Early in my career, my mentor pointed to a seemingly minor detail and said, “If you don’t fix this $100 problem now, it will become a $10,000 problem later.” He was right. I’d just finished a high-end bathroom remodel in Palo Alto where the homeowner insisted on a sleek, frameless glass enclosure—but the contractor used … Read more
At 2 AM on a Tuesday, my phone rang. It was a panicked homeowner, and I could hear the water rushing in the background. They’d tried every store-bought drain cleaner, a plunger, even pouring boiling water down the shower drain snake—and nothing worked. Their Schluter Kerdi-Board waterproofing was intact, but the standing water threatened subfloor … Read more
That moment taught me that a hair catcher for shower drain assemblies is the cheapest insurance you can buy in a wet room. Ignore it and you’re gambling with slab leaks, black-water backups, and a $600 service call that could have been prevented in thirty seconds. Here’s why it matters: every person sheds 50-100 hairs … Read more
Early in my career, my mentor pointed to a seemingly minor detail and said, “If you don’t fix this $100 problem now, it will become a $10,000 problem later.” He was kneeling beside a poorly installed tile-in shower drain, its weep holes already clogged with thinset. Water had begun seeping behind the Kerdi membrane. Within … Read more
Three months ago, I met with two different clients in the same week: one was planning a dream renovation, the other was dealing with a catastrophic failure. Their needs were different, but the root cause was the same. The first client, Sarah, wanted a curbless walk-in shower with 24×48 inch porcelain planks. She’d already bought … Read more
We’ve tracked the data, and the shower drains we spec’d with removable hair-catchers and full-port ABS bodies are still flowing 22 % faster than code minimum ten years later. That’s not luck; it’s the method I teach every apprentice: remove the strainer, measure the throat ID, pick the right auger, and work with gravity instead … Read more
The week before Thanksgiving is our busiest for plumbing disasters. It’s always the same culprit, and it’s completely avoidable. A DIYer, convinced they could “just swap the drain,” ripped out an old cast iron flange without sealing the subfloor. Three days later, water pooled under the tile, rotting the plywood and collapsing the joist beneath. … Read more
During a routine inspection in a beautiful, million-dollar home, I moved a piece of insulation and found something that made my blood run cold. A slow drip had been eroding the subfloor beneath a tile-in shower for over a year—caused by a poorly installed shower drain that wasn’t properly sealed to the waterproofing membrane. The … Read more
Many homeowners think a quick fix will hold them over. What they don’t see is how that small leak is slowly creating a toxic environment behind their walls. I’ve inspected over 1,200 bathrooms, and the most dangerous issues aren’t the ones you notice—they’re the ones you don’t. Mold thrives in damp, hidden spaces, and a … Read more
When summer arrives, most people think about vacations. Smart homeowners think about this one 30-minute task that protects their largest investment all season long. That task? Cleaning your shower drain before mold and bacteria turn it into a biohazard zone. I’ve seen too many clients ignore the faint sulfur smell in their master bath—until the … Read more