All those surfaces need a moisture barrier. He's either being cheap or he is incompetent, and I'm not sure which is worse...

Concrete board isn't water proof - and neither is tile and grout.

All of the surfaces require a minimum of 2 coats of redguard.

Similar to Kudzu9 - I'm not sure why this is even a debate.

Not according to National Gypsum, Permabase's manufacturer.

How did your 48 hr flood test go? and inspections? I ask b/c im not seeing a bonding flange for the drain. Hoping they didnt use a PVC liner under the redgard and a clamp drain.

Regardless:

You need either FULL coverage w proper mil thickness and proper fabric at change of plane to pan.

But you can have only 1 vapor /moisture barrier. This means if the contractor tells you the redgard is ok B/C there is poly plastic behind the cement board Then you have a bigger issue as you cannot redgard over cbu w poly behind it as both are non vapor permeable.

lastly there are now 2 types of redgard w diff specs..

I could go on about fastener schedules etc.

id lean on Custom building products Tech support for factual info.

On a side note i have to say the number 1 absolute NUMBER 1 tile failure we see these days are a mixture of PVC liners, redgard,, and cement board w a clamping drain. The 2 systems are not meant to be mixed and its a serious industry problem for the professional tilers

id put the brakes on . It is not a tile ndustry nor MFG compliant install if what you just said is correct.

but like many houzzers wanting help youve not answered my questions.:)

again the 48 hr flood test was done before or after redgard and how did the preslope drain?

your inspectors /permits bldg code .nor apt bldg. assoc. didnt require any firewalls or insulation in an apt bldg?

Mint Tile - I have no idea, and I'm 99% sure they didn't do any flood tests. Our contractor had all his permits approved by our building though if that tells you anything? .... I wish I had more information/knowledge on this process. The only reason I questioned the redgard is because of all the youtube videos Ive watched on renovations!

The perma base board is waterproof according to the manufacturers and it looks like seams are done but they probably need to waterproof where boards are screwed onto studs.

I feel like i should got to HomeDepot and buy some redgard and just do it myself!... so tired of the back and forth. :(

Not a pro but when my shower was done in my recent remodel the Redguard covered all the surfaces of the walls of my shower up to the ceiling and down to the floor. I just checked the pictures I took of the shower to double check. I had been on houzz before the remodel started and the shower was the aspect of construction I was most nervous about because of all the horror stories.

ETA - There is some kind of black membrane that is between the floor and the redguard in my shower which looks like it might also be under the portion of the shower floor which is visible. At any rate - my comment is directly solely to the Redguard in my shower being applied to all of the surfaces of the shower walls and not just in spots like OP's picture. I don't have Redguard on the floor like OP's picture - or at least there wasn't when I took the pictures of the shower being built.

I am in California in a high rise and the floor was waterproofed with a process called "cold mopping" since hot mopping is not permitted in a high rise. The shower did pass the flood test and was inspected multiple times before the final approval of the construction.

Because of Code govening high rises framing had to be steel - FWIW.

I am very comfortable that my shower was built correctly as my GC and the workers he hired were all knowledgable and competent in terms of how the worked and what I could see and evaluate from my amateur stance. My designer had worked for years in commercial as well as residential and was very knowledgable on construction and she acted as my Project Manager in terms of evaluating whether everything was being done correctly as well as "aesthetically" - e.g. working with the tile setters to make sure that the tiles were culled before laying them etc.

Although the specs say it has a waterproof core, so that it doesn't need further conventional waterproofing, it also says all seams and penetrations need to be covered conventionally and he obviously hasn't done that. And it says it's water and mold "resistant," which is not 100% reassuring to me. I'd simply give the whole thing a uniform coat of Redguard.

So I'm going to bow out - please disregard my previous post.

I assumed this was a standard cement board. I'm not familiar with the PermaBase product.

Standard cement board needs to be be double coated.

Please refer to the manufacturer's instructions

Thank you for reaching out Jake, I honestly have no idea but I'm 100% sure our contractor will be trying to assure us that we don't need additional waterproofing and that this board is enough as is. Plus I see the board doesn't say "waterproof" on it so that's enough to get me worried!

Ask the contractor what he intends to do about all those highly un-waterproofed taped seams and screw penetrations?

Also what is the blue board at the top left? In a shower all the board needs to be cement board.

According to the manufacturer's site that Joseph Corlett linked, Perma Base does have a new waterproof product called PermaBASE® WP Waterproof Cement Board™

That is not what is in your shower, but looks to be https://www.permabase.com/products/cement-board/permabase-cement-board

and is missing the WP designation of the waterproof board.

https://www.permabase.com/products/waterproof/permabase-wp-waterproof-cement-board

Hi all, to update our contractor told us it was not necessary to paint the whole thing with redguard but he will do it ( and did), he left the blue board up saying water wont really reach up that far... which I wasn't happy about but accepted. Im pretty sure they only used one coat and didn't do a flood test.