In article . com, RicodJour
says...

Ignoramus15467 wrote:
On 21 Feb 2006 10:38:43 -0800, RicodJour wrote:

Ignoramus15467 wrote:
In our basement shower, several tiles fell off. Behind them is
drywall. The tiles are not broken and I would prefer to just glue them
back in if possible. What glue and process would you recommend.

You would be wasting your time and effort, not to mention throwing good
money after bad.

Your shower has a terminal problem and you need to amputate that
drywall to save it.

I am sorry, what do you mean by terminal problem. If I have to do the
entire wall, I will, but I would rather not.

You have two ways to approach this. The first involves putting a
bandaid on the cut artery - that is treating the symptom by glueing the
fallen tile back in place. Bandaids are cheap, fast and the shower is
still going to die. It'll be a slow death with the fallen tile problem
recurring and you trying to nurse it back to health. it won't work for
long. Looking on the bright side, you will have found a new hobby.

The other alternative is to fix the hack job the original installer
did. Putting tile on drywall in a wet location is not only
recommended, but to be avoided at all costs. Cement backer board such
as Durock, Wonderboard, fiber cement board such as Hardie Backerboard
or one of the newer boards such as Wediboard are the preferred
substrates.

You see the tile job can be no better than the weakest link. Drywall
turns to mush when exposed to water. Some idjits think that the
moisture resistant drywall, called green board, is water resistant or
even waterproof. It's not by a long shot.

Of course you don't want to replace the entire wall(s), but there
really is no other choice. The worst thing you could do is to glue the
tile back using silicone and do a good job of it. Sounds odd, but what
will happen is the water will get behind the tile from another area
that you didn't fix and the silicone will hold the tile in place longer
than it should. You _want_ to know if there is damage (rot) occuring
behind the tile. Otherwise you'll be looking at replacing studs,
subfloor, etc. - a much, much bigger pain in the ass.

Check out the John Bridge tile forums and search the archives to see
what the pro tile setters have to say about putting tile on drywall.
Half of them love it when the hacks do that because it's job security
for them. The other half would shoot the hack if they could locate him
and get away with it. I'm in the latter camp. Too many people doing
crappy work and it's time to start weeding them out!

OK OK OK!

But is there harm in trying the silicone adhesive for the fallen tiles first?
Not everything has to be done to the n-th degree.

Banty