Was the brick approved for showers? It would seem like it should be sealed.

I have been in construction for almost 25 years and I have never heard of brick being approved for showers. The question relates to getting the vanadium salt stains out of the mortar, not whether I installed approved brick.

is it to much to ask for a few pictures in 2017

I bought the mortar from the brick company. It is regular old Portland cement mortar that has been tinted or whatever they do to get the color other than gray. I mixed it with masonry sand (also from the same local brick company) and laid the brick myself. I am no mason, by the way and this is my first time. The full column you see is a real column laid with full brick and the core is grouted solid with mortar with 2 pieces of 5/8 rebar running up through the middle - the shower door hangs on this column and I did not want it to move at all. The knee wall is also full brick laid up like you would normally do. The partial columns are the same brick and mortar, but I faced the brick to about an inch and a quarter and I used a cake bag to mortar the joints. it looked like doo doo, so I used a tuck pointing tool to sort of strike it off. I liked the roughish look that came with it, so I left it.

Do you think I am right in thinking that it is vanadium salt? Will all of it eventually wash out? I have seen miles and miles of masonry construction and all sorts of efflorescence and other abnormalities, but I have never seen this happen before.

Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Just for fun, here is the concrete countertop in the same bath.

I found that already, but I was looking for some real world experience on this. Have you ever seen this before?

As for construction, I needed a wall that was 1/2 inch wider than 2 bricks, so that's what I did. I laid two bricks along side each other separated with 1/2 mortar between them, then the same with additional courses. I then grouted the cores solid with a cake bag before each subsequent course.

The shower has only had about 10 or so uses over the course of 2 weeks and there is no indication of mold or mildew anywhere else in the shower. The shower floor stays wet long after showering and it is still pristine. I do not think that it has had enough time to have any organic growth. Additionally, I have similar staining on the outside of the big column, right in the middle where I did some scrubbing in an attempt to get some mortar smear off the face of the brick. I just used plain old water and a nylon bristled brush to scrub with. The bricks have not seen any post manufacture chemicals other than what may have been in the water I used to mix the mortar (tap water from my hose) and rain. Both the brick and the sand were rained on multiple times.

Well maybe there's a reason they don't build brick showers, and they don't use plain mortar for grout. I'm sure what ever will remove the stains will be temporary, and be some nasty organic solvent.

Tundra Finish Works LLC , the column and wall are all brick - the floor is concrete. The shower walls are Schluter Kerdi Shower membrane. I used large format tile thinset mortar to set the faced bricks. I have not used anything to clean the brick yet. Much of what I have read states that the vanadium salts will eventually go away over time. That has yet to be determined to be true.

I think I may try some of the non-acid cleaners. If I get one of them to work, I will let it dry and seal it really well. Thank you for your input!

mrfixit133:

Sorry you don't want to hear this, but that brick in a shower is a terribly bad idea. It's like granite car tires or marshmallow countertops. Cover that with solid surface and be done, please.

Please do not make design suggestions. I simply am not interested in your opinions on that matter. The brick is in. It is staying. It is not your house. If you do not like brick showers, please just move on. I am sure there are countless things in your life that I could comment on that you would feel exactly the same way about.

That is mould. As one ought to expect when building a shower out of porous material.

The type of construction you have is one of the most challenging to execute properly , meaning to respect all standards and recommendations .

It will give you a great insight if you take one brick , dry it out completely and then put it in a bucket full of water and let it stay few hours , until complete saturation . Mesure the water intake of the brick and estimate how many bricks could achieve this process during a regular shower . Then , imagine what should be created -- a different process -- to extract the water from them , meaning from their mass , in a normal timeframe -- let's say 4 to 6 hours -- .

Also , depending of the type of brick's composition , continuous humidity present in them will damage them prematurely . Keep in mind that water volume in a shower enclosure is by far much higher than an exterior environment.

A sealer when everything is clean and completely dry could work , but the mass of the brick will present a challenge to effective sealling and depends a lot of the waterproofing in between the brick and the shower base .

I have to admit, it is a very cool-looking shower. The window...the brick...it looks great.

My money is on algae. Not mold, but good old-fashioned algae. Try blacking out the window for a few weeks and see if it goes away.

My money is on the soap scum and dead skin cells feeding some type of mold.

Actually, I would like to give kudos to Tundra Finish Works LLC once again for your assessment. The vanadium salts, just as you suggested, have begun to disappear and are nearly gone most everywhere. There are just a few small spots left and once they wash out, I am going to apply a vapor permeable sealant to both the mortar and the brick. Thank you for sticking to the question and providing valuable insight. You reflect great credit upon yourself, your company and this forum.

Thanks Mrfixit. This thread went thru a lot, and came back from the dead minus a bunch of good info. In the process one of N. Americasbest tile gurus Roberto @ Eurocerob left the houzz platform. One wonders where the pros are going and I think Houzz should take notice and adjust. That makes 2 amazingly knowledgable losses for these forums recently.....John whipple and Eurocerob.