I’m a licensed home improvement contractor, I built my first shower 8 years ago, after watching videos on KZfaq. I followed your guidance to the letter! I’ve done about 15 showers so far!

The things you do for subscribers are appreciated. It shows you desire the best for others.👍 Plus you are fair, with product reviews.

very informative subject and a very realistic effective experiment....thank you for your time and for the great video content.

Amazing tests, thanks so much!!

This is very informative and the results are pretty much as expected based on your previous tests. One suggestion for your next experiment is to use water with a strong dye. This will help visualizing any leaks, if they ever happen. The mortar will also show dye if it ever got wet and dried out. Thanks!

Thanks Bob! Great work.

You're the man, keep making videos

Hey really cool video. I'm a tile guy uses the laticrete waterproofing. Great to see this and give me some confidence and peace of mind

That's old aqua defense for sure. At least a year now it's been turned similar to the hydro ban coloring. At first I was angry about the change because it appears so light after drying that it looks about half the thickness of the old color but after inquiring about the change with mapei it was explained about some guys not being able to see lines through the old colors.

Thanks for the test👍🏼

Thanks for the video I'm a handyman (mostly painting, drywall, carpentry, plumbing and electric) but in my personal opinion is that if it leaks everywhere is the product fault, if it leaks only in some areas is workmanship, again tanks for the effort to do the video!!!

Outstanding! Glad I got the RedGard!

I love these box tests like Bob has said don’t put your backer board into the mortar pan. Which is demonstrated beautifully on how it can wreak havoc on the boxes and a shower build.

Excellent job

I came here from the video you posted today, this is evidence-based proof that's undisputable, excellent experiment

👍TY for your efforts. Cheers

Thank you for this video! I worked for a flooring distributor in NJ for 19 years, and they carried Custom Building Products (Redguard) products as well as Mapei, Redgard is a fantastic product but like any other has to be applied properly! It's really bad how much negative influence posters can have on a product that they used incorrectly...

Nice. As a welder I might just build my self a stainless steel shower tray and walls. Fully welded. It'll never leak!

I only watch your videos waiting for April to come back. Just kidding! Thanks for the video and keep up the great work.

And here I thought you would slam Isaac's method, then you basically just said he did it the way the instruction says to do...good for you keeping it real and avoiding YT drama ✌

The one time I used Aqua Defense, you could peel it off with your finger nails. Even worse with a notched trowel. That was years ago so hopefully they have improved the formulation. And yes, freezing probably would effect the product. It definitely does with paint.

Hahaha I cracked up at the cancer joke. I install all kinds of floors with my father and as you know pretty much every product we use says that. We always say “good thing we’re in Florida!” Good test, hit pretty much all points possible

Bravo nice work

Nice job

Great video! I like your style, and your direct no nonsence approach. I have question for you? I want to build a roman tub out of double 3/4 ply wood. How would you go about doing this?

With red guard, we would run a small electric heater and fart fan on to cure the product a few hours during each coat. Just to help it along removing moisture. As product cures it shrinks thats where potential issues can arise. The 2nd and 3rd I prefer a very warm room for better adhesion. But that was back 15 years ago, with any coatings adhesion is everything

I think the reason why issacs failed is because he applied it to glass, glass isn’t porous and didn’t let the product completely dry and cure underneath because it couldn’t get the air it needed, basically the top of it dried but trapped in the moisture and didn’t let it fully cure.

Nice work. Interesting. And goes to show how effective liquid waterproofing coatings are. I'm gonna stand by my technique of using fiberglass mesh cloth/tape in all seams, corners and the drain and applying 2-3 coats on the walls and building up 6-9 coats on the floor, though. If nothing else the process helps to prevent human error through redundancy and perhaps even overkill. It does work though and it also allows for excessive movement of today's poorly built homes over the years and possible breakdown or hardening of the materials in long term use. Anything can happen over a 10, 20 or 30 year or longer time span. To each his own though. I think 3 good coats is sufficient BUT.....if you miss a few pin holes.......yikes! Subsequent coats will definitely prevent that. 3 coats will generally cover 100% but a 4th coat definitely will and a few coats on top of that lends additional strength and flexibility imo.

How did the aqua defense melt after you put water in it??

