Shower wall repair

Of all the repairs our house needs, I did not anticipate re-tiling the bathroom shower. The wall was moldy behind the tile and a couple of them were coming off the wall because it was so bad. I did not end up having to tear out the entire thing, only about a foot or so above the tub. It turns out that the green "water resistant" drywall is NOT recommended for use in showers but home builders use it anyway probably to cut costs. I bought cement backerboard, the correct wall board to use in high water areas. Then I had to be sure to get thinset (adhesive) and grout that were specified to be okay for showers/wet areas. The hardest part, though, was finding a matching color of tile; I didn't think gray would be so hard to find but a lot of places didn't carry that color.

Everyone who has tiled before has said that it's a piece of cake. Well, I beg to differ. Maybe if the walls were straight and the drywall was flat. But whoever installed the original drywall had it slanted so when I put up the cement one, there were gaps in a couple places where it didn't line up just right. One spot is so bad that there is a gap the thickness of the tile itself where it is obviously messed up. But the only way to fix that was if I were to tear out the entire wall so I could have one piece of backerboard that slanted like the original one. I may be somewhat of a perfectionist, but I'm not that obsessive! Who's going to look at my master bathtub anyway? (Besides you who are reading this and looking at the pictures.)

Sticking the tile on wasn't that hard, except that the original tile-layer didn't leave enough room between each tile so that the new tile, which had little nubs on the sides (presumably so you didn't have to use those little spacers) so it was a very tight fit and I had to sand off the nubs on some of them in order to fit. I think the mold developed partly because there was such a big gap between the tub and the first set of tiles (where the caulking goes). But now there is such a tiny gap that I think my chances for water getting in have decreased and thus less likely to mold.

The tile-cutter I bought was the cheapest I could find because I only had 3 tiles to cut, but I don't think a more expensive one would have been any better. It did not score the tile enough and I broke 5 tiles in the attempt to cut them. A hacksaw helped some. It probably didn't help that the tile-cutter I got seemed to have been previously returned; I returned it too after trying to use it. The hole-saw I bought was too big for the hole I needed so I just used the biggest drill bit I had and then enlarged the hole by putting pressure on the side of the bit when I drilled. Thus, I saved about $30 by returning those two things.

Now spreading grout sounded easy. But it was not so. The stuff was thick and much drier than I expected and didn't want to stay on a vertical surface. I had to stick it on the grout float and mash it onto the wall before it would fall off. The stuff dried much quicker than I expected too, so I had to sponge it off before I even covered much surface.

I'm sure it must be easier to tile flat, horizontal surfaces that don't require so much moisture precautions.

Anyway, all I have to do now is to seal the grout after it has cured, and then caulk the bottom. And them I'm done. Here are some before and after pictures ("before" indicating when I cut the wall out and "after" indicating after grouting.)

While I was at it, we unscrewed the unsightly grab bars (why do you have those in an upstairs bathroom anyway? If the person taking a shower was disabled, why would they live in a 2-story house?) I also put in a shower arm extender and a new shower head (the kind that you can shut off at the head while you soap up). We didn't like that big hose-thing but it made the shower head higher. I wanted that particular kind of shower head so I didn't have to keep turning the knob on and off with soapy hands. But I didn't want to attempt to pull out the original shower arm to replace it with the S-shaped one because I didn't want to risk any leaking behind the wall if the Teflon tape didn't seal it properly. I'm sure Rex will appreciate not having to scrunch down to rinse off (which was the only reason we kept the big hose thing for so long since it raised the head up higher. I guess there are some advantages to being short....)

When we can use our shower again, I need to re-grout the other one. I didn't know grout was supposed to be resealed every few years! Maybe that, plus the large gap at the bottom and the wrong kind of backerboard/drywall, was what caused the mold in the first place. When I re-grouted the showers in our condo, I didn't know to seal it. Obviously, the other shower needs new grout because it is all cracked and the color from the "shower crayons" I let the kids use won't come out of those cracks!

Now if only there was a way to stop the tubs from creaking when you step inside! I did some research and asked a contractor friend and the only way to fix it is to pull the tub out and reset it in wet mortar, but the only way to do that is to unhook the drain which has to be accessed from the other side of the wall which is an outside wall on the second story behind vinyl siding. Someday I may try the makeshift fix of throwing sand under the tub, but I am not prepared to cut out the wall in the hallway to get under the tubs right now. I guess we'll just have to deal with the incredibly loud creaking.