Reader’s Projects Upload Page

by Roger

Please read the entire page before uploading – it’s painless and ensures your photos will be posted (or NOT posted) in the proper manner when I receive them.

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You may upload as many photos as you wish, but you need to upload one at a time.

You can upload photos at any time during any stage of the process. I would also like to see some of the horrible work you are removing! It is just as helpful for people to see what NOT to do, as well as why. ‘Before’ photos also help show just how much your project changed the look of the area. Please pick a name for your gallery such as ‘Mary’s shower project’ and include that into the ‘description’ field of all your photos and I can keep all your photos in the proper gallery.

Just click the ‘browse’ button above and find your photo on your computer. Enter a brief description (and your gallery name if you would so I can keep them all together for you) then click the ‘upload’ button. Simple, right? Once Sparky (my dog) reviews your photos and ensures you aren’t uploading porn (he will burst into flames – so please don’t do that) you will have your very own gallery on the photos page to show off your work.

If you would like to upload a photo to show me what you are working with for a question you have, you may do that here as well. Please note: I may post the photo in the comment section where you ask your question – if you do not want the photo posted and made public please state that in the description area for the upload! If you do not specify that I will assume I’m free to post it! If you upload a photo to accompany a question please let me know that in the comment section when you post it.

Josie

I posted some photos titled Josie’s butlers pantry. I guess Sparky is still reviewing them. New build using Emser mini stacked quartzite. We were unhappy with the job the contracted did and it is being redone Saturday. He continues to insist he did a great job and he and the superintendent of the job think I am just whiny and particular. What do you think? I have shown my pictures to several installers as well as an Emser dealer and all agree it is a poor installation. Since I am not purchasing tile from them or having them install anything I believe I can trust their opinion as they have no monetary interest in agreeing with me. Thanks!
- Roger
  
  I Josie,
  
  I think it looks like crap. It’s not the worst I’ve seen, but it wouldn’t be acceptable to me.
Lianne

Dear Mr. Elf,
I am the owner of the gallery named “Lianne’s Shower Debacle”. Unfortunately these pictures are my “after” shots and not the “before” ones.. We had a sewage backup nastiness back in July and now… October 23rd… we are in this lovely new mess. The insurance co. hired these people to redo our bathroom and this is what they have produced. Since tile is your thing, I won’t even get into the cabinetry disaster. So after looking at your awesome work I thought that I might get your opinion on the job that they felt was acceptable. We have been without a shower for a month now and it doesn’t look like we will have one any time soon… not to worry though.. we have been taking showers.. in fact we have been traipsing around the neighbourhood in our bath robes going door to door, as if it were Halloween, asking to take showers. The main contractor came today and reluctantly admitted that the job was not great. (Understatement of the year as far as I am concerned). But here is the kicker; they are insisting that the same team come back and “fix it”. So I guess I would like to know your opinion as to whether or not you think that they are capable of producing anything remotely acceptable. I questioned things along the way like why the tile border was not flush. I was told that it was impossible to get it flush as it was mounted on a mesh backing. This seemed strange to me.. But what do I know? I am just a woman after all. Apparently I could not begin to understand the complexity that is tiling. I also learned that they put up blue Gyprock instead of say cement board or Schluter.. So any comments or opinions would be most appreciated.
Thank you!
Lianne :o)
- Roger
  
  Hi Lianne,
  
  That is simply horrible work. Lippage all over the place, curved edges, the niche and the ceiling look absolutely disgusting. Coupled with the fact that THERE IS NO WATERPROOFING IN YOUR SHOWER I wouldn’t let them anywhere near your shower. Have the contractor get someone in there that knows what the hell they’re doing (they obviously do not) or tell him that his company, or the insurance company, or someone else will foot the bill for you to hire someone adequate. That is absolutely unacceptable.
Ken

Dear Mr. Elf:

Re: Photo Shower Cracked Grout Issue

If you could help me with this problem, I’d be very grateful. I love your site and Facebook page — did not even know they existed!

I had a tiled shower installed only about two years ago. The tiles are generally black/grey, and the grout was black. I say “was” because some of the grout lines started collecting white crusty stuff. After cleaning, I think the grout, especially on the wall/floor edge started cracking.

