REDGARD FAILED FLOOD TEST!!! --- Why Did it CRACK and BUBBLE UP???

Look, there's one right there. See, if I push it, they fill with water, so these little blisters are all over the bottom. You can see that little

crack

that I didn't get with my third coat. I've been making these acrylic plexiglass. boxes to do real time

test

ing to see how these products work and I just did a Schluter Kerdi and Laticrete Hydro Band glass box

test

. I'll put the link in the description below if you're interested in seeing it, but these glass box tests are awesome because I can see what's going on without having to boot it up and I can see it in real time as it happens, so I'm very happy After you're here, let's get into the procedure and how I did this test, so the typical installation that I see on the Internet or Instagram or the information that you send me is typically the red guard that is placed on a bed of dry mortar in a shower tray, then extends along the walls and all but the most crucial area is always the shower. the tray and the curb, so what I did to emulate a shower tray was to place dry mortar on the plexiglass before placing the red protective membrane, so it is important to note that I downloaded the technical data sheet for the products custom construction plans before starting.

About this, one thing to keep in mind is that with mortar beds there is no specific time that says to wait for the mortar bed to dry before applying the red protectant, so what I did was wait 24 hours until the mortar bed was hard and it was the light color, it was dry and you can actually see that light color through the glass case which is really nice so I let the mortar bed cure for 24 hours and then I applied the first coat now that there is no specification. curing time on the mortar beds on the data sheet what is on the data sheet is the application rate you need to use to apply the red protectant if you go to page three of the data sheet it says you must comply with iampo requirements Two coats must be applied at a rate of 80 square feet per gallon each coat, so 80 square feet per gallon each coat would mean that one gallon of red protectant would cover 40 square feet again, that is, two coats a 80 square feet per gallon yes I did the two coats which would equal 40 finished square feet for two coats so now that I had the specified application rate I needed to do a little math to determine the exact amount to use in this little box test of glass, so what What I did was calculate the square feet of the glass box, the mortar bed, and the sides, and what I got was 2.88 square feet, so the area I was going to place the red guard was 2.88 square feet now if I take that number 2.88, I divide it by 80 and it gives me a percentage, so it's 3.6 percent, so this glass box is 3.6 of the area of ​​80.

Now that I have that percentage, if I want to convert it to fluid ounces, which is probably the easiest way for me to measure is that in a gallon there are 128 fluid ounces, so if I go to 3.6 percent, that's 0.036 times 128, what I get is 4.6 fluid ounces, so each layer will get 4.6 fluid ounces, so it's really easy. I simply take my measuring cup, fill it to 4.6 fluid ounces, and know exactly how much to spread on each layer. Now I applied the first coat very carefully with a brush, doing my best to make it as even as possible again on this 80 square feet.

The per gallon rate is actually quite heavy and is much heavier than what I see on most people. You are installing a red guard. Normally when someone puts on a red guard, what I usually see is someone just uses a roller and rolls it over, rolls it over very lightly. almost like a thin coat of paint, well that's not the specified application rate to do it at 80 square feet per gallon, you have to leave it there pretty thick, so I use my brush and apply it as evenly as possible. as possible using the 4.6 fluid ounces to make sure I was getting it at the correct application rate, so also on the data sheet it talks about the drying time of each coat and what I found across the board.

I found that what they say is going to dry usually doesn't happen, they said one to an hour and a half, but then it also says up to 12 hours, so each coat could take up to 12 hours of drying time, which I found when he applied it. at the right rate, it's usually four to five hours, it will dry out and that's what you know right now, it's about 70 degrees here in the spring, it's pretty nice, so it will vary with temperature and humidity. I completed the first layer at five o'clock. at night, so I waited until the next day and at the same time applied the second coat again.

It was very easy to make sure I got the application rate right because I just measured out those 4.6 fluid ounces again and made sure I spread it, covered it evenly, and used all the material there was. One thing to keep in mind as well is that Red Guard is much thinner than other waterproofing membranes, which is part of the reason why it is not as expensive, it is much less expensive. expensive than laticrete hydro ban but hydro ban if you have used it before what you will notice is that you can apply it much thicker, it holds up and has more body redguard is very loose being so thin it is just a little difficult to do but anyway I managed, I spread the 4.6 fluid ounces evenly, put on my nice second coat, let it dry and then that was Friday night, so I just left that I was going to leave that for the weekend, make sure those two coats They cured really well before I did a water test, but what happened is I had to come back on Sunday, which was actually Easter Sunday, but my son got some new grips for his BMX bikes, but we had to use a compressor to compress on the buy here to take the old grips off and put the new ones on so while I was here I did a visual inspection of the two coats so they had been drying for two days at that point and what I noticed was that there were

crack

s .

