LESLIE: Mary in Tennessee needs some help in the bathroom. Tell us about the problem.
MARY: We have the tile board up that goes under the tub and it’s just all rotted out around there.
TOM: Hmm. Well, if you go up a couple of tiles high, Mary, do you still have the same kind of problem or is it really just that bottom row?
MARY: It’s the bottom.
TOM: OK. Well, here’s what you need to do to fix this.
MARY: Uh-huh.
TOM: You’re going to have to remove the damaged wallboard and the damaged tile down in that area. And what you want to try to do is remove at least one tile where the wallboard actually turns solid again; like, peel it off the surface. Because then what you’re going to do is basically rebuild that deteriorated bottom edge with some new drywall. And better than using regular drywall, we recommend you use something called Dens Armor, which is a fiberglass-face drywall that is not going to be as water…
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. It’s completely moisture-resistant. It’s made to withstand …
TOM: Mm-hmm.
LESLIE: … mold. I mean, it really will not grow molds because you’re getting rid of the food source; no paper, no food source for mold. And I think if you’re able to just patch that in there, especially in the area where you’re seeing a lot of abuse and a lot of, you know, splatter from water, you’ll be able to solve this problem.
TOM: Then when it comes time to replace the tiles, if you can save the ones that you pulled off, great; if you can’t, go for a complimentary color because you’re never to get – if you had white, you’re never going to get the exact same white.
MARY: Right.
TOM: You had yellow, you won’t get the exact same yellow but if you had yellow and you put blue in or you put brown or you put mauve, you know, it’ll look like it was always supposed to be that way.
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