Floating Tile - Should We Be Worried?

We are remodeling a bathroom and our contractor is floating the wall tile above the alcove bathtub.

We are concerned about a few issues:

1) There is a large tear at the top of the paper that is supposed to go inside the shower niche alcove. How big a problem is this? Our contractor says it is no big deal, but it seems concerning to us.

2) In addition, there are multiple gaps in which sections of exposed wire mesh are not covered with the grey mud that is used everywhere else. The ones where the bottom of the tile will meet the top of the tub seem especially concerning.

Per our contractor this shower alcove is ready for mortar and tile. Is he right? We are skeptical but want to seek out the advice of an expert or two before we make a stink about it.

Thanks!

 

I'm sorry..... I'm not the tile pro I'm just trying to figure out what is going in that hole in the wall where the paper is ? Is that something that gets installed after the tile ?

 

I have never installed that type of bed for tile but to say it's ready for tile I would also be concerned.

Beyond the sloppy install why was this method used over conventional CBU (cement board)?

If the finish product looks this bad I'd be concerned what/how it was constructed behind the mud!

 

I'm not disagreeing with above comments, but based on the work done, I'd say it is ready for tile. But it is a sloppy job and should be cleaned up a bit and those cavities filled. I also have the same questions Marq and PJ have.

 

The torn paper is where the alcove/niche is going for shampoo bottles, soap, etc.

 

I have done a couple mortar beds for the time setters. I have seen the way they leave a mortar bed for themselves. Perfect is just barely good enough.
This is not perfect.

 

Wow, that is some old school tile base. I have not seen tar paper and metal lath used on a wall in decades. I am somewhat concerned about the apparent gaps in the tar paper and mortar. Hopefully everything at the faucet end is better sealed than the alcove end.

 

As far as I know..... the alcove/niche needs to be framed out so that there is a place to fasten the tile. It looks like the wall is open as we can see insulation. That would need to be 100% watertight before the tile was put on.

 

Some niche products are pre-fab and set into openings as you have in the "cement" wall. They are fastened to the framing (I can see a horizontal member at the top) and are tiled over. This may be a big whoop over nothing. Send a link to the niche product the contractor is going to use.

 

Maybe this is only the scratch coat and a brown coat is going to be applied and straightened and plumbed and made perfect for the tile. I hate to see the coat that is there so smooth, that is has smooth places rather than scratched or floated to give the setting mortar more to grab onto

 

I just tore out a bathroom like this... the house was built around 1923, and the tub surround is probably from the same timeframe. Built with wire and cement. Much of it stood the test of time, but some areas were rotted and replaced 20-30 years ago.

It's not that it's a bad method to use, but technology has come so far since then. I don't know enough about it to say that it's horrible, but it doesn't look great with the holes. The biggest problem is that it'll be fine for a year or two, after which holes in the paper will start rotting and molding the wood underneath.

I would never consider a shower/tub not constructed with some type of cement board and plastic-based waterproofing barrier. There are a bunch of options and manufacturers, each with their own pros and cons... but all are better than the old methods. And I have no idea how that niche can be waterproofed in its current state.

 

Here is an example of a prefab niche.

https://www.amazon.com/Schluter-KERD...C1PNFG2JQVKBJQ