I’ve just noticed now that it seems the corner is collecting water. As you can see from the picture (this is below the wall with the shower head), there seems to still be water seeping out from the edge, and this is about 10 hours since the shower was last used! I am really hoping that there’s some way I can fix this without having to hire someone to come and do something drastic, like redo the whole shower!

Any thoughts?

Thanks!!
Ken
- Roger
  
  Hi Ken,
  
  The problem seems to be that water is not draining as it should (but you knew that). When you say the corner is collecting water, do you mean the water pools there as if it’s not sloped correctly, or that is the spot that you see the water draining (or seeping) after a period of time? You also didn’t mention what type of waterproofing your shower floor has (I’m assuming a regular liner and deck mud?).
  
  The most often caused with things like that are clogged weep holes, which means that the water will back up the liner beneath the tile and up to the corners to release the water, or no pre-slope beneath your liner which causes water to remain in that area and rise up as the shower is used and more water added.
  
  Unfortunately it most often requires removing the existing floor and rebuilding it correctly. The shower floor can be rebuilt without doing the entire shower, although about a foot of the bottom of the wall will need to be removed in order to get the liner up behind it.
  - Ken
    
    Hi Roger:
    
    Thanks so much for replying. From the picture I uploaded, I meant that the water seems to be seeping out of the edge long after the rest of the floor has dried (not the water pooling problem). I do remember them installing a liner supposedly to protect the water from escaping below (this is a condo). In any event, your theory that the water is being “backed up” sounds very plausible.
    
    As a quick fix in the short term, is it problematic to wait until the edges appear dry and then apply some caulking? Or is this just not going to do anything at all (or make things worse)?
    
    Thanks!
    - Roger
      
      That won’t do anything except seal more water into the wall and cause it to look for somewhere else to escape. IF your liner has a pre-slope (about a 5% chance in my experience) you should be able to remove the tile and deck mud from around the drain, clean out the weep holes (they are the little seep-holes in the side of the drain around the perimeter just on top of the liner), place pea gravel around them to keep the mud out (which should have been done in the first place, probably wasn’t and led to them being clogged) and install new mud and tile there. It should still work if you don’t have a pre-slope, but in that case it wouldn’t be a long-term solution.
      - Ken
        
        Thanks very much! It looks like it will just need to be fixed.
        
        Thanks again!
Ceiling Dwarf

Roger, umh, Mr. Floor Elf Sir,

I just about finished by bathtub remodel. I only have grout to finish, put the trim on, and install a shower door. I came out almost purrfect (my cat made my type it that way). The only issue I had was that the Kerdi band would not fold down the middle and stay folded so I could use it on corners. I had to use a flat iron on low heat and with a few quick swipes it stayed much better than my border collie. I uploaded a series of 13 photos from just after the before (the demo) to just before the after photo. I haven’t completely finished so I can’t uploaded a completely complete photo yet. Maybe I could Photoshop it but by then I could do the real thing. Sigh.

I never thought my 1970s sage green bathtub and toilet could look good but with the color choice and the design we chose they look groovy man. The job took a week for labor, with three of us putting in 48 – 60 manhours per really long day. In order to do this it took me literally months to get all the supplies because the stainless steel Schluter Rondec trim, and stainless steel Schluter Rondec inside corners (ID/RO 80E) for the recess and the stainless steel Schluter Schiene trim were special orders that took forever to arrive. I could really use a Pepsi…or something a bit stronger.

In a few days I’ll be able to take a shower. I’m so excited!!

Ceiling Dwarf
- Roger
  
  Hi CD,
  
  Looking good! I’ll store the pics in the back room until you’re finished then put them on the user’s projects page when you send me the last ones. Well done!
  - Ceiling Dward
    
    The job’s done. Full set of photos uploaded.
    - Roger
      
      Thanks Dward. I’ll get them up sometime this week.
      - Ceiling Dwarf
        
        As Homer would say, “Doh!”
        