With the Redgard do they want you to thin it out with water for your 1st coat? Wonder if that helps with possible pin holes as the product dries and slightly shrinks back.. Also, Are you using box store bags for your mudpan or you blending yourself? Was interested in knowing what your preference on bagged floor mud was from box stores. TIA

Project very well done. I wonder if the Aquadefense would have given the same results as the rest of it weren't old?

Wow so nice

Well illustration 👌 the real thing oh how to make used off a product.

Old school showers have always had waterproofing not liquid Or topical but they have always been waterproofed

Hey brother I'm in Hawaii. What waterproofing would you recommend to seal my cement aquarium? I used 500 psi with waterproof additive cement mix

I think in my shower, I am going to use Hydroban on my mortar bed, then put thinset+fabric down on top of that. I want that thing to be waterproof forever and I don't trust myself to get the hydroban perfect. Maybe I should do the fabric first, then Hydroban on top of that? Shower pans are hard.

Nice

Is behold better than redguard?

Isaac used the cheesy flex seal waterproofing in one of his showers and it worked.....Why? He used a fabric. I think you should use a fabric with liquid membrane. It reinforces the membrane, makes it stronger and it doesn't create those pin holes. The epoxy grout formula channel shows the best way to use redgard as a pan waterproofer. REDGARD is all he uses but he does use a fabric in conjunction with REDGARD.

Use "TEC" triple flex. 2 part liquid powder mix for waterproof and crack isolation.

My mapei rep said with all these paint on membranes to follow manufacturer directions. 2 coats not 3 not 4… it prevents it from curing properly.

Freezing would of made it gel. From the Rockys seen it happen many times.

So you typically don’t use a membrane barrier in the pan?

Isaccs videos interesting to say the least. But very correct. I’ll follow the directions and if it fails it’s on them not me. That’s crap. It’s common sense you need. Every job isn’t the same. Hell there’s some houses that should not get tile. Personally many rush a job and causes issues. I can redo Isaacs video and make bubbles. It’s call not letting it dry correctly or way to thick. Anyway areas being clean ( anyone reading this. Use a brush and shop vac. You want the area to be very clean before you apply RG. Or other. Anyway. Good video I hope many learn from it. Most need to understand that if they hire someone and it’s done it 2 days they got ripped off. On avg it’s 5days. I just did a job and the customer that watches your videos. He wanted kerdi so he got it.

Boxs are also porous and have layers so probably sucked the moisture out

nice

I would love to see someone build a shower old school style. No waterproofing but good grout and proper pan slope and see how much water really soaks through when seeing normal use. Not saying a shower should be built with out waterproofing, but just curious.

Same thing with old paint it degrades over years and if applied it will start to peel off or cracking. Also polymer infused liquids and even thinset degrade overtime as well if not used even with intact packaging. Sealed packaging may let them last for 2 years that is what is know as shelf life, but open package accelerates degradation of product, perhaps 6-12 months and it has to be disposed..

Fucking awesome. Love your hammer!!!

Thanks for taking the time to do this comparison experiment. I saw Isaac’s red guard video and I certainly didn’t like the way he applied it. The manufacturer clearly doesn’t explain proper application on its directions or MSDS. Strangely Custom Building Products red guard video shows applying the product the way you just did it and certainly not super thick the way Isaac did.

I'm VERY surprised those membranes don't peel off....totally unexpected

Please edit for length

Redgard or hydroban for easy too use and less likely to make a mistake… i would guess hydroban is less prone to mistakes based on videos on youtube but i would like your opinion on what would be easier/safer for a newbie… thanks

I am concerned now about my aquadefense. I did three coats on pan…..praying it will be enough

What about Ames BlueMax? Anyone know about it?

I waterproofed a box with Aqua defense and it lasted days????

Looks like that third coat emulsified!😆

A suggestion for a more accurate reading for thickness: maybe try soaking the samples, then rub off the cardboard leaving only product and maybe a portion of the cardboard if permeated with the product. Thank you.

And what is exactly wrong with the traditional In-N-Out system with a 40 mil vinyl liner and a pre slope, and plastic weep hole protector, concrete board Hydra been over that.? I would love to hear this

There isn't any melting on the redgard. The solvent evaporates off, so it is solid then. Water is a solvent so it could have some impact on the surface area. I think that is the real question and it turning pink when wet has some reaction. How can you even deny that?

Well I got a refrigerator box that's going to be my new shower.

I’m not understanding how you deal with the gap between your pan and the backer board on the walls that you leave. Do you fill that with silicone caulk and then redguard over everything?

