It always surprises people to learn that neither siliconed grout nor glazed tiles are totally waterproof. If there is not a waterproof membrane below the tiles, the heavy flow of water in a shower would eventually soak through the base and rot out the floor below. No amount of silicone sealant no...
Most people don't realize it but glazed tiles are not completely waterproof although they are highly water resistant. The reality is that the tile and the grout are not the final line of defence against water leaking through to the ceiling below.
A proper built-in shower stall starts with a tape...
OK, here's an endorsement for an incredible product, and they don't even give me free glue!
They sometimes call it Wet-Bond and sometimes Underwater Glue but it all comes from a company called Mr. Sticky -- www.mrstickys.com. Actually the whole range of Mr. Sticky adhesives are two part epoxies....
If you have a wobbly toilet because there is something uneven on the floor the ideal solution is to find a way to level the floor. If it is wood, you could shave it down to flat. If the problem is tiles, you could remove the tiles under the toilet. But often in real life, we don't want to do eith...
Here is one water proofing material that approaches the field of Science Fiction -- but it is for real and it does work.
Xypex High'n Dry is a not so commonly available brand name of what is generically referred to as Crystalline Growth waterproofing products. These are applied to a sound bare c...
Lubricants are products designed to make things slip.
Sister products that have some lubrication but are specialized for other uses are penetrating oils that are used to loosen up rusted parts, drying sprays designed to remove water from electrical wires and some cleaning sprays.
Although I use...
What is the difference between a glue and an adhesive? Only vocabulary. We tend to call domestic stick-um stuff 'glue' and professional stick-um stuff 'adhesive'. Often people consider thin stick-um that has no gap filling capacity to be 'glue' and thick stuff that can fill gaps to be 'adhesive'....
Wayland asked: “Does wet Owens Corning Formula Styrofoam ever dry out?”
Extruded polystyrene insulation is generally considered waterproof. In fact it was first invented by Dow Chemical for the US army in WW I to provide unsinkable floating bridges -- and has been used as the flotation eleme...