        Ceiling Dwarf
        
        I found a “before” photo and uploaded it. The photo is a bit fuzzy and I think I had one too many Pepsi’s that night.
Ron

Hi Roger,
I love your site — it’s a wealth of fantastically useful info and the writing is terrific. I would very much like to ask for your advice on a project I’m doing.

The penny tiles in my apartment bathroom floor have been coming loose for quite some time, mainly near the toilet (where the floor is also rising unevenly, probably due to a leak). There is a section of about 25 missing (I’ve uploaded a photo but not sure how to access it on your site), and I’ve tried to remove as many loose penny tiles as I can to get to a perimeter of tiles that are still firm (though with just a little work with a putty knife I think I could easily triple the area of missing tiles, as they come up very easily.

I realize that I probably need to replace the entire floor, but I’m subletting my apartment in two weeks and only have time to do a (hopefully) very good temporary repair that will make the floor serviceable for one more year.

I have saved all of the penny tiles and I have a grout saw. I know I need some sort of adhesive to stick the penny tiles down and some sort of (sanded?) grout to apply around the tiles, but I’m not sure exactly how to proceed beyond these two very simplistic points. I’ve read a lot of your website and have also tried to research this on the Web at large, but I’m not sure how closely a lot of the info regarding substrates etc. applies to penny tiles in an area that’s often getting repeated water exposure from the shower and from fairly harsh cleaning products. I’m a pretty good DIY guy but have never done floors. I’d greatly appreciate any insights you’d be kind enough to give me. Thanks for the great service you provide, Roger.

Best wishes,
Ron

ron@rongeraci.com
- Roger
  
  Hey Ron,
  
  I’m assuming from that photo that your tile is over concrete? It looks that way from the crack in the larger area. If so if it’s likely due to improper thinset or adhesive which is being compromised by water. There could, however, be several reasons for it. Regardless, get some thinset (nearly any powdered type will work fine) and a small v-notch trowel. Mix up the thinset and spread it onto the substrate and press the tiles down into it. Let that cure and use sanded grout to finish it off. Normally if you are using the same tiles in the same place you don’t really need to remove a lot of the old grout.
  - Ron
    
    Roger, thank you so much, I greatly appreciate your reply and your sharing your knowledge. Off to buy thinset and a v-notch trowel…
    Ron
Jim

Roger, I am finishing the demo of a bathroom and have encounter a problem removing the old (fiberglass/acrylic?) shower pan. The drain appears to have a metal insert (see photo upload -Jim’s shower drain). Do you have any suggestion of how to remove short of cutting the shower pan around it?
- Roger
  
  Hey Jim,
  
  That’s lead. It is very similar to how this drain is removed: How to remove a fiberglass shower pan but instead of the rubber gasket they pour lead into the gap and it cures into the gasket. It can be pried out in the same manner, it’s just a bigger pain in the ass. Cutting the shower pan around it may actually be an easier option.
  - Jim
    
    Roger, I finally got the old shower pan out and have been slowly moving the project along. There is no rush with just my wife and I in a house with 3 bathrooms. My current is as I start the shower enclosure, is how do I prepare the concrete slab outside the shower for tile? The previous floor was 1″x1″ mosaic tile, but it appears to have been glued on. The tile was fairly easily pried up and removed. There are remnants of the tile still adhered to the concrete over most of the floor, but with some clear areas. (See photo – Basement bath concrete slab with tile and adhesive remnant) Can I just apply thinset and then tile over the surface or do I need to remove the old material? How would you suggest I prepare the slab for tile?
    - Roger
      
      Hi Jim,
      
      The area to the left of the photo, where you can see bare concrete, is just fine (provided it’ll soak water in when splashed on it). The other areas the adhesive needs to be removed down to the concrete so that it will also soak in water when splashed.
ben

Me again. I have cement board up and looking good except for what’s in the photo I just uploaded. What do I do with the edge of the tub here? I assume the flange “fadeaway” is for sliding doors but I’m not using sliding doors, just a curtain, which will be several inches away from the edge in the photo.

Should I just silicone the heck out of it? Cut an awkwardly shaped cement board piece for it? Something else entirely?

