mold behind shower tiles


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Old 03-21-09, 05:50 AM
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mold behind shower tiles

Help!! We live in an 11 year old house, only owners. Our master shower is tiled, some of the tiles were coming loose so my husband was going to fix this. but instead he found that the wall behind is covered in black mold, I guess it just kind of caved in.
Several questions, he has tried to make it workable until we can get it repaired, but my gut says we shouldn't put anymore water in there.
secondly, he says it appears that the tile was placed on regular sheetrock. i see in some of the other posts mentions of something called cement board, did our builder not do this right? we bought a "spec" house so didn't see it being built. it would not be the first episode of shoddy work. since I understand this may be expensive, and insurance companies do not want to pay for mold claims (I haven't spoken with ours yet) I'm wondering if we may have a claim against the builder?
also I have heard that sometimes it is better not to file a claim for mold, making it harder down the line to get insurance, and we want to sell the house in the next few years (if we can ever get everything repaired!!)
Any other comments about the situation would be appreciated, my husband can do quite a few general handy things around the house, but we are out of our league here.
thanks, Mary
 
  #2  
Old 03-21-09, 06:48 AM
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Hi Mary and welcome to the board. Your concerns about filing a claim on mold are correct, it will become a permanent record and disclosure requirements are getting stronger. You risk having to have the entire house sanitized when it is simple a small problem in the bathroom. I personally believe the concerns about mold are way overblown, as mold exists everywhere. Simply taking precautions that we don't give it a place to grow in our homes and the problem goes away.

In your case, behind the tile was/is a place to grow. Replacing a shower stall is certainly a do-able project. Where a few tiles were loose, you should check some more as the problem may be isolated ie that is why they are loose.

I've always used bleach and water but there are probably some better products out there.

Once the immediate problem is resolved, you will need to keep your bathroom dry, especially the shower. They make switches that will remain on for 20 - 30 minutes after being switched off. This will vent the extra moisture outside.

DIY
Good Luck
Bud
 
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Old 03-21-09, 06:53 AM
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Your main problem is how they constructed the shower. It is completely unacceptable to tile onto sheetrock in a shower for this very reason. The sheetrock just crumbles.

A proper way of building a tiled shower would have been to apply a 6mil plastic barrier to the studs, then a cement backer board into a properly constructed mud bed for the tiled floor.

That whole shower has to come out.
 
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Old 03-21-09, 07:21 AM
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Just to get some clarification...was this regular sheetrock or greenboard? Greenboard looks like regular sheetrock on the inside..but the paper backing is green, might be hard to tell if it's moldy. I know it was commonly used in the early 90's as a backing for tile. All the houses in my old neighborhood had it. I don't know whether it was allowed legally by code or not.

Ours was a shower/tub combo and it had the same issues as you. If it was inspected and done to code at the time, the builder is probably in the clear. Would prob cost more to go to court than to repair the shower. Only lawyers would come out ahead.

I have no clue when cementboard was made a requirement...just putting out some info.
 
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Old 03-21-09, 08:12 AM
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Greenboard at one time was acceptable in wet areas. That no longer is the case. Greenboard was found to perform no better in wet areas than regulary drywall. I'm no lawyer, but doubt at this time that you have any claim against the builder, I guess it would not hurt to contact a lawyer to ask the question. I'd assume that if you received a warranty on your new home, after 11 years it has expired.

I have seen many showers in the condition that you describe. You will find that this is not a small isolated area of the shower, and that its likely the entire shower is like this. Water seeps though the grout and saturates the drywall. The drywall swells and popped tiles, cracked grout and mold are the ending result. You need to remove all the tile and drywall. You may find mold issues on the studs and in the stud cavities if a vapor barrier was not used, and if you do, it'll need to be treated. Sorry for the bad news, but I imagine that you expected this would be the answer.
 
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Old 03-21-09, 01:21 PM
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Mary, remember you are on a do it yourself forum, so you have help here with the click of a mouse. You can do this job with our help, so don't shy away from it. I think what everyone else has said is for you to tear it all out as soon as possible, get rid of the bad stuff and start from scratch.
 
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Old 03-22-09, 05:40 AM
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Thanks to everyone for your imput! about sums it up. The joys of home ownership.
 
 

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