The problem with showers…and the right fix…

OK, so what is all the fuss about getting a custom shower?  It is a fair question, not without merits.  A custom shower is an investment, and it is not one to be taken lightly.  Did you know that in comparison to a rain forest, your shower receives more water on a yearly basis?  In fact, the dishwasher in your home probably does not process as much water as your shower.  Given these facts, ask yourself how much it is worth to ensure you have the right materials first and, not least importantly, the right technician second.

Have you ever seen an improperly assembled, custom shower?  When you do, you will never forget it because behind the wall is a black, nasty mess.  If you are on an upper floor, the first people to realize you have a leak will be the people below you, but if you live on the ground floor, you stand a good chance of never knowing it unless the mold starts infiltrating the inside of the shower or you decide to replace the existing tile.

You may wonder how anyone can install a leaky shower.  The correct answer is that no one installs a leaky shower if they do it right!  Properly installed, a moisture membrane prevents all water from penetrating the surrounding walls and touching the studs.  The problem some tile mechanics have is that they never learned to properly prepare a shower for tile.  Many installers continue to believe that the materials used in the shower are actually waterproof when in fact they are not.

Most installers believe that concrete board and backer boards are waterproof.  This is an extreme misconception.  The boards are designed to stay together in water and not fall apart, but they absolutely do not keep water from passing through it.  There are a few water proof boards on the market.  Georgia Pacific makes one call Denshield, and it actually has a moisture membrane on the front of the board.  When you use the other boards though, you have to install a moisture barrier between the board and the studs.  Many installers are ignorant of this fact.

Another tool for you to think about is a shower system.  Shower systems are sold and marketed by certain companies to integrate with your tile in any set of circumstances.  The two main ones that I know of are Schluter Systems and Wedi.  Since our work involves Schluter extensively , I will spend my time talking about it.

The Schluter System comes with a preformed tray to place in the bottom of the shower.  Since one of the hardest tasks for an installer is providing the proper gradient to the drain in order to prevent puddling, Schluter Systems rectified this with a pre-sloped pan.  You would not believe the amount of people who overlook the necessity of a pre-slope underneath the normal shower pan.  In fact, since it is not part of the building code in some parts of the country, it is not done at all most of the time.  The pre-slope that I am talking about actually includes filling the place where the shower is located with a sloped bed of rocks or cement prior to the plumber’s installation of the rubber pan.  The rubber pan actually sits on top of the bed, and once the pre-slope is installed, water actually will run down the face of the pan into the drain.  Done without the pre-slope, the water will sit in the pan creating a moist donut shaped area around the drain where fungus and mold will love to hang out.

Once you install the tray, the Schluter kit comes with a special integrated bonding flange for the drain as well as a slip in drain that is square for ease of integration into the tile floor.  Once the tray and flange are in place, the installer simply applies the Kerdi on the walls, floor, and curb to produce an orange looking shower before tile goes in.  The key to the entire system is Kerdi which is an orange polyethylene film bonded to a layer of fleece on the front and back.  The fleece provides a bonding surface to stick to the wall and to stick to the tile.  The polyethylene layer provides 100% water tightness, even in an overlap situation.  Schluter tested their system with a four to six inch overlap and documented no seepage; therefore, they do not require you to use entire sheets of Kerdi at one time.  You simply seal it by overlapping the sheets a minimum of four inches.

Once the Kerdi is installed, the shower is ready for tile.  Place the tile in position, install the drain, grout the tile, and you are ready to take a shower.  The Schluter System really is the best on the market.  For more information on Schluter Systems, visit www.CarpetOnePanamaCity.com or www.schlutersystems.com.  Sign up for more information and to be on our mailing list.

You can buy these products at Carpet One Floor & Home which is an authorized reseller of Schluter Systems.

Tips from Carpet One Floor & Home in Panama City: Moisture and Hardwood in your home

Few things will ruin your day than coming home to find your brand new wood floor buckled and broken off your floor.  Regretfully, the only cause for it is moisture, and it didn’t come from installation, unless of course, the installer didn’t place enough expansion space between the wall and the wood.