Thanks!
- Roger
  
  Hey Me again,
  
  Cut a piece of backer the width and height of that rectangular space – without the goofy shapes attached. Just the major area. Then use alkali-resistant mesh tape and thinset to fill in the pieces. How are you waterproofing that shower? Because it isn’t right now. I’m sure you knew that -right?
Joe M.

Hi Roger,

Hope you’ve been well!

So, I uploaded a pic. of my liner install this evening (Liner Install, 2-17-13); my question is, do I have enough of a pre-slope? My level shows there’s definitely a slope, so, just for kicks, I dumped a cup of water as you can see. Well, if there’s enough water, it will head right for the drain, but when it thins out, you get something like this. Now granted, the liner isn’t a perfectly smooth surface, so I’m not too surprised low levels of water don’t really move. Just a bit worried there’s not enough pre-slope.

Thank you,

Joe
- Roger
  
  Hey Joe,
  
  As long as you do have a slope under there it will be fine. Even though a little sits around the drain it will still drain regularly.
Cheri

Helllloooo, Mr. Tile Elf, my husband and I have been diligently working on a bathroom remodel trying to follow your guide as closely as possible. We thought we had measured everythng well, but when we got to the top of the tub surround, we found the end of the tub ceiling is 1″ higher than the rest of the ceiling. We are using 6×12 travertine tile laid in a brick pattern. then a 3″ decorative insert, another narrow piece of tile 1 1/4″ and a bullnose tile. All the big tiles were laid before we realized the disaster. How do we compensate for this 1″ swoop? Drop it off the ceiling? cut the 1 1/4 into a wedge increasing to 1 3/4 or try and pick it up with the decorative tile. I am uploading a couple of pictures. The decorative tile is actually those little glass bubbles that you put in flower vases. Heeeellllpppp. Cheri
- Roger
  
  Hi Cheri,
  
  You can either compensate for it with both the 1 1/4 and the decorative tile or drop it off the ceiling. If your pencil rail is your top piece it may look better just to keep it straight and not have it against the ceiling. It won’t be noticeable to anyone but you.
Scott

I attached 8 photos of my mud job…please tell me how bad I did…
- Roger
  
  Hey Scott,
  
  It could be a bit smoother on the top but it’s nothing that can’t be compensated for as you install your kerdi. Use your level to flatten the kerdi into the thinset as you install it.
Bryant

Hey Roger,
The picture I up loaded is the end of the shower wall (out side the shower). The left surface is the tile, then the thinset (Ultraflex 2), then the Durock, then the painted end of the wall.
Ok, now to the questions.

1. Do I need to tape and thinset this dry wall/Durock joint like I did above the shower?
2. What would be the best way to finish this end with the mosaic I have left. ( was thinking strips one tile wide down the edge with caulk on both sides)
Thank you for your help,
Bryant
- Roger
  
  Hey Bryant,
  
  No need to tape and mud that. The best thing to do is simply float it out with thinset then finish it off with your mosaics as you’ve described. After you have the tile installed on the shower wall your options for a finished edge are limited to surface installation (tile), any of the edges made for that all go under the wall tile.
  
  Thank you for specifying that it was your picture – makes this a hell of a lot easier!
Bryant

Roger, Roger, Roger.

I would not be asking this question if you would lock them elves in the basement to do the write up on benches. Now to my question.
I uploaded a picture of a cement block in the corner of the shower (after Durock and top layer of floor).
1. Do I silicone the corner before attaching the brick?
2. Is Keraflor mixed with Keraply the correct thinset to attach it?
3. Is this the same for the gaps/joint lines in the wall?
4. Do I treat the planes of the brick as if they are wall planes?
Thanks for your site and all your help!
Bryant

P.S. Tell the elves I love them and was only joking about the basement.
- Roger
  
  Hey Bryant,
  
  1. No need to as long as you keep thinset out of that corner joint. It won’t hurt anything, though.
  
  2. Yes, that’ll work fine.
  
  3. Is what the same for the gaps/joint lines at the wall? The thinset – yes. The silicone – no, you need to silicone them.
  
