The Devil Is in the Details

Sometimes there's a big difference between adequate and first-class construction. Take our new tiled shower, for example.

See how carefully the waterproof membrane has been cut to fit around the plumbing fixture. The membrane extends over all the shower walls and the floor, and the drain has a flange designed to form a perfect seal with the membrane. It's all part of the proprietary Schlüter-® KERDI system. It costs a little more, but a lot less than repairing water damage caused by leaks.

What you can't see is that the walls are structural plywood, so that additional handrails or other accessories can be mounted anywhere on the walls after the tiling is completed. Some builders use wallboard, which has very little structural strength.

We're glad we have a builder who knows about these kinds of details -- we didn't.