Let’s Tile the Walk-in Shower!

Master Bath Remodel Part 3 – Tile

Here we are in Part 3 of the Master Bath Remodel! We’ve come a long way so far. Let’s review the progress. If you haven’t read Part 1 or Part 2, head on over there to see the details of how we got to this point in our project.

In Part 3, we will see the new shower space tiled:

• Buying tile at Habitat, Overstock Builders, Home Depot
• Buying thinset, mastic, grout
• Applying waterproofing on greenboard
• Borrowing James wet saw
• Installing tile
• Grouting
• Sealing tile

I was so confident that my goal of completing this remodel would happen that I began my search for tile months before I even contacted John & James to provide a quote for this project. I planned to use white tile with white grout because it’s so much easier to clean. Do you have colored grout? Sometimes that can be difficult to keep clean. I’ve had tan & chocolate brown before and found that it faded over time, especially the chocolate brown. I currently have a very pretty yellowish grout on both the entry and mud room floors and while it looks pretty good, I am more careful with the cleaning products I’ve used on it.

I ended up using 5 types of tile in the shower and found them at 3 different places. Below are the types of tile and the stores where I purchased them:

• 3″ x 6″ white flat subway tile – 600 pieces for $224.20/Home Depot
• 3″ x 6″ white beveled subway tile – 80 pieces for $14.50/Habitat
• 6″ x 12 1/4″ white bullnose tile that I used for borders, niches & to trim out the window – 49 pieces for $40/Overstock Builders Supply
• 4 1/4″ x 12 3/4″ white tile used at the bottom of the walls & bench – 54 pieces for $31.50/Habitat
• Purple decorative tile used for accent – 110 pieces for $5/Overstock Builders Supply
• Total price for tile: $325.20

The first stop on my tile search was Habitat/Restore. That’s not surprising, it’s always my first stop in a search for project supplies. I was thrilled to find a couple of boxes of Daltile Arctic White 4 1/4″ x 12 3/4″ as well as 3″ x 6″ Daltile Arctic White beveled subway tiles. I would end up using the larger tiles for the bottom four rows of the shower and the beveled ones for an accent row as well as the interior of the niches (and eventually a section of the ceiling). My next stop was Overstock Builders Supply in Spokane, WA. I LOVE this place for building supplies! It’s a huge warehouse and they carry a LOT of tile! Shopping here is like going on a treasure hunt – if you live in the area, check them out!

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At Overstock Builders, I scored on the 6″ x 12 1/4″ white bullnose tile and also the purple trim pieces that I would use in two places in the shower and to outline the niche boxes. The prices here are super reasonable! Now that I had all these pieces of tile, I started looking for regular 3″ x 6″ white subway tile. I looked & looked at both my favorite places but wasn’t able to find any subway tile in the arctic white or in the quantity that I needed for the entire shower so I ended up ordering them through Home Depot. Overall , bought 890 pieces of tile & used 808 of them – just imagine how many cuts that was on the wet saw!

Once I had my tile styles, I used a Tile Estimator website like this one where I entered my shower size to see how many pieces of the 3″ x 6″ subway tile I would need to order. I also created an Excel spreadsheet to plan the layout, make sure I would have enough of the various pieces to create the look I wanted & to track my expenses for the shower project. Since I’m a visual learner, I also laid the tile out on a table in the garage and then on the floor in the house to see find the pattern that I liked.

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With the greenboard installed, mudded & taped and all the tile purchased, it was time to move forward with the tiling of the new shower! I’ve done tiling projects before. I tiled the entry & mud room floors, the front and back porches, above the old tub surrounds but I have never tiled a shower from floor to ceiling ….so….back to You Tube I went to do some research. What I learned was that I pretty much knew what to do, apply either mastic or thinset to the wall and/or back of each tile, place tile on the wall using a spacer to make room for grout and then move onto the next tile. What I learned that I didn’t know was that adding a waterproof membrane to certain parts of the greenboard is a good idea before installing the tile. There are several brands of waterproof membrane on the market and Home Depot has one called RedGard. After some research, though, I decided to use Laticrete Hydro Barrier for the shower (Home Depot now carries this brand also). This product has the consistency of Slime; super thick! I used a paint brush and painted it on all the areas where water might ‘sit’…. the bench, inside the window area, the enclosure around the glass inset and the niches. I also painted it in every corner and the entire inside of the new wall.

With that extra water proof protection applied, it was time to tile! Since I didn’t know how long this portion of the project would take but was fairly confident it would be many hours, I decided to buy a little wet saw as opposed to renting one. Before I set up my new little wet saw, James stopped by the house (can’t remember just what needed done) and noticed the saw sitting on my work bench in the garage. He asked if I planned to do all the tile cutting on the petite saw; ‘Well, yes’, I said. He then volunteered the use of his wet saw! I was thrilled!!! He said it was older and the water pan leaked a bit, but it was sturdy and would do a great job. Ok, I can work with a little leaking to have a saw that was on it’s own stand, would do angle cuts and could withstand lots of cuts! I returned my purchase to the store and he brought his saw over the next day. NOW, it was time to tile!

