @Astros-dz4bx · 1 day ago

  redgard is used a lot because it&apos;s easy for handyman people to just grab and collect from home depot<br><br>the product itself works. it&apos;s just being used by people who aren&apos;t using it correctly

  2

• AL

  @alexmanns9658 · 1 day ago

  Red guard is a great product!<br><br>It’s only drawback is it is not applied correctly by the user.

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• VB

  @vby9588 · 1 day ago (edited)

  Welcome to the &quot;4 plane 360 laser&quot; club! 😂