The picture with the big red circle-arrow ... where is that? At the floor line? Is a piece of tile supposed to go there?

When you removed the tile you screwed up. If inwas the contractor i would demand full payment and walk off the job. Proper action would have been to have a face to face discussion with him about your concerns before any more work was done.

 

The picture with the big red circle-arrow ... where is that? At the floor line? Is a piece of tile supposed to go there?

Looks like a tub deck—you can see the overflow drain hole. Looks like the bottom course of tile was removed.

 

There is no waterproofing between hardie-backer pieces? Hardie-backer is waterproof - and with the hydra coating (or whatever they call it) it can reject water - but the gaps between would allow water to flow through. (I still never trusted it for wet areas - I'm old... and skeptical.)

In op's case - even if the "contractor" plugged the grout lines with grout - the water would simply go through the grout and dribble into the wall.

Maybe I'm missing something and people don't waterproof around tubs any more. But, if this is a shower there there other problems to looks at. Let's hope I'm wrong.

 

Yes, the picture w the arrow is at the top of the line and right below the shower fixture.

the location of bathroom is my guest room shower at ranch house

i called the contractor immediately when I found the issue. I also sent a video to him showing how i can poke a wd40 nozzle sprayer thru the grout lines full length. I’ve not heard back

Thank you snd pls advise

 

Don't know what your agreement with the contractor was, but if it were me that whole mess would come out.

 

He’s done great work b4, but unfortunately not this time w his helpers.

I’ve texted him 2-3 times but no answer. I do have recourse even though I’ve paid him yesterday. He did the original work in mid Feb to fix multiple broken CPVC lines and i did not pay him until he fixed this, which was just yesterday.

Moving forward, what is the recommendation to fix this ?

thank you in advance

 

how does this sound as a fix:

• make a pattern of the hole, then trace onto backer-board...cut out exact hole size w jigsaw
• install new backer board to back of wood. use white caulk to fill all of the lines btw existing backer and new backer / let dry
• clean current surfaces of all the older thinset.
• apply thinset to tile back and backer board and install properly w spacers
• let dry, grout, let grout die and install sealer
• done

Thank you tstex

 

If you don't CORRECTLY waterproof the whole thing between the tiles and studs, you are setting yourself for another mega failure,

 

Thanks DJ, so what’s the solution?