California bathroom code

Hello to everyone out there. I really need some help here. We are buying a brand new house with Lennar and I decided to stop by this afternoon to just take a look. To my surprise, on the master bathroom I found the entire shower surround boarded with regular 1/2 inch sheetrock. As far as I know sheetrock is a big NO in a job like this, but I don't know the CA code for such matter so I can approach the builder and refute this issue. By the way, I live in Visalia, Tulare county. Thanks a lot.

Is it green board? Sad, but here in Bend Oregon guys are doing that and rolling on this pink waterproofing and tiling right on top of that. I’ve been a plumber over thirty relays and my long time tile buddies just roll their eyes and say, “good for a couple years, but no more”. But it will be out of the builders warranty.

Not even green. I've been on construction for almost 20 years but plumbing is not my specialty but I know a good amount of the basics and I have a couple plumber friends that as soon as I mentioned that they lift a red flag. I did remodel my own bathroom back in the east coast and I used hardyboard and then waterproof membrane the whole thing, but here it looks like they are going the cheap cheap way and I also know that a water membrane is not supposed to go over regular sheetrock.

Sounds like shoddy, cheap ass work. Call the city inspector for Visalia. By the way, I use to attend the 3 day police K-9 competition up in Visalia and it is a beautiful community. Hopefully, you took pics because I think the inspector might be calling them on this.

havasu said:

Sounds like shoddy, cheap ass work. Call the city inspector for Visalia. By the way, I use to attend the 3 day police K-9 competition up in Visalia and it is a beautiful community. Hopefully, you took pics because I think the inspector might be calling them on this.

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Thanks a lot

Javi S. said:

Thanks a lot

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Could be they are planning on papering and floating or using wonderboard over the Sheetrock but it still should be green bd

Sheet rock has no place in a bathroom. Green board is sometimes acceptable but never regular sheet rock.

First of all, if it is 1/2 inch drywall, it is wrong. Must be 3/4 with lots of screws to support the weight of tile. So, maybe they are going to put something else over it???
As far as sheet rock in the bathroom it all depends on what you are going to put over it. Kerdi membrane is rated for 3/4 regular drywall because it has extremely low moisture permeability. I built a walk-in shower in my house with Kerdi and regular drywall 5 yrs ago. Shower gets used 3-4 times a week. No issues. Side note is that with Kerdi you must not use the green board and and no joint compound because the mortar won't stick to it properly.
If you have an hour to kill, watch this youtube video. It goes over several methods of installing a shower over drywall.
Also, is this a walk-in or a tub and shower? Tub surround is hard to screw up. With a walk-in you have to get the waterproofing of the floor and drain 100% right or you will have a disaster in less than 2 years.

I talked to the foreman on charge. His guys got "confused" when installing the boards on the bathroom. They installed sheetrock instead of dens shield. Now the whole thing is boarded with dens shield, I know what it is but I don't have any reference of using it in shower walls.

I looked DensShield up and it is a gypsum board with a moisture barrier bonded to the surface plus they claim the gypsum core has low moisture absorption.
You make it water tight by calking the joints. They probably choose it because they like working with it and it is cost effective. Should be ok but, the bottom line is whether the installer has experience with it and knows what he is doing. Do it right and it has a chance of lasting for 20 yrs. Get it wrong and it could go bad in a couple of years.

It cuts and installs just like sheet rock and has a built in moisture barrier. when installed right its better than dura rock. google it.

Great, thanks for the feedback.

Javi S. said:

I talked to the foreman on charge. His guys got "confused" when installing the boards on the bathroom. They installed sheetrock instead of dens shield. Now the whole thing is boarded with dens shield, I know what it is but I don't have any reference of using it in shower walls.

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I call BS. The foreman got caught and had you not caught them, every house in this tract would have the same thing. I'd still report it to the city so they can watch EVERYTHING done by this company.

Yeah I know, after 20 years in the bussiness I can clearly see BS from 100 miles away. I did report them to the city thought, let's see what happens next. Thanks.

Awesome! Thank you for being proactive and protecting your neighbors as well.

Thanks.