Originally Posted by benzene

When I moved into this house, I took out the kitchen backsplash tile behind the sink and oven, in part because the wall was spongy behind the sink, and also because it was butt-ugly. I found the tiles had been set directly on top of white wallboard; you can only imagine the water damage I found behind the sink, plus the damage I couldn't help doing to the wallboard as I removed the tiles. I replaced the wallboard with greenboard, mortared/tiled/grouted, and it's been good for six years.

Makes me glad the showers in this place are those drop-in plastic ones. I have no doubt that had they tiled the showers or bathroom walls, they would have done that the same way, right on top of whatever wallboard was laying around. Home construction quality in homes in my price range built in the last twenty years is terrible, in my humble opinion.