I Am Grout

My fancy shower with the rain/waterfall head and all the body jets was showing some signs of leaking on the baseboards just outside of it, a sure sign that water was getting in behind the tile on the walls, getting trapped at the bottom, and finding its way out over the edge of the pan.

The problem was twofold. First of all, some of the tiles were coming loose, and a bunch of the grout was failing.

Second problem, the previous owners, clearly having noticed this leaking, tried to apply a bunch of "caulk of desperation" in order to stop it, but applied it in all the wrong places.

And then added scotch tape over top for bonus marks.

You see, if you have water spilling out the front corners of the shower pan (or tub), the problem is almost never actually at the bottom of the wall inside the shower. Rather, the water is probably going to be entering much higher up the wall and dripping down the backside of the tile, or down cracks in the grout. Adding caulking along the bottom merely forms a dam that keeps that water from seeping out into the shower pan and finding its way down the drain, and instead forces it along the bottom of the tile, in behind the shower doors, and into the adjoining walls and baseboard. No bueno.

The fix, first and foremost, is to deal with the tiles that aren't sticking down properly. Exhibit 1: how not to apply thin set.

Yeah, that's not holding anything to anything. That tile should have been back-buttered, and the ledge it was atop should have had a nice thick bed of mortar evened out with a notched trowel. Ideally the ledge wouldn't be constructed out of basic bitch water resistant drywall but at least it's not the regular stuff that falls apart the instant water touches it.

Next up: fix the grout. I need to wait until the mortar sets on the two tiles I buttered up before I can grout them, but the fresh grout in the joints below it is quite an improvement over the sad, cracked grout I scraped out.

The adhesive I used takes about 48hrs to fully cure so I'll be able to grout on Monday evening and then get back to showering in luxury on Tuesday evening.