In some of the areas where the horizontal and vertical planes met right at the corner I noticed some cracks. I thought oh great, so I know for sure that I can't fill this with water because it will just leak. What I did was I actually applied a third coat just to the corners just to make sure I filled in all the cracks that occurred, so I went over all the corners really well and did that third coat covering all the cracks as best as possible. that I could so that was yesterday Monday today so I started with the dry pack on Wednesday the first coat was Thursday the second coat was Friday the third coat was Sunday now finally today I went in and it looked good it looked like the third coat There was covered the cracks, so I thought this was the time to fill it with water, so at 8 p.m. m.

This morning I filled it with water and now it's 5 p.m. m. again. I finished my work day. Today was an incredible day. I actually had three coaching calls and I had to help Tom. I had to help Darren and Vince with their shower projects. It was really great. I love doing coaching. The one on one stuff is really amazing. Anyway, I did it. It's almost time to go home. I'm recording this video. It's five. This has been submerged in water for eight hours. I've done a little time lapse. One thing to keep in mind and I mentioned this before in one of my live streams.

I talked about how these liquid waterproofers change color when they get wet, which is really strange if you think if it's a waterproof product, why does it change color back from dark to light, almost like the product itself is wet if you apply it? was there? completely waterproof, it would seem like they would just stay the same color so if you put water on it it wouldn't affect it, but what this time lapse shows is that it took almost no time at all for the dark red to dry once I put water on it so it It turned back to a light pink color and gradually started in one place and then just grew on me.

It's hard to understand that it changes color when it gets wet, so actually the whole background has almost turned light pink while it sat for eight hours, so let's take a look at it, see what's going on with it right now, okay, here come on, here are all my timestamps that I put there and fill it with water as you can. Look, it's the light pink color and check it out. I already have some leaks and I first noticed this leak happening. It took me about three or four hours. It was around lunch time when I noticed it started coming out so I did a little time lapse on that and you can see the moisture growing a little bit.

It's also on this side. You can see we have dry mortar here and we got wet there, so there is a leak in that corner, so let's get this water out. here's okay, here's the corner that's leaking and when I was using the vacuum, I actually popped some of these little blisters that were popping up. I was trying to be careful with the hose and not mess anything up, but these guys right here, those I just came up from the vacuum hose and you can see those little blisters are all over the surface, so let's see, yeah, and they're full of water, so let me see here, there's one right there, see if I push it, they're there. full of water, so these little blisters are all over the bottom, so there must be a little crack, so there must be a little crack there that I can't see, but you can see that my third layer is actually a little lighter color.

So you can see that little crack that I didn't get with my third coat, so let's see what happens if I cut off a section and the red guard is like I can't even peel it off in one coat. I know I was hoping to peel it off and maybe get a trowel of clearance, yeah I was hoping to peel it off like a layer to see what's going on but it's actually like it's crumbling into little flakes like me. I want a membrane to be intact and elastic, especially with this thickness, let me see, so yes, that is part of the membrane, but it is very fragile, it just falls apart, so yes, all these little

bubble

s that you see, the water it just comes out of them.

Really kind of addicted, so here I'm going to show you that I'm going to do one of the dry areas and hopefully that will give me a chance to show you what I'm looking for and what I would expect the membrane to be, so yeah, here it is. The way it should look like the membrane has a nice stretchy, springy feel to it, it has a good thickness from the factory. I think 22 mils is what they want, finish thickness, but that's correct, so you know you can't. stretch it out and everything is fine but the problem was you knew the stuff so these are the things that stayed dry on the side these are the things that were wet on the bottom you see it just falls apart so there you go , take it for what. worth it, this was my glass box test.

I showed you my procedure and you tell me what I did wrong, obviously, with this place here. It was pretty easy to tell that I saw a small crack. I mean, things happen and maybe we. I might use this just as a word of caution when I'm doing it to really check for cracks because even in a small area like this, where I'm being very careful to apply it at the right thickness, there are no jobsite conditions. What I had to worry about, I only had to worry about this little spot and even doing it by waiting so long between coats, I still ended up with cracks that caused a leak, so this liquid membrane, I guess my point is that it's not so easy as it sounds, it's not as easy as just painting it and that's what I see a lot on the internet on Instagram.

You know, I see a lot of installers that are just painting red guard over mortar and calling it a shower pan. and I look at it and I'm like, oh man, that's not thick enough and it's water tested and chances are most people who use Redguard don't water test it so they don't know about these little blisters that popped. . Which, again, I have no idea why it happened, but maybe some of you can explain to me why it would turn pink like that blister and just dissolve in the water and, um, yeah, again, these videos are intended . to educate and help start the conversation find solutions if you have the solutions a better way to do it although I read the technical data sheet and again I am not sponsored by any manufacturer of these products my videos are self contained. through you looking at them through you buying products like this some days you make money some days you make friends t-shirt if you want to support us visit Tilecoach.com pick up some products sign up for a training plan join our team membership is one of those things and it will help me make these videos, make them unbiased so we can all learn and see how they work in real world applications, so before I go, I love you, I love being your tile trainer and I'll see you around. in the next video