Full Bathroom Reno Day 11: How to Waterproof Shower and Clean Up Old Tile

Day 11! Wow, we've come a long way. From taking down the shower doors, shower surround, sheetrock, and the step, to removing the old huge jacuzzi tub, to beginning plumbing and replacing rotten studs, to fixing the drain clog and placing the new tub, to more plumbing, securing the tub, and starting to install cement board, to installing the remainder of the cement board and waterproofing the seams, to removing caked on thinset and caulking. Whew!

While Jake started taping the tub one more time to prep for waterproofing, I started to work on the tile floor. I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but where we removed the step, it left two large raised lines of gunk. I believe it was a combination of thinset, grout, and some sort of glue.

It's hard to tell in the photos, but the line of thinset/grout residue was raised as much as a centimeter off the tile. We would have to remove both of these completely to try to salvage this tile. As you may remember, we had to save the tile from the step to try to use on the floor where the step used to be, to repair/finish the tile floor to the tub.

I wasn't sure if we would be able to salvage the tile or not, so I just started trying things to remove the two lines. I used a metal putty knife on the glue residue line, carefully lifting it up from the tile. For the thinset/grout line, I used a flathead screwdriver like a chisel and a hammer.

 Yes, I'm in monkey pajama pants and using a pink hammer. I wanted to wear something I wouldn't mind ruining, hence the circa 2001 pjs. (Thanks Mom! I still love them!) And I adore my pink hammer. It's small, easy to hold and use for my smaller hands, and it's pink. Jake's dad gave me a pink toolset for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I love it and use it all the time.

Sidebar aside, the thinset/grout residue surprisingly came up pretty easily with this method. After I chipped it all up, I ran the metal putty knife gently over the area to catch any tiny pieces I might have missed. Here's a photo of half of the glue residue removed and all of the thinset/grout residue removed:

And here it is after a quick and incomplete scrubbing with a green scrub sponge and Lysol:

Finally, here it is with all residue removed:

All of the tiles, including this one still need a good cleaning, but thankfully, we were able to do this with all tiles, so they can all be salvaged but one. One tile had a hole drilled in it, so we will need to replace that one, but all in all- this is great news!

Meanwhile, Jake was taping, and Charlie was seeing what the fuss was all about.

 

He was hoping for a treat!

Jake taped a layer around the tub and ceiling, then I went back and taped a plastic drop cloth over the tub and tile floor. We opened up the tub of waterproofing sealant, and were pretty surprised at what we found when we opened it. It was blue!

I stirred it up, then Jake started rolling it on.

 

He rolled it on first, then did the corners with a small paintbrush.

 

 

It's important to protect everything, of course!

 

 

 

The blue paint turns a dark green when dry, as you can see. Per the package instructions, we let it dry longer than the 30-50 minute recommendation, and when it was all dark green. You may notice, where we have the waterproofing tape is a different color, but that's just because it's on top of a different material. Then, we did a second coat.

 

 

You may notice a white line around the top or bottom, but that's just where the caulk and sealer meet. Now, the shower and tub are completely waterproofed. Next step, tile!