Anybody have experience with SEMCO?

This video could have started 10 minutes into it

Still using Redgard for all your work?

Big fan of watching Isaacs videos to pick up on techniques on how to work with surface waterproofing membranes, learned a lot about how to apply the the banding etc. in a manner that ensures a thin layer of thinset to the joint. That said I also found his surface water-proofer tests to be flawed in many ways. As mentioned applying to wet deck mud (while tempting in production work) is a sure path to failure and with any brush roll on material that relies on air to dry its essential that the layers be thin and allowed to dry before another layer is applied. This is different than cement based product where water causes a reaction or epoxy where a chemical reaction takes place. Also as to how the expired product worked sealing the pin holes, think of any radiator sealer....they are carried by flow to the leak where (as long as its small) they are are able to seal it even under heat and pressure. Of course that does not mean that you should use an expired material as putting any other problems aside with surface water proofers, unlike a radiator sealer, a surface water proofer has to provide a surface for the thinset to bond to. Lastly you being the older person ( I am 67 myself) you need to take the high ground, full time with Sal and Isaac..... as you have here. As you will IMO do much better with serious watchers by being understanding in your reaction to insults than if you try to outperform them insult wise. Thanks for the vid and hang in there.

"All four of these product cause cancer in California. Fortunately I'm not in California..." LOL

Have to redo the test with fresh product, 3 years old seems beyond normal shelf life

ALWAYS HAD GOOD LUCK WITH HYDRO BAN . GO WITH WHAT YA KNOW LOL.

You didn't use fabric on the corners.

Why did you disabled your comments on the pre slope shower pan linear video from 7 years ago? Because you know someone was going to tell you you’re wrong

Corners really needed tape.

"fortunately I'm not in California, so it won't cause cancer" lol

I didn’t watch Isaac’s video, but when you said that he used glass, I knew right away his experiment was flawed. At the very least, he would have to put super thin layers and maybe use a hairdryer or something to adhere to the glass. And I can’t understand how the glass would add any value to the experiment anyway. Maybe if he used dye in the water, he could see it seep through the material or the cracks he always seems to get when he does his experiments. Anyway, thanks for setting up an experiment. I really don’t understand why Isaac is so down on Red Guard. It’s relatively cheap and it’s effective (and you don’t need special training to use it).

It melted

You kinda contradicted yourself there saying that a liquid waterproofing agent could not go back to being liquid after drying. I can tell you for certain that freezing will in fact cause efficacy problems with almost any wet product.

I prefer hydroban

"Use common sense". Yes Bob Doyle but sadly, common sense just isn't that common anymore.

Cardboard is not an approved substrate. If you build a bathroom out of cardboard it will fail

Red guard is crap! when water makes it through the grout and tile it’ll return the red guard back to pink!

As I always said , if you know what you are doing and you are a good mechanic you dont need any of these stupid new product. I feel all these new product allow contractor to do bad installations and relay on the water proofing to cover their ass.

Putting on wallpaper is so ignorant to say it's a waterproof membrane it's like saying or you are putting paint on you're shower walls to waterproof how dumb is that either method works they are both waterproof

Melting? Water is a strong solvent to many things. Solvents don't melt things. Your explanation might be worse than Isaac's

damn vinyl planks are so ugly, it's one of those trend of a few year that a decade later everybody recognize it's horrible looking, people are so easily swayed with the crow. vinyl planks or tile is plastic and plastic is crap for wear and aging over time always was and still is.

This shows and proves nothing. Your entire experiment is doomed from the beginning as you did not use ANY waterproofing fabrics or membranes around the box. Your deck mud cracked because the boxes sucked all the moisture from the deck mud before it cured properly. Then you didn't fix that and instead just slathered product all over the place. THEN you used 3-year-old product and had to make excuses for the failure. Also, why are you responding to Isaac? Did he call you out regarding one of your failed jobs or what?

I'm a believer in the topical membrane, but now you have me worried since I just completed my shower with Aqua Defense. 😟 So the lesson learned with yours and Isaac's videos are to wait for the mortar bed to complety dry before applying the topical membrane. Being that Isaac waited 24 hours for a small area and it still wasn't dry, wouldn't there be a lot of down time waiting at least 72 hours before applying the topical membrane? Plus another 24 for a water test after? Fine for a DIY, but doesn't seem very efficient for a professional.