You will need to ask the workman.

A wise guy eh? I came here for advice. I guess it looks good to you. That's mortar, not grout. I need to know whether to take drastic measures like "don't come back", because everything I've read says clean off mortar before it dries.

"Mortar"? Should be thinset adhesive type mortar (hopefully it is). What exactly did he use (brand and type)? He "may" be able to clean that all off but definitely sloppy work. Should have been mostly cleaned up before he left for the day. Now the task just got much tougher.

Where did you find that joker? What is the scope of work here? Your past posts show that you should have fired him on Day 1, but for some reason, you've hung in there, and it's just gotten worse. This is on you at this point.

That doesn’t look like he has ever even heard of a TCNA Manual. Why did he get this job? Was he the 5K cheap guy?

This was a different guy from before. They ripped out the previous badly done walls to do the floor first. I had concerns about the concrete pan when the previous guy dripped mortar all over it and where the pan met the wall it wasn't horizontal. I told the contractor I want the floor meeting the wall to be horizontal, I told the workman to fix the floor and make straight where it meets the wall, I never dreamed he would use the thinset to fix it while he was tiling. He told us that he had to lay the thinset on thick to even out the bumpy spots, and then he couldn't clean it because the tile would move around. I simply don't understand this. I paid a lot of money to a licensed contractor to do my whole bathroom. He has rave reviews and pictures online mostly larger more luxurious bathrooms and kitchens 3x the size of mine, 5 stars on Houzz. There are no negative reviews whatsoever online. I feel like I'm the butt of a big joke. This is supposedly his best tile guy. Can someone please explain more about the redgard. This is the first time in my life I've ever hired anyone to do a bathroom, so be kind, I have no one in my life who can give me advice on this. We were so hopeful, we raided our retirement account to have this work done to have a nice bathroom, it was 50 years old and falling apart, subfloor rotten, rotten studs. I'm so sad and depressed now. I shouldn't have to read the TCNA manual myself and give step by step instructions, or should I?

So I told the guy that I expected all walls and floor to be straight and true before he puts on tile, not to be using thinset to fix levelling problems while tiling. He was not instructed to do what he did by the boss. He agreed and is ripping out the floor and doing it again. What do contractors use to level and grade a shower pan normally? Is it concrete? or some other substance?

Shower pans aren't level. They have a preslope to the drain. That curb has fasteners through it, and the waterpoofing is compromised. You don't use RedGuard in a WIWO system. You tie in a vapor barrier behind the cement board. RedGuard is the badge of someone who doesn't know what they are doing, and those fasteners in the curb seal the deal. That's rot and mold, almost immediately. There's way too much wrong here to keep on using the guy that you are using.

Your future, unless you find someone qualified. Post in the Tile the World group for help with what. https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1GQEdSdyYy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Do due diligence.

https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org/homeowners-guide-to-hiring-qualified-tile-installer

Yes there is a liner, a thick black plastic sheet made for the purpose that was put in under the shower pan and over the threshold. I will ask if the nails pierced it, but it's the top of the threshold - not directly hit by a lot of water and there will be a solid granite piece over it, as well as the red guard.

" I will ask if the nails pierced it, but it's the top of the threshold - not directly hit by a lot of water and there will be a solid granite piece over it, as well as the red guard. "

They put cement board OVER the pan sheeting on the threshold? Of course the cement board screws pierced the pan sheeting. Another big no. Hopefully they did not pierce it anywhere else. Now another question, did they use nail or cement board screws? I said it on your other post, which is now getting even more convoluted as the info is different and piecemeal on each. FIRE THIS GUY COMPLETELY.

Fire him yesterday.

Both posts are full of incompetency.

It boggles the mind that someone walked away at five o’clock and said ‘this looks good’. I can’t see through the tile but if the visible parts are this screwed up, the waterproofing isn’t waterproofing. Tile guy (and probably gc) need to be fired. You might win for worst penny tile install on houzz.

No, that is not normal. That is horrific. Everyone on that job site needs to be fired.

