Over the past couple of months, we’ve been noticing stuff on the floor when we stepped into the shower. And it wasn’t occasional. It was daily. It’s as if we were stepping on little bits of grout. Junk under our feet. Finally, after picking up and looking at these crumbs on a regular basis, Jas realized they were, in fact, bits of grout. The grout was breaking away from all the joints between the shower floor tiles. I immediately had images of the first floor ceiling, which was under our feet, crumbling onto the vestibule or foyer floor.
Coincidentally, Jas had been noticing for quite a while that the shower wasn’t draining as it should. When we stepped out of the shower, we left a puddle of water behind. It was not running downhill to the drain at the end of the shower. He got in the habit of using the side of his foot to sweep the standing water out of its little tide pool and down toward the drain.
After several calls and texts, I finally was able to connect with the contractor who did the bathroom reno for us, Vince Riccordo, who owns Gold Hammer Constrtuction. He sent one of his guys out to look at the situation. Said guy realized that the tile in the center of the shower floor never adhered to the base of the shower when it was installed a year ago. Each time we stepped into the shower, we were moving these tiles up and down, which caused the grout to crack and pop out, to land on the floor under the tender soles of our feet.
And I said, “Well, while you’re looking at this …” and mentioned the standing water and the odd non-slope of the floor.
So, now it appears we’re going to have the shower floor removed, the slope rebuilt, and the tile re-glued and re-grouted. Step One is determining if that tile is still available on the market.
The tile, which we purchased from Buckeye Tile, was available, but ordering it wold take two weeks, leaving us without our beautiful shower for at least three weeks. Vince trolled the tile aisle in Lowe’s one Friday afternoon and found a tile that was similar, just not as fancy. He sent me a picture, and I thought it might work, but wanted to see it with my own two eyes, so over the weekend made a visit to Lowe’s and bought one sheet of the tile. When I put it up next to the gray wall tile, I liked it better than the tile we had originally chosen for the shower floor. I gave Vince the go-ahead.
New tile next to gray wall tile
Vince’s logical conclusion was to relay the floor of the tile over the original tile. Once that level was correct and the goop (that’s the technical term, I believe) they used to lay a new floor dried, the new tile would be laid (cut and glued) and then grouted. And we’d stand about an inch taller in the shower stall.
Over the course of the next week, Rob arrived every morning, did a couple of hours’ work, and then went on to other jobs, leaving whatever step he had just completed to dry.
In about a week, the slope was reengineered, the tile had been laid and grouted, and the caulking reapplied along the seam between the wall tile and the floor tile.
Here’s the finished product.
Oh, and Note to Self or to future homeowner: The grout and caulk is designed to go together and can be purchased from Buckeye Tile on McClurg. The color is Delorean Gray. There’s no connection between the cost of a Delorean and the amount we paid to renovate our old bathroom into this beautiful work of art!
And that other item I told you I’d mention later? The seam between the vanity counter and the backsplash had been grouted, not caulked. And over the course of the preceding year, the caulk was breaking up and falling out. That was clearly not the way it should have been finished, but unless the boss realized that’s how the seam had been handled, it could easily have not been noticed. (By the way, the new guy who was on the job at the time did not survive his probationary period. Enough said?) Rob dug out all the old grout and caulked that seam. And now it’s beautiful. It’s really hard to realize there’s an actual seam there.
I don’t expect Vince or Rob to ever read this page, but I must say that Vince’s Gold Hammer Construction company is excellent. My experience, a year after completion of the bathroom, clearly indicates that Vince stands behind his work.
Here are all the pictures of the project.
Shower Repair Photo Gallery
