A beautiful bathroom is just a tile job. A great bathroom is a waterproofing masterpiece. The tile, the fixtures, the glass—that’s the "jewelry." But the value—the part that protects your home from thousands in rot, mold, and damage—is all in the preparation that gets covered up.
We get calls all the time to "fix" a leaking shower that's only two or three years old. We pull off the "beautiful" tile and find a nightmare. The builder used "green board" (water-resistant drywall) instead of a true cement backerboard. They "waterproofed" with a simple coat of paint-on sealant. And the shower pan... they just tiled right on the mud bed with no liner.
Water always finds a way. It got behind the tile, saturated the drywall, and rotted the studs. The "small leak" became a full-gut job, right down to the framing.
In our builds, we are fanatics about waterproofing. We use modern, integrated systems—like Schluter-KERDI—that create a fully sealed, watertight "box" before a single tile is set. We flood-test our shower pans for 48 hours. It's an expensive, time-consuming process. And it's the only right way to do it.
My professional recommendation: When you hire a contractor for your bathroom, don't ask about the tile first. Ask them to describe, in detail, their waterproofing system. What membrane do they use? How do they treat the seams? How do they flood-test the pan? If they can't answer these questions confidently, or if they just say "we use concrete board," that's a major red flag.