The contractor (boss, not the worker) said he never walked away from a job. He does 1000s, and out of those 1000s not a bad review to be found. I don't think he'll go easily and this was a real stretch for us, an averaged priced shower redo for a tiny bathroom (high for the nation, average locally). what kind of money back do I ask? We've paid 2/3rds. When I mentioned I wanted things to code he said "this isn't a code job". He's a licensed contractor. He's done a lot of high end jobs, I don't understand why this one is so terrible. I feel like I live in bizarro world. What is the explanation for the hundreds of happy customers? He said he never heard of a flood test. I feel like someone played a joke on us. One last thing, if a flood test is supposed to see the water flow as someone in here claims, that doesn't make sense because the the worker told us the drain is above the pan until you tile it. Where is the water supposed to flow out?

You really want to stick your head in the sand, don't you? But if you don't buck up, you are going to have wasted all of the money you spent. You WILL have compromised watertight integrity on that job. That's a guarantee. It does not meet TCNA standards, and those aren't even hard to meet if you barely know what you are doing and can read and look at diagrams. It even comes in Spanish.

It might be a year, it might be 2 before things go way south. But no longer than that. You will start to see things swelling up from behind. You'll smell that smell. Boot these idiots, and write a review reflecting their lack of industry knowledge.

To perform a flood test on a curbed shower, the shower drain is plugged and enough water is poured into the shower pan to fill it (up to the top of the curb). The point of the test is to see if water is leaking out of the shower pan (an open drain should be the only place where the water can escape).

I've had this test done several times on a completed tiled shower to look for a pan leak. The plumber plugged the drain, turned on the shower, and added drops of dye into the water that was accumulating in the shower pan in order to help check for any leaks.

It is unlikely that you will be able to get any money back from this contractor; however, I would not pay him another penny.

Completed tiled shower. Sure, they'll do that. People are saying here it needs to be done before tiling. Where do you get the drain cap?

The plumber provided the plug for the drain. They sell for $10 to $25 at Home Depot or other building supply stores.

My shower was flood-tested before tiling -- and again, 5 years later, after tiling. No leak found.

Have you failed the flood test yet? Fired the contractor?

There are no negative reviews whatsoever online.

I used a local moving company with excellent online reviews. But in reality they were careless. I refused to pay the guys without first talking to the owner to negotiate down the price because of damage. He was quick to give me a discount contingent on me signing a document saying I would never mention this on social media or online reviews. Of course I signed it because I wanted my discount that day to be done with the whole mess. And, I have not posted a negative review because of what I signed. It makes me wonder if this is how total ly unreliable contractors also have no negative reviews.

None so blind and those who refuse to see.

I hired and paid a contractor with many years experience (referred by a friend at Lowe's) to come out and inspect the work as it was last week, walls and floor untiled, right before a new guy came the next day to start work. He said it was salvageable and I just needed to communicate effectively by getting a manager who spoke spanish. He told me he never does a "flood test" because he knows his work is done right. Around here, a flood test doesn't seem to be a thing. Even a city plumbing code inspector I talked to seemed not very concerned about it. I'll see it once the work is done. The pipes are exposed when looking up from the basement so I will see leaks. At this point we've moved on after being encouraged by the inspection, and I am supervising everything at each step. The current workman has patched all holes and there are no holes in the redguard he applied. He made up for any defects in the pan and tiled it correctly with the penny tile. There are still small inconsistencies in the wall, but I'm hopeful the mortar won't ever have to be applied past 1/2 inch thickness for the large format tile. I keep stressing to him the walls need to be straight and plumb and it was very important for good tile placement and adhesion. I sent him a TCNA "tile and error" video in Spanish. I think he knows what to do but gets pressure from the boss to hurry up.

" He told me he never does a "flood test" because he knows his work is done right. "

Famous, last words. Just because he has been doing it that way for 30 years does not make it correct. Been telling you for a while that not all appeared correct. Good luck and hopefully it all comes out ok.

Fasteners on the curb. That is an immediate red flag failure.

