Hi to all a little background on my problem.
I am the first owner of my home. Turns out my contractor cut a few corners. for example never connected house sewer line to municipal sewer system. As I find the problems I either hire or do it myself. In this case my downstairs bathroom. Turns out the contractor only used standard drywall for the entire bathroom and now its swelling around the shower enclosure. We tiled the floor last year so I'm hoping to salvage it. I haven't painted it yet as the contractor beige was put on a dusty damp wall and peels off in sheets. where to start: do I take out all of the drywall or some? If only some how far. I've repaired the ceiling once due to a water leak from the upstairs bathroom. Should I gut and start fresh? The fan can be heard throughout the entire house and there are no shut off valves for any of the water connections. I've seen threads about durock, denishield and hardiback. I'm about a medium skilled DIY guy. I'm hoping for some suggestions on the fix? Thanks

 

Welcome to the forums.

I only have regular drywall in my bathroom. Do you have and are you running an exhaust fan when the shower is in use? Or is the door/curtain on the shower failing?

 

Sounds to me you should go back at the contractor. I'm not even sure if today's codes or local codes allow plain drywall in a bathroom. As for the sewer line...Is it code or just a convenience to provide "ready to connect lines"?

PS...If it's as bad as you say, I would remove old wall board and install cement board. At least where the shower and tub are. And as Stickshift mentioed, use that fan at all times.

 

Welcome.

It may be over simplistic, but it's time to hire a lawyer.
Gut it and start fresh is my thought, and you can get plenty of help here. But why should you endure that cost?

 

pics would be helpful - http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html

Can you further explain? primed/painted drywall is fine but if you mean under the tiled tub surround also - that is dead wrong!

How long have you been in the house? Normally the builder has to warrant the house for 1 year [sometimes longer]

 

I considered a lawyer especially after the sewer issue and again after the roof leaked. I had 5 contractors on my roof and they were all wondering who installed it (not in a good way). Turns out the builder's business was "taken over" by his son and daughter. The company ceased operations and the "assets" were liquidated. They started up under a new name that ultimately ceased operations as well. In short, legally, I have no one to go after.

As for the current issue:
The bath only has a corner shower enclosure. It looks like the drywall was butted up against the top of the enclosure and is now swelling from moisture. Yes the shower is vented. There were no tiles installed. All the reno shows I've seen where they redo a bathroom, they always use either Durock of an orange product that I think is denishield but I'm not sure.

 

I assume the shower enclosure is plastic/fiberglass ?? If so, it's standard practice to butt the drywall up to it although where the two meet is supposed to be caulked and the drywall painted with latex enamel [flat latex doesn't repel moisture well]

If you can post a pic or two we can better tell you what will need to be done to make it right.

 

Drywall in bathrooms is common but, as Mark said, it needs to be properly protected with caulk and ktichen and bath or enamel paint.

This is what I have in my bathroom and it has held up just fine.

 

Replace it with cement board. No question. If you did not have these problems then, yes wall board is fine if properly sealed. But you have problems. As Handyone said, "Gut it and start fresh."
All my bathrooms have just plain wall board, but during remodeling I replaced any wall board near or around wet areas with cement board.

 

This sounds like terrible situation to be in

If you can afford the money or time, I'd remove the damaged drywall and that in the immediate vicinity. It will give you an opportunity to check for any other problems before you repair/tile/paint and save you having to do it all over again in the future should the worst happen.