We're in process of rebuilding a tile shower stall in our 30 year old Florida block home. We ripped all the tile and board off the walls and ledge, the sliding door is gone (some dumpster diver snagged that before the trash men could), and we chiseled the tile off the floor. After we pulled the tile off the floor, we noticed the base, although hard, firm and intact, is very damp feeling. Wanting to start good we put down some industrial absorber (like cat litter) and within a day it was totally wet with moisture. :O/ ???
The shower is in a dropped section of the foundation, the tile base is built up from that. We'd rather just tile on top of this as it has the proper slope and drain and we really don't want to rip this all out. As we read online about shower stalls it appears the base under the tile is a wet sand/concrete mix and we're not sure if this needs to be totally dry or could we put the sealer (or shower base) on top of this and just build.
Does the base layer under the floor tile need to be completely dry?
Thanks in advance for your help and info.