Mexican Audi (Shane)

I've completed most of the work on my house (pergo throughout, paint etc.). I was planning on retiling the bathroom in the next few months, but a newly discovered problem has moved that up to well...now. The grout in the shower has deteriorated to the point where moisture is seeping out and is in the drywall right next to it and the green board is completely rotten.

I got an estimate to rip out the shower, bad drywall, greenboard and enclosure (its a corner shower) and retile the whole bathroom for $1800 plus materials. He's only charging me $200 to rip up the old floor and tile a very complicated design so I'm kind of curious as to why the shower R&R is worth $1600.

If I go with higher end tile/tumbled marble I'm looking at $300-$400 for tile plus whatever a new enclosure will cost. I figure $2500 once it's all said and done. Does that seem about right for a bathroom remodel sans toilet/vanity and sinks?

HDClown

Depends on the quality of work they are doing and material used for the shower. If they say they will use greenboard again, kick them out immediately. Needs to be durock or a similar material.

You can ask them how they build the shower pan and seal the joints in walls, do they use water proofing material over the wall board, etc. You can make a shower last for 25+ years with no water issues, but it will csot you a lot more in labor (up to double in myexperience). Or you can just pay food a decent job on the prep side and be prepared to possibly have some water damage and need to re-do it in 10-15 years.

Mexican Audi (Shane)

to the ceiling. The shower will require about 65 sq feet of tile for the walls.

That's also assuming the pan is ok. The leak appears to be grout related as it's not leaking around the pan. If the pan is bad he estimates another $200 in labor.

HDClown

No respectable tile guy uses greenboard in a bathroom except for the ceiling.

If you were going to have TWO layers of wallboard, then greeboard with durock on top of that would be OK to me (I did thos when I did my guest bath).

For that price, you should be getting a new pan regardless. Starting to sound too high.

I can refer you to the guys who did the bulk of the work in my house, but they might not be available immediately. They do great work and have excellent prices.

TDI 4XMotion (Lee)

Do not use greenboard for anything.

Mexican Audi (Shane)

I would like to do this myself, but I think once I got the new durock up, that would be the limit of my abilities.

I talked to him last night about the estimate and asked if there was anything we could save on by doing ourselves. He said out of the $1600 for the shower he was figuring about $150 for the tear out.

I talked to my father in-law who has had a remodeling company for years. He also suggested durock all the way up and replacing the pan. He's coming down next month but he won't be here long enough to do the job.

HDClown

Putting up durock is easy. You just need to make sure it's all level with the walls (no bends, tile doesn't bend) and all the screw headers are counter sunk. The hardest part is cutting the durock IMO.

Definitly do the tearout yourself. Ones you get a hold of a section of wall board, the rest comes off easy. You take the wallboard with the tile still on it, in big sections. You should be able to tear it all out, including the pan, in 1 hour or so.

TDI 4XMotion (Lee)

I'd let the contractor do the tear down and haul the crap to the dump. For $150, I don't think it's worth the hassle.

Don't lay the tile unless you know what you're doing. I took a summer job with a tile company and trust me, amateur jobs are easy to spot.

Mexican Audi (Shane)

advice as he thought I was going to do the tear out this weekend. I told him I was leaving it all up to the pros. He also said he would put durock all the way up and replace the pan while he was in there.