I am having a house built, new, and during the construction found this and mentioned it to the construction manager and he told me he would have it repaired and this was the repair. It is the wall in between a utility closet and the master shower. If that grout cracks or the AC leaks, could this cause mold in the wall ?
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Is this a picture of what you found or is this a picture of the repair? What are we looking at? Is this the closet side or the shower side? Cracked or not you can't count on grout to stop leaks.
That is the repair looking from master shower to that box which is in the utility room with the AC. My concern is that opening below the cement board and above the repair.
Your concerns may be premature. There is clearly a lot of work to be done before this is ready for tile. There will be some sort of shower pan that should extend upward and underneath the wall water proofing. Something has to cover the gap of your concern in order to set tile. Keep an eye on how this progresses. The only leak to worry about from the ac is the condensate line. This should be routed to the outside with a small pump if necessary. In the event of a power failure this pump won't be needed because the ac won't be running either.
This was all I saw done. The gap was covered up and I saw no pan. The tile was installed then had to be torn up and reinstalled and then the floor had a significant slant and needs to be torn up again. Besides the poor workmanship, the though of moisture getting in and mold growing in a brand new house in a new community of over 800 homes is troubling.
The substrate behind tile needs to be thoroughly water proofed. The shower needs to hold water up to the curb level or several inches and needs to be flood tested and inspected. The shower should slope to the drain, but not so much that it feels uncomfortable to stand on when you take a shower. If this was done without these measures then your concern is legit. You need to address this with your contractor and he needs to talk to the tile installer.
Do note that a sort of white powder that often appears on masonry surfaces is not "mold" but "efflorescence". It doesn't "grow", but rather is the result of "salts" coming through the masonry and being deposited on the surface. (Test this by washing with vinegar -- vinegar will usually dissolve efflorescence but not mold. Chlorine bleach, on the other hand, will kill mold but has no effect on efflorescence.) Efflorescence is not unexpected on fresh masonry as it dries out (which can take weeks), but it's appearance on "old" masonry suggests that moisture is wicking through.
Mike and Dan thanks for those tips. I have addressed the contractor on that and another master bath issue which was the entire bathroom floor had a significant slope, this was addressed by the tile guy removing and replacing tile in a 1 x 3 foot area and the repair though a little less than before still has the slope. We were told that the way to address this is too put off the closing until these and other issues are verifiabley fixed.
How can I measure a floor slope in a large bathroom ???