Glass Panels For Shower Walls
|Glass Panels For Shower Walls – When most people enter their tile shower they rarely consider the behind the scenes procedure that went into making that shower work effectively. Unfortunately some contractors uses this for their benifit of cut corners and save one or two bucks. I have to say most contractors want to do an adequate job, even though some of these never learned the right procedure and why these processes are crucial. The best approach to find a good tile contractor is always to make them explain the idea. If they could show you how it operates behind the scenes, the chances are greater you will get a good job. If your pals refer somebody for your requirements it is still OK must these questions, in the end exactly what do your pals truly know regarding the reasons for a tiled shower? They may have realized a contractor who’s nice and an easy task to help and their completely new shower looks great, however, if you won’t want to fight mildew in half a year and for the next two decades you will ask one or two of questions.
So let’s start from the outset and explain common language and theory of a tile shower. First you have what is known a shower pan. This is a completely waterproof section that covers the shower floor or over the walls about 10″. This is either a hot mop, (which is a quantity of layers of tar paper, hot tar, tar paper, hot tar and so on) or it can be a PVC membrane which is folded into the corners and also over the dam. The most important thing about this for you personally the homeowner to find out is naturally it’s totally waterproof but in addition which it has what is known a sub-pitch. A proper sub-pitch is just a float of cement or similar product underneath the pan that produces a flow on the drain together with the shower pan. This is important because, say for instance your shower pan is flat (no sub-pitch) water will traverse your grout making its way on the pan while showering. If this water forms a puddle under your tile floor as opposed to flowing for the drain it might be stagnant and very soon can be mildew inside your grout. With a sub-pitch the water that produces its way on the pan continues circulation for the drain always being substituted for freshwater. It is much like the difference between a pond plus a creek.
Next you have a vapor barrier which is applied on the walls directly on the wood studs. This is commonly a paper that has a tar kept in the middle. 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 is certain to get moist. Moisture will move from substrate toward the inside wall, out over the grout and down for the pan, without vapor barrier paper you will get small amounts of water in your wall cavity. So you say “why should I worry about this kind of little water”. The reason is when you’re getting a drop of water as part of your wall every time your shower can be used, those drops accumulate 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 get a drink, they could just keep eating. It would be just like you and I never having to go on the grocery store. Think of how productive we might be in the event that were the truth.
Well that’s the idea of waterproofing behind your shower walls. When you adhere to these guidelines your shower has got the best chance of feeling better for quite some time, without extreme maintenance.
So to summarize, I hope this has been an instructive and also understandable explanation of why a properly waterproofed shower makes a difference. As a Contractor I welcome customers who will ask me these questions, it tells me they understand the value of a job done well.