Shower temporary fix question

[Rich Heimlich]

I'm in the middle of a huge remodel of my main bathroom. Meanwhile the master bath is also in need of a remodel but that's going to have to wait for two reasons. First, these are the only two full bathrooms in the house so as long as the main bath is out of commission, we need this one for showers and such. Second, I don't want to spend a fortune doing both at the same time.

Anyway, the shower in the master bath is trying as hard as it can to force my hand. From the day we bought the house, the original tile has had major mildew problems (standard 48x36 shower) that I've been fighting all along.

I'm now thinking that a quick, temporary solution might be to take down the metal shower doors (standard two-door glass/metal slider) and literally glue 3 pieces of thin vinyl sheets that I've seen at Home Depot (rather nicely in the style and color of my existing shower) right to the existing tile. Then I could put the metal door frame and doors back up and I'd be set for a decent period with very little concern for mildew buildup, etc. Plus any existing mildew would die and dry up behind the tile so that when it does come time to tear it all down, things should be rather dry and problem free.

Would this work? Is there a better solution that meets the needs? The mildew is at a point where much of it has saturated into the grout in spots and doesn't come clean. Bleach helps but even that is providing limited results now.

[SQLit]

I would nix the vinyl idea. If there is mildew now it will be saying "feed me" by the time you want replace it. Sounds like you have a ventilation issue.

[cowboy]

get yourself some Tilex or make up a strong bleach solution (like 4:1 water to bleach)

kill all mildew in shower, once and for all (use a respirator, bleach will age your body faster than anything on earth)

if you still have mildew problems, then you need either:

A. to fix the leak that is keeping you shower wet

or

B. a dehumidifier for this area of your house

showers should not have ongoing mildew problems, it is a symptom of one of the problems above

PS - tell family members to use the fan when taking a shower to decrease humidity

[Rich Heimlich]

One of the negatives of the house is that none of the upstairs bathrooms have fans. Both are getting them but it hasn't been completed yet. The ceiling also has issues, which is a clear sign that ventilation is a concern. I guess the point is that perhaps I should just push to have the ceiling fan job completed as soon as possible.

[cowboy]

a portable dehumidifier can substitute for a fan for a while if you have too many other thing to deal with, just be careful with having something plugged up to electricity in a bathroom, (wet people and electrical items don't mix)and don't forget to empty it often.

it would also work if you could station it NEAR the bathroom, which would be safer

[Luke]

Yep.