[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

I was gonna put this in the Current Project thread, but I thought it needed it’s own special spot. 🙄 😳

I will never understand builders who half ass their work. This is a shower that was built with tile over drywall, no moisture barrier at all.

No tar paper, no RedGard, nothing. House was built in 2001 I believe.

This is an exterior wall. Corner of the house.

Corner studs are gone. Plates are gone.

When I finish demo tomorrow, I should know the extent of the damage.

At this point, it’s looking like new shear wall, studs, top and bottom plates, sub-floor, new siding, (it’s cedar T&G, so not easy to spot repair), all of this above the bathroom remodel.

And it’s infested with ants, possibly termites, and I found about 30 mouse carcasses in a wall cavity.

This in mice. Probably 30 of them at least.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Ceiling is already demo’d. Didn’t get pics of it.

Tomorrows pics will be better. Insulation is gone, ceiling is gone, it was supposed to be gut-to-the-studs remodel, now it looks like a “gut-to-the-siding” remodel. 😳


”That thing” in the corner is (was) a 2x6 corner, with insulation, made into a haven for every wood-eating bug out there. Just a gloved hand and the whole thing came out.

Ive demo’d a lot of rotted framing and beat up bathrooms, but for extent and age, this one takes the cake. Its 20 years max. Most of that time low use evidently.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Thats pretty bad but not the worst, the worst is when the studs are gone. Was that a tiled shower? Looks like it was a plastic liner shower. My guess is a homeowner special, Goldline was a HD product.
I don't think there was Redgard back in 2000, there are hundreds of thousands of tract houses done that way in the 80s and 90s. I did one like that and instead of the mice it was 3 ft deep of dead squirrels and acorns.

My first thought is always "how did they not smell this?

2000’s was tar paper and Durock I guess?

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Since the damage is so high up on the walls, the problem might actually be the exterior...like the whole house. Just a thought.

Rest of the room outside of the shower is fine. Fortunately.

I’ll try to get better pics today.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

I’m not a big fan of paint/ Red guard preventing moisture from penetrating the wall that’s why I always use kurdi…. But damn!

I don’t do a ton of showers. Did a couple with RedGard last year


This one my tile sub is doing. It’ll be a Schluter 👍

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Well, rot stops abruptly at the plate.

My guess is that the rot worked it’s way up the studs.

It’ll get new shear and siding anyway.

Spotty places with rot on the siding, which corresponds with cracks from the sun.

If it was coming in from outside I’d see a lot more damage to the shear and siding. 👍

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

🙄

New tile turns into major structural repair.

It’s definitely an interior problem.

No moisture above the ceiling at all.

Fan is vented outside.

No moisture in the cavity with the can light.

It just looks like soaked drywall and framing, and capillary action couple with bugs, to spread it slightly above the shower head level.

Im bringing in an exterminator. There is a major bug infestation. I thought they were ants. Someone said they might be termites.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

No, I’m not done with demo.

Lot more siding coming off.

Later on this year maybe I’m supposed to replace that whole gable end

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Was there a downspout along that corner?

That doesn't look like any other vapor drive I've seen, more like the back pitched gutter wall repair i did 2 years ago (and that was only a 1' gutter)

I'd be looking more around that outside corner if those copper lines are solid.

That's just a vent line, not a waste line going up the wall, right? Maybe it got hit with a nail

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Don’t believe there was a downspout. Not positive though.


With so many folk saying the same thing, I’m definitely investigating this more.

Should be on temp wall and framing tear out tomorrow, anxious to see what kind of damage below the subfloor.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Well, more I tore into it, the more damage I found.

Ended up removing a good piece of the gable end wall.

There was substantial rot under the lower windows. Upper ones are fine.

The interior was remodeled about 3 weeks ago. 😳

Im trying to save what I can.

Put in a new rim board, new studs and plates, new sheathing.

The edge of the subfloor was rotted, so I cut a 5“ strip of it out.

I built my own “I-Joist” out of rim board and plywood and set it on the inside of the plate, to support the original subfloor and the new strip.

Got most of it framed up.

Im under the gun here. Tile guys are scheduled for next Wednesday to install the shower.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Don’t mind the mis-placed holes for the foundation vents.

There was a…uh…mis-measure. 😳🙄😬

It will be sorted out. 👍



I enjoy structural remodels. It’s always something to tear off the outside wall of an occupied house, and make it all work out. 👍

Definitely a challenge.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

That is my conclusion at this point.

The bathroom section was definitely damaged from a poor shower installation.

The section under the windows does not appear to be directly related to that.

I personally don’t like the original trim and flashing detail on the windows. But whether that was what caused the failure is hard to say, as the windows right above them are not failing at all.

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

Theyre fine.

Thwy see what’s up.

They are actually pretty impressed with my work. 😳


Pretty surprised I could just take off the wall of their house.


Progress: I might actually make that tile schedule. 🤣 Gotta pull off for a quick electrical service call…….

 

[Seven-Delta-FortyOne]

do you keep that open or close it up each day, sometimes I wind up doing less each day just so i can be sure I can get it closed up for the night. Had that problem this week.

I make sure the house is closed up each night.

The windows I just tacked up temporarily.