# Question about tile backer?



## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

Hi all, I am a carpenter in training so I'm not completely sure about this yet but to me it doesn't seem right. My grandma is having some remodels done and one thing that caught my eye today was that the contractor was using green paper drywall as his tile backer for the shower attached with drywall screws and there were 1/2" gaps between some sheets he also set the board directly on top of the plastic pan? Any insight you guys can give me would be great because I think he's starting to tile tomorrow and I wanna be able to step in before it's to late thanks!


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

Grant9454 said:


> Hi all, I am a carpenter in training so I'm not completely sure about this yet but to me it doesn't seem right. My grandma is having some remodels done and one thing that caught my eye today was that the contractor was using green paper drywall as his tile backer for the shower attached with drywall screws and there were 1/2" gaps between some sheets he also set the board directly on top of the plastic pan? Any insight you guys can give me would be great because I think he's starting to tile tomorrow and I wanna be able to step in before it's to late thanks!


That's absolutely wrong. It needs cement board, properly installed. There's no talking sense to somebody who does that, so firing is in order.


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## JackP23 (Jan 1, 2013)

He can kerdi the drywall but I bet that's not in his plan.
Good luck....it needs to have some waterproofing over it.


___________
Mike


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## chew (Apr 5, 2012)

Fire the tile guy he does not know what he is doing.

The IRC in 2006 disallowed using green board as a tile backer in wet areas. If I was at my office I could give you more examples of organizations that disallow it.

The next question is how does he intend on waterproofing it.


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

"Set the board on the plastic pan"....can you kerdi that??

Post a couple pics, if you can.


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## chew (Apr 5, 2012)

If he was going to Kerdi it he would have had to wrap the bottom before setting the board. Because he is setting the board on top of the pan it can still wick moisture. 

You can use other materials besides cement board in a wet a area.

Cement board is not waterproof it just resists moisture better than most materials.


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

This guy isn't just the tile guy he's in charge of the whole remodel I'm questioning most of his work so far! These are a few quick pictures I snapped tonight


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

Another one


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

Last one I have


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## JackP23 (Jan 1, 2013)

That looks like a mans a$$......there's too much wrong with that..

"WRONG....do it again, WRONG....do it again!!

_________
Mike


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

Wonderful guess I will have to talk with my uncle about confronting him since he hired the contractor and here are some more pics from the project so you can get an idea of this work to me that doesn't look like proper fastening some of those are 20" apart


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

Don't know what happened here but the wall board is bent as well


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

There is about a 1/4" difference between those boards and sorry for all the posts my tablet won't upload more than one pic at a time


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## Uncle-chicken (Jul 22, 2013)

I'm not an expert on tiling, but I've torn out a number of 5 year old showers built on green "tile board". Unless you want to do this all over in 5 years (or less), fire the guy. Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of trying to get him to do a better job, or allow him to sweet talk your grandma and convince her he'll 'fix' any problems. He has no clue what he's doing. Can you imagine what he's done BEHIND the walls where you can't see?


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## Dan_Watson (Mar 1, 2008)

Where are you located?


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## JackP23 (Jan 1, 2013)

That's ok if the drywall is glued.........what do you wanna bet.

Crap.....those other pics are bad.


_______
Mike


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## Uncle-chicken (Jul 22, 2013)

(Although, please keep posting pictures - I do love seeing a good train wreck, so long as I don't have to fix it.)


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

I'm in Massachusetts


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## Dan_Watson (Mar 1, 2008)

Grant9454 said:


> I'm in Massachusetts


Too far.


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## Grant9454 (Jun 29, 2013)

Yeah a little bit of a hike from jersey! And don't worry I'll keep you guys updated on the progress i know a very good tile guy that's did great work in my parents house that I'm gonna see if he will take a look for me and explain it to my grandma and uncle because they are buying all the B.S. This other guy is feeding them.


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