Marble For Shower Walls
|Marble For Shower Walls – When many people enter their tile shower they rarely look at the behind the scenes process that went into making that shower work correctly. Unfortunately some contractors uses this for their benefit to go cheap and save a few bucks. I have to say most contractors are trying to do an adequate job, although some people might ones never learned the correct procedure and why these processes are essential. The best approach to find a very good tile contractor is always to ask them to explain the idea. If they can let you know the way it operates behind the scenes, it is more probably you’ll get a great job. If friends and family refer somebody to you it is still OK to inquire about these questions, in the end exactly what do friends and family actually know concerning the reasons for a tiled shower? They may have discovered a contractor that’s nice and easy to work with as well as their completely new shower looks great, in case you dont want to fight mildew in 6 months as well as the next two decades you are going to ask a few of questions.
So let’s move on from the outset and explain common language and theory of an tile shower. First you have what is known a shower pan. This is a completely waterproof section that covers the shower floor or higher the walls about 10″. This is either a hot mop, (that is a quantity of layers of tar paper, hot tar, tar paper, hot tar and the like) or it can be a PVC membrane that’s folded in the corners and over the dam. The most important point about this for you the homeowner to learn is needless to say it’s absolutely waterproof but additionally who’s has what is known a sub-pitch. A proper sub-pitch is just a float of cement or similar product beneath the pan that induce a flow on the drain in addition to the shower pan. This is important because, say as an example your shower pan is flat (no sub-pitch) water will cross your grout and make its way on the pan while showering. If this water forms a puddle below your tile floor instead of flowing towards drain it is stagnant and soon can be mildew within your grout. With a sub-pitch the river that creates its way on the pan continues to flow towards drain always being substituted with freshwater. It is similar to the difference between a pond plus a creek.
Next there is a vapor barrier that’s applied on the walls directly on the wood studs. This is normally a paper that features a tar trapped in the guts. This paper keeps moisture out from the walls. Why is this important? Not a lot of water penetrates the shower walls, nevertheless the substrate (the substrate is whatever surface your tile is stuck to, backer board, cement float, etc.) this surface are certain to get moist. Moisture will move from substrate toward the inside wall, out with the grout and down towards pan, without vapor barrier paper you’ll get small amounts of water in your wall cavity. So you say “why should I worry about such a little bit of water”. The reason is when you invest in a drop of water inside your wall whenever your shower is used, those drops add up as your wall doesn’t have ventilation for evaporation, so eventually the wood is usually moist. Do you know what loves moist wood? Termites, they love these conditions simply because they never have to travel back on the ground to get a drink, they can just keep eating. It would be just like you and I never having to go on the food store. Think of how productive we might be in the event that were the case.
Well that’s the idea of waterproofing behind your shower walls. When you stick to these guidelines your shower has got the best chance of looking wonderful for countless years, without extreme maintenance.
So to summarize, I hope it’s been an instructive and also understandable explanation of why a nicely waterproofed shower makes a difference. As a Contractor I welcome customers who will ask me these questions, it tells me they see the value of an job well done.