In 1975, the first sheet of Wonderboard was born by inventors Paul E. Dinkel and Theodore E. Clear of Hamilton, Ohio. It took years to make it into the industry. "GlassCrete", USG who had other similar knockoffs came later on around the early 1980's. This product was used in commercial application at first, then slowly made it’s way into residential construction. This product as well as many other products which facilitated the streamlining of construction was born out of necessity for a couple of reasons. First, as our population grew, the demand for more buildings had increased. As the demand grew, time became a major factor in construction. Another reason was many of the older generation of mud setters from the 1940’s and 1950’s had retired by the 1970’s or had died off. The advent of Wonderboard or other prefabricated substrates did not make mud set installations obsolete, it was simply a matter of lack of training and big corporations bottom line as they can now recruit more installers with less time in training people. I also believe some kick backs were involved from these manufacturers to local building departments as well as some large developers, but that’s another story. This mindset as well as the desedimentation of true quality subsequently brought a windfall of quasi tile setters in the name of progress.
Here is the problem with prefabricated substrates that I see which cannot hold the same qualifications that the traditional mud set can. If your wall is out of plumb, or floor is out of level or has a hump in it, the Wonderboard or any other prefabricated substrate will follow that hump or irregular contour. With mud set, this is not a problem. Tile is like a tape measure on the wall. If there is a flaw in the wall, this will only be magnified by the tile being there, this is why it is so important to make sure the substrate is exactly that, straight. With Wonderboard or other prefabricated substrates you have seams, with mud set you do not. Prefabricated substrates are nailed to floor and wall studs directly with no water proof membrane, this allows wall and floor deflection which can lead to tile cracking. Mudset is anchored everywhere and is evenly distributed for maximum bond to the floor or wall and every void is filled, the same cannot be said for prefabricated substrates. Years ago, the builder would drop the floor joists 2-3" to accomodate a mud bed for tile.. ahhh those were the days! Try and get a builder to do that today! However, a good 3/4" bed of deck mud that is 4 to 1 ratio and hard packed is just fine. Mud set is more water proof. It has stood the test of time. This method has been used for centuries. I’ve torn out showers and other tile jobs that were mud set and the only reason these showers were decommissioned was because the customer desired a different color, not because they had failed.
The bottom line is this, when it comes to traditional mud set, if this generation knew more about it as their predecessors did, where, in their time, this was common practice, more people would demand this level of skill. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
John Wilson
Premier Bathrooms, Inc.
John P. Wilson