Water comes from many areas, and few people even think about it until it becomes a problem.  Unfortunately, by that time, it is too late.  They should have planned ahead.  A professional hardwood reseller knows how to look for problems before they become issues.  I’ll give you a personal example from yesterday.

I had a customer who came to my store to purchase hardwood, and she knew what she wanted before she visited me.  She had hardwood installed by us over ten years ago, and she wanted to match the product.  I happened to recognize the product on the floor immediately and was able to satisfy her product requirements immediately.  After conducting a measure and estimate, she was satisfied with the price and wanted to move forward.  Now, I told her that I needed to do a moisture test prior to completing the work, but mind you, most people take a look at the two existing rooms with wood and decide that since no issues happened with the existing wood, what could possibly happen? HA!

I took my moisture meter to the home, picked a corner of the room on an exterior wall, pulled the carpet back to expose the concrete, and immediately saw a problem.  Not only was the concrete visibly wet, underneath the carpet and pad, but the tackstrip was black and rotten.  Needless to say, it pegged my meter.  I found the same situation on the back exterior wall in another room, but not nearly as bad.

Hardwood is not for the faint hearted, and neither is it for the inexperienced.  I had to find the source because believe it or not, I’d still like to give the customer what they want: hardwood in all rooms.  A quick look around the house revealed several things to me: landscape mulch piled against the house, sprinklers hitting the home, no gutters, poor drainage, and the list goes on.

By doing this simple inspection, I found some good information for the customer.  Regardless of what she does with me and my hardwood product, she needs to fix her problem lest she find bigger ones later on: rotten walls, termites, etc…

I am glad I know what I know, but I am not happy with how I had to learn sometimes.  I made many mistakes, but I swore not to let them happen again.  If you are interested in hardwood in your home, take a look at your home to ensure you are not welcoming moisture indoors: affix gutters to your roof with downspouts leading several feet away from the home, ensure the ground slopes away from the home and the foundation is clearly above ground level, look for visible signs of moisture damage inside the house around baseboards, and hire a professional to check the moisture in your subfloor.  It will save you an arm and a leg…

Moisture and Your Home

Few things can be as unwelcome in your home besides moisture.  As a medium, it allows growth of many organisms like mold, mildew, and fungus, and it changes the very structure of your home, probably your biggest investment.  How do you know if you have moisture in your home; what are the signs to be aware of; and how do you correct the problem?  I hope to answer the first two questions while leaving the third for later.

Moisture usually exists in two states in your home: liquid and vapor (or gas).  Hopefully, your insulation, thresholds, and windows have done their job to keep the liquid out so that your only water source exists in your sinks, toilets, and bathtubs or showers.  In the same way, if your air conditioning system has done its job, then the vapor will be kept at a manageable level as well.  What if they do not though?  While the signs of moisture problems are not always obvious in the beginning, usually over time, they become very apparent.

Moisture intrusion in the home comes from many common places.  Ineffective door thresholds, leaking windows, dripping pipes, etc. allow water to get places where we do not want it to go.  Less obvious are the areas like your floor where water vapor passes up through the concrete from the ground below to get into your  home.  Water is all around us and our home, and believe it or not, in the proper amounts, it is a necessary stabilizing element in the environment.  It is only a problem in excessive amounts, but also a problem when there is not enough…

Several tell tale signs exist to let you know that you have a problem with moisture:

1. Discoloration of surfaces
2. Dampness to the touch
3. Rust or corrosion
4. Softness of wooden trims or moldings, esp. change in color or blackness
5. Change in form or shape of your flooring
6. Musty smells
7. Visible mold growth anywhere…
8. And many others

While the list above is not comprehensive, it goes a long way in pointing you in the right direction.  Excessive moisture can cause many problems if not corrected, and so can not enough moisture, but the problems vary widely.  I will tackle the corrections for moisture problems in a later post.  In the meantime, check out the link below for a good elaboration of everything I've written so far.

A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture, and Your Home from the US EPA