Three Tiles Kept Falling Off My Tub Wall Until I Looked Behind Them

The Real Problem

I checked the showerhead gasket first. Dry. The valve trim looked fine, no gaps.

Then I ran my finger along the joint where the tile met the tub—the horizontal seam I’d grouted when we moved in five years ago but never caulked over.

The grout was cracked in three places, and when I pressed a paper towel against it and ran the shower for thirty seconds, the towel came back damp.

There it was. Every shower for half a decade had been sending water straight through that seam, soaking the drywall from the inside out. The tiles weren’t falling because the adhesive failed—they were falling because the surface they were glued to had turned to mush.

Now I understood the scope, but I still had a choice to make.

I could pull just the loose tiles, cut out the damaged drywall, patch it, and hope I’d found everything. Or I could pull the entire bottom three rows, confirm the damage with my own eyes, and know for certain I wasn’t sealing rot—or worse—back into the wall.

One option was faster. The other meant I’d actually sleep tonight.