Granite Tile Shower Walls
|Granite Tile Shower Walls – When most people enter their tile shower they rarely consider the behind the scenes procedure that went into making that shower be effective. Unfortunately some contractors will use this to their advantage to cut corners and save a few bucks. I have to say most contractors are trying to do a good job, and some of these never learned the best procedure and why these processes are very important. The best way to find a good tile contractor would be to ask them to explain the theory. If they are able to inform you the ins and outs behind the scenes, higher you will definately get an excellent job. If your pals refer somebody for you it’s still OK must these questions, in fact exactly what do your pals fully realize about the first step toward a tiled shower? They may have discovered a contractor who’s nice and simple to assist along with their completely new shower looks great, however, if ensure fight mildew in a few months but for the next two decades you are going to ask a few of questions.
So let’s begin in the beginning 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 whether hot mop, (that is a amount of layers of tar paper, hot tar, tar paper, hot tar and so forth) or it’s really a PVC membrane that is folded to the corners as well as over the dam. The most important much of this for you personally the homeowner to know is of course it’s absolutely waterproof but additionally which it has what is known a sub-pitch. A proper sub-pitch is simply a float of cement or similar product within the pan that can cause a flow on the drain along with the shower pan. This is important because, say for instance your shower pan is flat (no sub-pitch) water will traverse your grout and make its way on the pan while showering. If this water forms a puddle below your tile floor as an alternative to flowing towards drain it might be stagnant and shortly can be mildew in your grout. With a sub-pitch water that makes its way on the pan continue to flow towards drain always being replaced with fresh water. It is similar to the difference between a pond as well as a creek.
Next you do have a vapor barrier that is applied on the walls directly on the wood studs. This is ordinarily a paper which has a tar kept in the center. This paper keeps moisture out of your walls. Why is this important? Not a lot of water penetrates the shower walls, however the substrate (the substrate is whatever surface your tile is stuck to, backer board, cement float, etc.) this surface will get moist. Moisture will move from substrate toward the lining wall, out through the grout and down towards pan, without vapor barrier paper you will definately get small amounts of water to your wall cavity. So you say “why should I bother about this kind of little bit of water”. The reason is when you’re getting a drop of water with your wall every time your shower can be used, those drops mount up since your wall doesn’t have any ventilation for evaporation, so eventually the wood is always moist. Do you know what loves moist wood? Termites, they love these conditions since they never have to travel back on the ground to obtain a drink, they are able to just keep eating. It would be as if you and I never having to go on the supermarket. Think of how productive we might be in the event it were the situation.
Well that’s the theory of waterproofing behind your shower walls. When you stick to the following tips your new shower has got the best probability of looking great for countless years, without extreme maintenance.
So a final thought, I hope it has been an enlightening along with understandable explanation of why a correctly waterproofed shower makes a difference. As a Contractor I welcome customers who’ll ask me these questions, it tells me they view the value of an job well done.