Vanguard

Shower Tile and Waterproofing

Tile is the part you see. Shower waterproofing decides whether the bathroom is still fine in ten years. Crews install them together, but they are not the same trade decision.

Placeholder image. Two remodelers in respirators assessing a stripped 1980s Florida living room with exposed terrazzo and a part-removed ceiling.

Tile is not waterproof

Neither is grout. Water passes through both. That is why Tile Council of North America details put a membrane behind the tile rather than trusting it. What sits behind the tile keeps water out of the structure. That means a continuous membrane, correctly lapped. It must seal at every corner, every change of plane and every penetration. A shower fails at its corners and its niche far more often than in the field.

Why shower waterproofing matters more on a slab

With no basement, a failed shower pan here does not drip somewhere visible. It goes into the slab and the adjoining walls. Then it announces itself months later, as a soft baseboard in the next room. By then the repair includes the floor.

Where shower waterproofing in Florida fails

Almost never in the middle of a wall. It fails at the curb, the corners, the niche and the drain flange. Those are the places where a membrane changes direction, or where someone cuts it. A shower that leaks is nearly always a detailing failure rather than a material one.

What we do

We inspect and photograph the waterproofing before any tile covers it, and you get those photographs. Otherwise it is the one part of a bathroom you simply have to trust. We would rather you did not have to.

Not sure this is the right scope yet?

Most projects change shape once someone stands in the room. The walk-through is where that happens, and it costs nothing whether or not you go ahead.

See how a project runs

Start with a walk-through

Tell us the room, the city the home is in, and how to reach you. We will say plainly whether it is work we should take on.

Get a free estimate

Built by Renzo Johnson