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kellykids

Greeenboard in Shower

kellykids
15 years ago

I have recently renovated my bathroom. While the shower looks fabulous, it has come to my attention that laying tile directly on the greenboard is a bad idea. My tile guy did this but said that since he used about 1/2 inch of thin set it is fine. I have my doubts and would love another expert opinion. Also, now that it is done, what would you do from here? We did seal it with Dupont's Stonetech Bullet Proof sealer. I am afraid we are going to have mold growing in wet sheet rock in a few months.

Comments (6)

  • bluekitobsessed
    15 years ago

    One of my attorney friends likes to file class action lawsuits against developers who used to use greenboard in showers. His experts' testimony goes on for several hours but can be summed up as: It can't be installed correctly by human beings. It's now illegal according to the Uniform Building Code (in California) -- YMMV.

  • keeth
    15 years ago

    Two biggies: Green board is not appropriate for wet walls and thinset does not adhere to green board- start over and find yourself a professional.

  • MongoCT
    15 years ago

    Yup. Greenboard as a tile backer in wet areas (showers and tub surrounds) has been against code since January of '06.

    Does code apply in your area? Was this work done with a building permit? Were any inspections done by the local code official?

    Thinset isn't waterproof. If wetted, it actually holds water. So by using 1/2" of thinset I'll be real nasty and say that he simply provided more water holding capacity to better rot out the greenboard over time. But that's just me being mean. ; /

    Oh, and continuing my sarcasm (directed towards your tiler, not you), there is a reason it's called "thinset" and not "thickset".

    My larger concern in cases like this is that he is justifying substandard construction techniques. Now he may be a great tiler whose methods are outdated, or he may be an apathetic hack who simply doesn't care about doing quality work or complying with code. If he's apathetic, what other short cuts did he take?

    How did he detail the plumbing protrusions?

    Did he use a barrier between the greenboard and the framing?

    Are the wall-wall and wall-floor corners grouted or caulked? If grouted, it's likely that the grout will crack from the structure flexing of the stick-framed walls. The first crack in the grout is where the real water intrusion begins.

    Real-world? Your shower could perform fine for the next 30 years, or you could have problems in 3 years.

    Mongo

  • bill_vincent
    15 years ago

    or you could have problems in 3 years.

    or less.

  • MongoCT
    15 years ago

    And here I was trying to be an optimist!

  • stocktontile
    15 years ago

    I am originally from socal and can tell you if I still lived there I could have made a living on doing nothing but 3-5 yr old tile showers over greenboard.Soaks up water like a sponge and eventually leaks and by then the guy who tiled the shower is long gone.

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