Question:

I am helping a friend renovate a bathroom. the house was built in 1972 and the bathroom is in a semi-basement. We have removed the tub and building a shower using the schlutter system. Some problems we found- walls rotten soaking wet. toilet upstairs leaking (we fixed it), vent fan tired (replaced it) plumbing a maze (redid it with help from someone who has done plumbing before) main waste pipe had a whole (replaced it) a ledge that was in the tub following the contour of the foundation and house was accumulating water so we rebuilt the wall without the ledge, replaced insulation, put vapor barrier, drywall, water membrane put on with thinset cement according to the schlutter system. then started tiling. we ran out of cement , Rona sold us wrong product so we had to remove the mosaic section we had done with this product (wasn't drying well which was when they told us oops). In the process of removing the tiles a section of the wall collapsed. My friend thought she had messed up again (since things tend to go wrong when im not their to supervise) and was balling her eyes out. I while trying to fix this mess i discovered that the drywall collapsed because it was once again wet!!! When rebuilding wall we didn't see any cracks in foundation but moisture is building only between the barrier and drywall...insulation not affected. The bathroom expert i called in said he couldn't figure it out but maybe we used too much cement for schlutter system so let it dry out. someone else said maybe the cement floor had too much moisture. I thought maybe on the lower half i know that their is no circulation room between the insulation, barrier and drywall so maybe that is what is causing the moisture. I need help. The two inside walls are fine its just the outside wall that has the problem.What can you tell me....this has been going on for a month now and she needs to be able to bathe at her own place so can you reply quickly? thanks sincerely joanne

Answer:

joanne: It is difficult to resolve a problem like this through e-mail but it is hard to imagine moisture from either the floor or the thinset mortar causing the drywall to become so wet it collapses. Is there any chance you have a leak in the plumbing around the shower valve? Even a pin hole leak in a solder joint can accumulate the amount of water you are experiencing. That water can also travel down and around the shower stall in mysterious ways; starting on one side of the shower and ending up on the other side. Since you have made a lot of plumbing changes I would suggest you examine all the joints carefully for any sign of a leak. In a shower of this type I would also suggest a backer board other than drywall. Although the Schluter system works well at water proofing it is possible to have leaks that occur on the other side of the water barrier and if that occurs then concrete board or Dens Shield backer will stand up much longer to the leak that will dry wall. If doing the above fails to produce the solution to the problem then I suggest you call in an expert in bathroom renovations and have them take a serious look at what might be wrong. Bob Bathrooms First www.bathroomsfirst.ca

Answered By: Bob Steele

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