Tiled showers
Tiled Shower Installation in Barrie
Bonded waterproofing membrane, sloped base, movement joints and a niche that drains. The part of the job that is invisible when it is right.
A tiled shower fails in one of three places: the floor, the corners, or the niche. It does not fail at the tile. Tile and grout are not waterproof and were never meant to be. What keeps water inside a shower is the membrane behind the tile, and that is the part of the job nobody can inspect after it is finished.
What Barrie Bathrooms puts behind the tile
Barrie Bathrooms builds tiled showers on a bonded waterproofing membrane: a sheet or liquid system applied over the backer board and taken continuously through the corners, the curb and the niche. The system gets named on the quote, with the product and the manufacturer, so you can look up the detail yourself. A quote that says "waterproofed" and nothing else is describing an intention rather than a product.
The older method — a plastic vapour sheet stapled behind cement board, with a lead or PVC pan liner in the floor — can work and there are thirty-year-old showers in Barrie built that way that are still dry. It is far less forgiving of a bad detail at the curb, and it puts the waterproofing behind the board rather than in front of it, so any water that gets through the grout is already inside the wall before the system sees it.
The five details that decide whether it lasts
- Slope set in the base, not in the tile. Water finds level, and a base sloped by pressing the tile down harder at the drain is a base that ponds.
- The membrane continuous through every internal corner, with the manufacturer's own corner pieces rather than a folded offcut.
- The niche sloped forward and waterproofed as its own small shower. A flat niche is a shelf full of standing water behind a bead of silicone.
- Silicone, not grout, in every change-of-plane joint: the wall-to-wall corners, the wall-to-floor joint and around the curb. Grout in a corner cracks the first winter.
- The exhaust fan ducted through the roof or the wall. In a snow-belt climate, a fan that dumps into the attic condenses on the underside of the sheathing every night from November to March.
Hard water changes what you should buy
Municipal water in Barrie and Orillia is moderately hard. Private wells in Springwater, Oro-Medonte, Essa and rural New Tecumseth are harder, and in the limestone country around Elmvale and Minesing considerably harder. Hard water is why frameless glass that looked perfect in the showroom is cloudy in a year.
If your house is on well water, Barrie Bathrooms will tell you to spend the money on treated glass and a squeegee rather than on a larger glass panel, and to choose a polished porcelain over a honed natural stone for the walls. That advice costs us money on the quote and saves you a resurfacing bill.
Movement joints are not optional
A tiled floor over a wood subfloor moves with the seasons, and in this climate the swing between a February heating season and an August humidity load is large. Tile assemblies are designed to absorb that in soft joints at the perimeter and at changes of plane. Barrie Bathrooms puts them where the tile council details put them. The alternative is a hairline crack across the floor in the second year and an argument about whether it is a defect.
FAQ
Tiled showers — common questions
How do I tell whether a shower quote includes real waterproofing?
Look for a named product. A quote that names the membrane system and the manufacturer is describing something you can look up. A quote that says "waterproofed to code" or "moisture barrier installed" is describing nothing in particular. Ask which product, and ask whether it goes behind the backer board or on top of it.
Why did my last shower leak at the corner?
Almost always because the corner was grouted instead of siliconed, or because the membrane was cut and lapped at the corner instead of being taken through it. A shower corner moves every time the house moves. Grout is rigid, cracks, and then the crack is a direct path into the wall cavity.
Is a curbless shower a bad idea in an older Barrie house?
Not a bad idea, but often an expensive one. It needs the drain assembly to sit inside the floor structure. In a pre-1960 Allandale house with shallow joists and a cast iron stack, that can mean opening the ceiling below. Barrie Bathrooms checks the joist depth and direction before recommending it.
Can you tile over the existing shower walls?
No, and anybody who offers to should be asked why. Tiling over an old surround leaves the original waterproofing, or the lack of it, buried behind the new tile along with whatever moisture is already in the wall. The saving is a day of demolition and the cost is the whole job again in five years.
Talk to a Barrie bathroom renovation contractor
Barrie Bathrooms needs two things to give you a useful number: the year the house was built and a photograph of the room as it stands. The year decides what is likely inside the wall, and the photograph decides the finish. That is usually enough for a written range before anybody visits.