Hi All,

I've got an 8 year old house that has had problems in this bathroom since it was new. The contractor that built the house used a flooring company that we had nothing but problems with. After multiple attempts to get them to correct the problems, not just here, but elsewhere in the house, I gave up and decided to live with it till I, or someone else would redo this correctly.

My wife has picked out 18" square travertine tiles, so this weekend I started on fixing this bathroom. I've read some excellent advice on shower pans, but this is a little different as it is a tub and shower. The builder framed the shower enclosure with what appears to be 1 1/2" concrete over tar paper. Here is a picture around the bathroom window.

I originally was just going to knock off the tiles and put up the travertine. When I removed the tiles from the existing wall the area at the window was finished with thinset,? and I had to chip out more than I anticipated. The thinset was up to 2" thick in some areas by the window. Also there was rust on the adjacent wall next to the bottom of the tub. The wall opposite the shower head/drain has water damage on the drywall and molding at the bottom. The concrete at the area from the tub and up about 6" was wet all around the tub. There is a mildew smell, and there is what appears to be black mold and pink mold.

My questions, sorry for taking so long to get to them...VBG

Would you use the existing shower enclosure? Or cut it out and start from scratch? If you recommend redoing this what materials would you recommend using?

Thanks for your time,

Scott

Well Scott I'm afraid your going to be doing a tear out unless you have some mortar bed building skills.
What you have is the old fashion mortar bed walls. A rarity by todays standards. There aren't too many skilled pros who can even do that type of tile backer method.

That rusty bead has to go.

I would suggest starting fresh. Rip everything out to the bare walls.
Are the existing painted walls drywall or plaster?

From the original post. It was between two of the pics and kinda hard to see.

Hi Randall,

Thanks for the reply!



No I do not.



Is that a better way to go? It sounds like HardiBacker and waterproofing is easier and is more in line with my skills.



I noticed that the drywall had some issues prior to me starting this shower project. I'll have to cut the drywall out and fix that while I'm doing the shower. This is turning into more than I anticipated. It might be impossible for you to answer, but I know moisture caused the mildew/mold/rust problems...Was this a matter of the tile job, mortar bed, or caulking failure? The reason I'm asking is I want to avoid the same problem in the future.

At the point I'm at now, the shower doors had a good bead of sealant around it. The shower handle escutcheon was not sealed. The tub had silicon between the tub and tile. The escutcheon might explain the rust in the picture, but at the opposite end of the tub, I'm not sure. The lower 6" of the mortar bed was wet all around the tub.



It's drywall. This is what I'm thinking of doing, but I'm open for suggestions.
Cut out the mortar bed.
Cut out the drywall back to the damaged sections.
Make sure the framing is all right.
Check plumbing for any leaks
Install HardiBacker Board
Waterproof with LATICRETE Hydro Ban
Install the travertine tiles with a 1/16" joint
Grout with non-sanded grout
Seal, suggestions on sealer?

Relax for about a week as my wife has more projects on line to which I'm not privy to. I'm on a need to know basis.

Thanks for your time,
Scott

If you are planning on water proofing the whole thing anyway you will not benefit from installing Hardi. Put in greenboard, it's a lot easier to deal with. Keep the drywall up about 1/2 inch off the tub lip to avoid wicking problems.

I usually grout travertine with a 60%sanded , 40% non sanded mix grout. it's stronger than non sanded. Unless your travertine is filled and honed, then straight non sanded will work fine. Stone sealer by Tile Lab works well for me.

Hi All,

Here's some finished, well almost finished pictures of the bathroom. I still need to get the tub/shower doors.



Thanks for the help on the project. There are a couple of things I would change, but all in all it came out pretty good. More importantly, my wife is pleased. She wasn't happy with the amount of time, but...

Thanks again,

Your tub/shower looks great. You should be proud.

Congratulations, it looks amazing.
You should enter it in the tile contest. Go to the home page for the details.

what color or brand is the travertine and are the edges bull nose? looks great. i am at the ready to tile stage and want to use travertine.
thanks

Blackie, those look like 1x12's. My suppliers calls them 'pencil'. They're really half-rounds that are about 3/4" thick, 1" tall, 12" long......if that's what is in the picture above.

Hi Blackie,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. The travertine is color is called Walnut. You might find a different name from a different supplier, so it would probably be best to check them out in person. Here's a link with a picture of the color. Walnut We didn't buy from this company and actually got them at Home Depot. We looked through a bunch of boxes and selected the best looking ones. My wife wanted a lot of color/character.

Kman was correct as far as the edge being called pencils. I didn't use that though. What I ended up doing was picking up this... and cutting them.

You think after 4 months I could have waited another couple of weeks, but I was unable to find the pencils without ordering them, and I wanted to get this done.

Scott

A lot of suppliers around here call that color "nocce" Travertine is usually available in about 5 different shades of white, cream, gold, brown, and gray.