Shower damage repair - follow up to previous post

last year

Thanks again to all who responded about the lack of waterproofing in our shower. For context, here is the original post
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6486155/whats-happening-to-our-shower

The contractor is trying to do the right thing but not sure his subs know what they are doing.

Follow up questions:

The water stains on the plywood at the bottom of the shower felt damp to the touch. The demo guy cemented over it. Seems like it should have come out, possibly been replaced - and, at a minimum, they should have inspected what damage was done under the shower - since water was coming through the light fixture below the shower. Is what I am asking for unnecessary?
Why would they have used different insulation. The right side is an outside wall, but they told us that it is standard to use “noise reducing” insulation in bathrooms - so I would have expected it throughout.

Featured Answer

PRO

HALLETT & Co.

last year

The sound insulation is ice to have and it doesn’t matter that it’s a different material than your external insulation. The damp plywood should have been allowed to dry out but the wood doesn’t look compromised. They can always pull open drywall below if needed. Switching to a linear drain (if that’s what I’m seeing) was done oddly. Seems it’s going to raise the shower floor several inches? Regardless post lots of updates in this thread, don’t start a new one. The waterproofing is the next big step.

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Comments (9)

Marilyn Carolan
Original Author
last year
More photos
Marilyn Carolan
Original Author
last year
The leak!
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Marilyn Carolan
Original Author
last year
Sorry, video of the leak only shows as a still. All in, it was 4 cups of water that came through the light fixture.
PRO
PPF.
last year
You have jumped ahead 2 months from a leaking shower to no shower.

What's happened since the original post, and what's the plan going forward?
Marilyn Carolan
Original Author
last year
The GC said he needed to do research and the finally admitted they made mistakes on our project and that he wanted to make it right. They didn’t know about the membrane, apparently. He had a family issue so that took about a month.
Then my husband and I had a couple of trips, so we pushed off the start till we could be in the house while they were working.
They started 3 days ago, and you are seeing how far they’ve gotten (basically demo and the cement). They plan is they are rebuilding the shower since they are owning their mistake, but it feels like they stopped short of doing it right.
Kendrah
last year
They didn’t know about the membrane, apparently

What did they not know about the membrane? What happened to the membrane the first time around?

When our GC constructed our shower, we had specified in the written contract exactly what kind of materials would be used for each step of construction down to the name brand.

(It still didn't prevent dumb sh*t stuff from happening. Like when the tilers did a bad job in one area, had to rip it out, I told them they needed to rewaterproof the area where they ripped the tile out. They said they did, but I knew they were lying so I asked to see the container and they said they threw it out, so I told them I was going to dig through the trash and they said the trash was in their truck, so I said let's dig through the truck. They said they had to go to lunch. I called the GC who said if you re-waterproofed it, then rip off two tiles and show me, and then they copped to lying. Long story long, have them tell you in advance every kind of material they are using, run it by folks on here, and then have them take pictures each step of the way.)
Marilyn Carolan thanked Kendrah
Marilyn Carolan
Original Author
last year
@kendrah That is amazing. To the best of my knowledge, no NJ contractors list materials outside of big things like hardwood flooring. They are so in demand they can get away with being vague - and homeowners who want/need work done are stuck.
The owner of the GC company didn’t know that they should have put in a membrane. He is technically retired (turned the business over to his son who is probably in his late 30’s) - but has stepped in to deal with this issue.
The problem we’ve had all along is there has been very little oversight from the GC.
They schedule the subs and the subs schedule their workers - but we never saw anyone check the work in progress to make sure the workers did steps right. By way of example, the shower floor had to be retiled 2x because the grade was wrong and we had standing water that wouldn’t drain.
Marilyn Carolan
Original Author
last year
@HALLETT & Co
Thanks.
Is all the insulation you see soundproofing grade? The project manager said they used elevated insulation for bathrooms. - so trying to verify.
Also,they weren’t going to insulate between the upstairs and downstairs l- so we also paid extra for insulation between that bathroom/bedroom and the family room below where the leak was so someone trying to sleep wouldn’t hear the TV. They said they used the same “soundproofing” grade insulation. But if I am in the family room without the TV on, I can hear my husband urinate in the bathroom above.
We chose the linear drain because we wanted it on the long back wall. Since the shower is so long we didn’t want the water to have to travel far and didn’t want a standard drain in the middle where we stand. But the project manager and plumber never looked at the spec book from the plumbing supply company and, after the supplies (including that $1k non-returnable drain) had been delivered, they told us that wouldn’t work.
They ended up cutting the drain down by 2 ft and moving it to the front wall under the shower head. It is also hard to get the cover off and clean it.. Would you make a different suggestion at this stage?