I just built a shower and I was darn sure to test it prior to tiling! Not just because the inspector wanted to see it. (48 hr, no sign of leakage) Here's the kitten testing the waters

I'll do a flood test myself after if I have to. If there are leaks, the contractor will have to fix it, his fault for not testing. Like I said, the pipes and subfloor are visible from underneath so I'm not too worried about having a hidden problem. Things are looking a lot better at this point. Redguard was reapplied after all holes patched and sealed, including the curb. Penny tiles look nice, first wall retiled, final tile is plumb square and level - grout line not much deviation, staying within standards. I'm sure the GC hates me by now, and we're costing him money, but too bad for thinking we'd accept a careless job. The workmen are just not thinking ahead and need supervision, which I'm doing instead of the absentee contractor. The guy that's working on it now, is really giving it his best, he gets it that we're fussy. He told us that he has mostly worked on new construction and uneven walls aren't usually a problem. These guys seem to never have shimmed a wall while putting up durarock. I'll post a picture later.

"I'll do a flood test myself after if I have to. If there are leaks, the contractor will have to fix it, his fault for not testing"

Flood test is not just for leaks that's why it is done on the pan before tile. It is to be sure that the shower drains and is pitched properly. Which is screwed up far more often than leaks. Then the the posters come back wondering why they have water pooling and discolored, mildewed floor tile and grout.

" but too bad for thinking we'd accept a careless job. "

The reality of it is you still are. No holes in the curb, repaired or not.

There are no holes in the curb. I paid an experienced contractor a lot of money to come here in person and tell me what's amiss, and was the job salvageable. He said the curb was fine. If the floor isn't pitched properly the contractor has to fix it. Too bad for him if it wasn't done properly, not my problem. With the penny tile and grout, I'll be able to see if water is pooling because the grout will look darker where the water doesn't drain.

You are blind if you can not see the holes in the curb. Which should NEVER exist. That's done completely incorrectly, from the beginning. You can't slather on red death over that and call it good. That's not how any of this works.

^^^ I hear instead of a second season they are doing a movie two years from now. It features new characters like mold and rot, and the super villain ‘insurance adjuster’

The leak test would just be icing on the mold cake at this point. There is no way back to an acceptable install without a full tearout and redo. With an entirely different tile installer. Holes on the curb are an immediate disqualification for any tiler. This installation will never ever meet TCNA standards.

2025 TCNA Handbook for Ceramic, Glass, and Stone Tile Installation | Tile Council of North America

Find Certified Tile Installers | CTEF

Tile the World

Holy Batman in Gotham! This Joker doing the work is the definate villain in the series. But since this is a sequel with Bad Guy #2 hired,? And you still haven’t found a Quality Individual? You need to be examining the mirror quite a bit. Once is naïveté. Twice is not taking advantage of the available resources to get it right. Or a stubborn belief that this ”shouldn’t be that expensive” and hiring based on price instead of skill.

I know that it's difficult to hear that your shower pan was not built correctly (when you just came to ask about the penny tile installation) - but I've been in your position. I noticed that the liner was flat on the floor (= no pre slope) and told my SO that it needed to be addressed before any other work was done (I was headed out of town for a week). Well, he didn't say anything (I guess because two of his law partners had used this guy a few times and gave him great reviews = he thought I must have been wrong I guess?) Work continued while I was out of town.

Some changes were made - but not enough to "fix" the situation.

In the end I decided to have it torn out and hired a new person to do the work.

It sucks - you check references. You receive five bids - and hire the guy who had the second highest bid. It seems like you've done everything you should have - but someone still does a crappy job.

If the floor isn't pitched properly the contractor has to fix it. Too bad for him if it wasn't done properly, not my problem.

Well, unfortunately, it is your problem because it's your shower in your home.

Please make someone do a flood test now. If it leaks or there are bird baths (low spots), I promise that the contractor won't just agree to fix it. He may not even be in business anymore (or may have closed his current LLC and simply started a new one - and your contract is with the old one).

Having someone be legally responsible to fix something does not mean that the person will do so. It rarely does (and I'm speaking from experience - while I'm a corporate/commercial real estate attorney, I've helped many family members/friends with legal disputes like this - it doesn't even matter if you get a judgment in your favor - you still have to collect the $$ - the court doesn't do that for you).

A flood test unfortunately will not ”find” the leaks from the penetrations on the curb top. But it’s a good thing that people have eyes to see that glaring defect. A flood test will show the other deficiencies that this will have. But you only need your eyes to know that the install is a failure.