Bathroom Remodels and Tile Repair in Logan, Utah and Cache Valley

Membrane makers add their own rules. One maker's liquid membrane goes on in two coats, and the second coat waits until the first is dry to the touch. After the second coat dries, it needs 2 hours at 70°F before a flood test, or a full 24 hours when the room is 50 to 69°F.

Thickness matters as much as coverage. Another maker's chart shows one gallon of its liquid membrane covering about 100 square feet as crack prevention but only about 55 square feet as a waterproof membrane, because waterproofing takes a thicker coat.

That is where jobs go wrong: a coat rolled on too thin, a corner, niche, bench or curb left with a gap, or tile set before the membrane has cured. Logan's January nights average 16°F at the Utah State University weather station, and a basement bathroom or an unheated room can sit well below 70°F, which slows that cure. The room has to be kept warm or the schedule has to allow for it.

Plenty of bathrooms only need a repair. A single cracked tile can often be cut out and replaced when a match can be found, so keep any spare tile from the original job.

Grout that is cracked, crumbling or stained dark near the tub can be ground out and replaced while the tile is still solid. Caulk is its own job. The International Masonry Institute's tile detail calls for movement joints at all changes in plane, such as where the floor meets a wall or two walls meet in a corner, filled with sealant over a backer rod. A corner that keeps cracking usually needs that sealant joint.

Some signs point past the tile to the layer behind it: tile that sounds hollow or moves when pressed, grout that stays dark long after a shower, a soft spot in the floor near the tub or toilet, or a stain on the ceiling below. Keep water off that area and get it looked at before more caulk goes on, because caulk can hide a leak for a while without stopping it.

Cold winters keep the windows shut, so the exhaust fan does the work an open window can't. The code calls for a bathroom fan of at least 50 cubic feet per minute run as needed, or 20 running all the time, vented directly to the outdoors and never into the attic or a crawl space.

Steam with nowhere to go settles on the coldest surfaces, and over a winter that shows up as peeling paint and dark grout. A remodel is the easy time to check where the fan really goes, so ask about it when you get a quote.