Without proper adequate waterproofing your shower is a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off! And the damage can be catastrophic! The featured photo above is from a shower that was built in a new house that was only 3 years old! Just because you can’t see the damage caused by a badly designed and constructed shower doesn’t mean it isn’t there! In fact if you purchase a house, new or used, how would you know whether your shower was waterproofed before it was tiled? Most new homeowners wouldn’t have even thought to ask the question,” Was the shower built with a recognized waterproofing system?” when enquiring about the workmanship of their prospective new home! It isn’t something that is generally checked with a home inspection. In fact, how would a home inspector know without removing tiles to see what is underneath! In my years of building and renovating bathrooms I have come across some very poor construction methods but also some visually very well constructed bathrooms and showers that failed quite quickly due to a lack of adequate or even no waterproofing. Tile of any sort and grout is not classed as a waterproof product and carries no warranty against leaks occurring.
Waterproofing your wet areas i.e your shower, bathtub and floor areas in your bathrooms, is a must! Bathtek will not install a new bathroom or shower without installing our preferred supplier “Schluter” waterproofing to all surfaces inside a shower or bathtub area and to the wet areas of a floor in a bathroom prior to tile being set! That peace of mind for the client and for the installer is immense!
Schluter have even gone as far as to say that their product will be completely waterproof to use even without any tile installed over it! That’s how much they believe in their product! You can use your Schluter waterproofed shower without tile and it will maintain its waterproof integrity! Of course, we don’t leave the tile off when we install a new bathroom but the message is firm.
Schluter have a comprehensive warranty program that includes system warranties, lifetime warranties and product warranties. Their warranties cover full resolution, full cost all the way down to materials and labour. That’s how much they trust their product! They even offer free courses to train installers which comes with certified recognition and also offers updates on installation and new products as they become available. We are certified recognized installers for Schluter products and we have never had a call back for a leak or a breakdown in all the years that we have been installing Schluter products in our bathroom projects.
You will see photos of Schluter waterproofing being installed in our bathroom projects in the Inspiration Gallery here on our website but here are some examples. “It’s the orange stuff!”
Hope that helps! 🛁