Home Improvement

The other day while Todd was taking a shower in our master bathroom, a piece of large tile fell off the shower wall and crashed to the floor. Upon inspection, we realized that behind the tile was an empty space with rotting insulation. While neither one of us is a handyman, we at least knew that something was definitely missing. Shouldn't shower tile be applied to some type of water-resistant board?

During Todd's lunch break today (between a morning parade and an evening band march-a-thon) we had a family outing to Lowe's Home Improvement Store. The fix-it guy (or in this case woman) chuckled when we told her the story, then informed us that we had been duped by shoddy contractors when our house was built in 2001. She said that since the early 60's, all shower tiles have been applied to water-proof boards. Anything less is unacceptable. How did this pass inspection????

UUUGGHHHH!

So......we have to remove all tiles and the shower door/glass. Unless we want to pay for new tile, we have to carefully clean and sand the old grout off our tiles to make a smooth surface. We have to purchase and cut to fit waterproof boarding. Then we have to re-tile, re-grout, and re-install the shower door/glass.

You know, we don't mind the normal home improvement projects that come with home ownership. But, it is very annoying to pour time and money into a problem that is a direct result of lazy and greedy contractors.

Moral of this story: When shopping for home builders, cheaper is not always better. We went for a less expensive builder that had a pretty good reputation in our area. Oh well, there is a reason they were cheaper.