Synthetic Shower Walls
|Synthetic Shower Walls – When many people enter their tile shower they rarely consider the behind the scenes process that went into making that shower be effective. Unfortunately some contractors uses this on their benefits of go cheap and save a few bucks. I have to say most contractors making the effort to do an adequate job, and some ones never learned the proper procedure and why these processes are very important. The best way to find a very good tile contractor is always to make them explain the idea. If they are able to let you know the way it operates behind the scenes, it is more probably you will get a great job. If friends and family refer somebody for you will still be OK to question these questions, after all so what can friends and family truly know concerning the reasons for a tiled shower? They may have found a contractor who is nice and an easy task to help as well as their brand-new shower looks great, but when you won’t want to fight mildew in six months as well as the next 2 decades you’ll ask a few of questions.
So let’s move on in the beginning and explain common language and theory of a tile shower. First you have what is called 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, (which is a quantity of layers of tar paper, hot tar, tar paper, hot tar etc) or it’s really a PVC membrane that’s folded in the corners and over the dam. The most important part of this for you the homeowner to know is naturally it’s totally waterproof but also who’s has what is called a sub-pitch. A proper sub-pitch is just a float of cement or similar product beneath the pan that produces a flow on the drain on top of 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 through your tile floor rather than flowing towards drain it will become stagnant and very quickly will become mildew within your grout. With a sub-pitch the river that produces 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 and a creek.
Next you’ve got a vapor barrier that’s applied on the walls directly on the wood studs. This is commonly a paper that has a tar held in the center. This paper keeps moisture 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 will get moist. Moisture will move from substrate toward the inside wall, out with the grout and down towards pan, without vapor barrier paper you will get small amounts of water into the wall cavity. So you say “why should I worry about this type of little water”. The reason is when you are getting a drop of water as part of your wall whenever your shower is employed, those drops mount up since your wall doesn’t have any ventilation for evaporation, so eventually the wood is obviously moist. Do you know what loves moist wood? Termites, they love these conditions because they never have to travel back on the ground to acquire a drink, they are able to just keep eating. It would be as if you and I never having to go on the market. Think of how productive we will be in the event that were the case.
Well that’s the idea of waterproofing behind your shower walls. When you follow the following tips your shower has the best potential for being confident for quite some time, without extreme maintenance.
So in closing, I hope it is been an enlightening as well as understandable explanation of why a properly waterproofed shower makes a difference. As a Contractor I welcome customers that will ask me these questions, it tells me they understand the value of a job congratulations.