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Over the course of tiling, I moved the wet saw from the garage to the back porch (3′ x 3′ little cement area) and back to the garage. It did leak a bit but I got into a routine and it worked really well! I figure I made over 700 cuts on that saw. Since the Master Bath is upstairs on the East side of the house and the garage is downstairs then up a few more stairs on the West side of the house, I really got my steps in! I did my best to measure several pieces of tile before making the trek so I could do several cuts at once. If you’ve tiled before, you know that if you’re off by even the slightest amount, you’ll be doing another cut.

First row of tile

The first row of tile is the most important. Locating the center of the wall and marking the location for the first tile so your pattern is set for the entire job takes a bit of time. I measured and marked and drew on the wall using a level to ensure the first tile would be in the right spot and the first row would be level. It’s also important to leave space between the first row and shower pan for caulking.

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Installing base rows

After installing the first row of tile on all 4 sides of the shower enclosure, I let it dry overnight. With this size tile, that probably wasn’t necessary but I wanted to confirm that it was done properly before moving on. The next 3 rows went in pretty quickly.

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Decorative trim added

Originally, the shower was going to be all white. I thought having an all white shower would make it easier to clean but also be a smarter choice for the day we sell our house – IF we ever sell. But, hubby wanted to add some pizzaz to the shower, hence the purple accent 🙂 We both love the pop of color! Since the trim is small, especially the little 1/4″ strips, it took a bit more patience with the installation. For spacers, I cut some self stick vinyl flooring tiles into 1″ x 1″ squares, leaving the backing on them so they wouldn’t stick to the tile. They ended up working really well for giving just the right amount of space for grout.

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Subway tile & cutting around faucet

After the base layer of tile and the decorative purple strip, it was time to move onto the 3″ x 6″ subway tiles. These were so much easier to work with. The subway tiles have a built-in spacer, little bumps created on each tile so, unless you want a larger grout line, you do not need to use tile spacers. I chose to butter the back of each tile as opposed to applying thinset or mastic to the wall & installing the tile that way. My decision to do so was because the grout line was so thin and I didn’t want the thinset oozing up between the tiles as it would be harder to get it out of that tiny area. Buttering each tile takes longer but for me, it was the easier way to do it. Cutting around the faucet can be difficult but since the subway tiles are small, it wasn’t too bad. Knowing the faucet plate would cover the cuts, I wasn’t worried about it looking purdy.

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Niches

I used the beveled subway tile on the back wall of the niches and the bullnose tile on the sides. With James’ saw, I was able to miter the corners which gave them a finished look. I used the purple trim because there was only a inch of wall space to the right of the smaller niche which made it really small for cutting tile. My original design was to have one strip on each side of both niches; however, then I only had 1″ on the left side of the larger niche – drat! I had to rethink that decision. I chose to just outline 1/2 of each niche which worked out better in the end.

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More tile

After the niches were tiled, it was back to the main walls and more subway tile. I added a 2nd row of purple accent about a foot from the ceiling and a row of beveled subway tile right above it to add a little more pizazz. Cutting the tile to go around the shower head was easy.

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Bench

Tiling the bench was simple. The front was done with the 4 1/4″ x 12 3/4″ tiles & the top and side were the bullnose tiles. It took a few tries to get the 3 tiles cut for the purple accent piece but it’s one of my favorite features in the shower!

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Window, glass, vent opening

For all the ‘openings’ in the shower area, I used the bullnose tile I bought at Overstock Builders. This tile is thicker than all the other types of tile I used which made it both easier and more difficult to cut. Easier because it was sturdy, more difficult because it was thick. As you can see, I used a lot of painters tape in the installation of these pieces. Like the niches, I mitered all the corners giving the areas a nice, finished look. I also used the bullnose to edge the tile and on the edge of the new wall.

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Grouting

Now that the tile was installed, it was time to grout! It’s so interesting how grout changes the look of your tile project. When I look at the pictures of the tile pre-grout, I can envision how the shower would have looked if I had chosen to use grey or black grout. That’s a nice look too! Using the built-in spacing on the tiles made for a thin grout line so I didn’t need to use much grout. When everything was grouted, I allowed the grout to dry for a few days before adding sealer. I use Miracle Sealants Impregnator Penetrating Sealer when I tile and add two coats.

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Safety features and new Shower head

After the tile was grouted and sealed, I gave James a call to come over and install two safety grab bars and the shower head. Installing the grab bars involved drilling into the tile. After all the work and time I invested in installing the tile, I was not about to drill into any of it! James was also a little concerned since drilling into tile can result in breakage. It probably would have been smart to have this step done as I tiled in case we needed to remove a tile or two. But, it worked just fine and there were no issues! I found the little plastic rosettes at Bed Bath & Beyond to use on the shower floor. They have suction cups on the bottom of them and give the shower floor a non-slip surface.

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Action shots

Hubby likes to take pictures of me while I’m working on my projects. Usually at the most inopportune times. However, it’s nice to have the pictures to look back on and remember how the project progressed.

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Whew! THAT was a long post! If you made it through the entire thing, congrats! The tiling portion was the most time consuming part of this remodel due to working on it in the evenings and weekends and also having the tile saw so far away from the shower. It was a lot of work but so rewarding! Looking back on the pictures brings back a lot of fond memories. Are there things I would have done differently, yes, but there always are on a project. Am I happy with the results? Absolutely! The next post is Part 4 and involves tiling to the bathroom floor. That post will not be this long 🙂

Here are the next steps in this project

• Master Bath Remodel Part 4 – Tile the Floor
• Master Bath Remodel Part 5 – Finishing Touches
  

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