Garage roof leaked, filling my toolbox with water, killing my $180 torque wrench that I'd just replaced after breaking the old one. That's not what this post is about though, it's about the shower renovation from heck.

This is a day after my Fein Multimaster burnt out and I had to buy a new one.

I'm also in the middle of the shower renovation from heck.

Friend's father-in-law, who I'm also friendly with asks if I can regrout some of the tiles in his shower.

I get there and it looks like this:

That's pretty degraded so I say why don't we do a leak test just to make sure everything is water-tight and I tell him I'll do it the next night.

So I show up and my friend, his son-in-law (the fat Italian Ferrari guy from previous tales) is already over there trying to intercept my job.

I brought an inspection camera. He brought a mechanic's stethoscope.

I brought UV dye, he brought red food coloring.

I brought a test-plug, he brought duct tape.

I brought a flashlight, he brought brake cleaner?

I carried my cowtools in a toolbox, he brought his in a cat carrier.

So his wife and neurodivergent son are there for some reason and he decides he has to take charge of the situation. When I first encountered him, he was dropping red food coloring down the shower drain - which I'm pretty sure doesn't have anything to do with leak-testing the shower pan. I had to convince him to plug the drain and use the UV dye. As an aside, he told me to use the leak detector fluid that's used to find leaks in gas lines. He said he's used it thousands of times to check leaks in plumbing (I'm not sure how).

He overtightens the test plug and declares that it's no good and doesn't form a seal. I tell him to just tighten it until it's tight and it will be good to go. He says that's not enough so he overtightens the plug, sprays the area with brake cleaner (melting the surface of the test plug), and spends the next ten minutes carefully applying duct tape to the drain.

We go to fill the shower and he insists on filling the entire room with water. This is an handicap accessible shower, so there is no curb between the shower and floor. I say we should fill the shower first, check for leaks, then fill it further out to the floor and check again but no, he wants to go big or go home.

We go downstairs and I drill a hole in the ceiling for my inspection cam. He insists on holding the camera with me. Four hands on camera, we discover that yes, it is leaking. Is it the shower pan or the floor? Who knows, we flooded the entire bathroom.

I have a hunch that it's the floor area that's leaking, so I go upstairs and ask him to pay attention to where I'm knocking. He confirms that where I knock is where the water comes out - the floor. He then disregards that discovery.

I then say that I'm going to check out at this point, as redoing a shower pan is more effort than I signed up for. He reassures me that he's done a million of them, has done two per day, and it won't be any trouble at all. He then exclaims that I'd be happy to do the job.

His plan was to cut away the tile about a foot up and just replace the pan and "blend" new tile in where we removed it. I get started on demolition.

I find water damage in the wall, and the find that the previous installers used regular drywall instead of cement board and zero waterproofing behind the tile. So with each tile comes out two layers of cement board. He then tells me to just demolish the whole thing.

At this point I go out and buy an SDS Hammer Drill along with some bits to expedite the job, and within a day or two get down to the studs.

While I'm doing this, they go to the tile store to pick out a replacement tile, along with a bunch of expensive Schuluter System components to build a new waterproof structure and membrane. Then he tells me to come in my Volvo and pick it up.

I get there and discover he's expecting me to load 500lbs of tile, thinset, and cement board into my little Volvo. I say that's not happening and that I need to rent a truck. We spend the rest of the afternoon arguing over spending $20 on a truck rental from Home Depot.

The next day we rent the truck, and he tells me he's shocked that it's only $20 and that he made the right decision by choosing to rent a truck from Home Depot. We drop the supplies off at his father-in-law's and he leaves me to get to work.

TO BE CONTINUED