  4. Yes, they still need to be siliconed.
  
  The elves might write one on benches now that they know somebody wants one. And THANK YOU! for including pertinent information with the photo you uploaded and not just ‘here’s a picture of my bench’ from an anonymous reader. Weird how it helps me answer a question if I know who the photo belongs to.
  - Bryant
    
    Then in referance to the brick where does the thinset go and where does the silicone go?
    - Roger
      
      Oh. Thinset the entire brick to the wall. Silicone goes in the change of plane between the tiles. No silicone in the corners of the brick to wall transition – just thinset.
      - Bryant
        
        Thank you! Thats what I thought. Just wanted to make sure.
Debbie Todd

Hey Roger,
We sent you some pics a couple of weeks ago showing our basement shower project and then some of our master. Did you get them? We labeled them Doug and Deb’s shower….

I also sent you a pic today as we suspect we have “a gift that keeps on giving” from our plumber. We have been trying desperately to install our toilet in our master bathroom and discovered that our toilet flange in the floor was a bit too tall to allow the toilet to seat with the wax ring and postive flange. After much effort, we ended up going with a staight wax ring and plan to leave a bit of a gap in the silicone in the very rear of the toilet to monitor for leaks in the future (like your e-book suggests). We sent you a pic of our main floor bathroom flange as we are heading there next for tile. With the hardibacker down, we appear to be nearly an inch above grade for the flange…..should I plan on building the area up around the comode so we can install the toilet without an act of Congress or several beers? Any insights would be appreciated!! P.S . Love the new e-book! The best “under $10” we have spent in a long time! Thanks! Doug & Deb Todd
- Roger
  
  Hey Doug and Deb,
  
  I do have them back there. I’m behind on my photos – slacker!
  
  That is a bit high. You want the top of the flange a maximum of about 1/2 above the finished tile to be able to install the toilet without and act of Congress – beer happens either way. I would build up around it to a max of 1/2″ below the top of that flange.
  
  Glad you enjoyed the Tile Tips! Thanks.
  - Debbie Todd
    
    Thanks so much Roger for directing us to the reply! We will make the needed adjustments and proceed from there! Appreciate your help…have a great weekend and give Sparky a pet from us.
Dave Crowe

Roger, just uploaded some photos of a clients problem bathroom. Photos begin with client…01 etc. The after photos will come soon.
Pernille

I have uploaded some pictures of my Delft Blue Bathroom project. If you can’t tell by loooking at them; I am Dutch and Delft Blue is from the town of Delft-The Netherlands. Over the years I have been collecting many of these hand painted tiles and decided to finally glue them to the wall above the vanity with a few mosaics to seperate each tile “scene” since none of them are the same. As final part I wanted a tile floor as well, which finally happened last week. We used the Spectra lock grout on both the wall and floor. The tiles are actually more fo a grey but I had no more daylight when I took these pictures, they turned out like a brown… I did not have a “what went wrong picture/Before picture” but when we pulled up the linoleum (which we only glued on the edges 8 years ago with the intent to tile in the future) We found out that our toilet flange had been jacked (shimmed with plywood) up to accommodate the future tile floor…with not having that tile floor there for 8 years, the WC had slowly been leaking underneath it (the plumbers caulked the WC to the linoleum so we never saw water) with the result of a slightly rotten floor. We decided to cut out about a square foot or so and replaced the sub floor and put a new flange on the pipe to do it right this time. Oh and the pipe and flange were never glued together either! For a new construction home you wonder whatelse wasn’t done right…
- Roger
  
  I would absolutely LOVE to see those pictures, but I don’t have ’em. Did you upload them already? I don’t have anything in the upload folder from you.
  - Pernille
    
    Sorry about that. I tried it again. do you have them now?
    - Roger
      
      Sorry Pernille, there’s nothing in there. If you want to you can email them to me at Roger@FloorElf.com. Don’t know why it’s giving you issues.
Rudy

Thank you Roger. I’m with you that the emperador is a strong feature and should be used with discretion. I uploaded an image so hopefully that processed allowing you to see what I’ve performed so far.

On a separate note, I’m using 12″ pencil and 12″ travertine on the wall. What is the rule of thumb on aligning the grout lines vertically for each or should I offset the pencil. I’ve always seen them offset but not sure if this is aesthetically eye pleasing.

I appreciate your timely responses. It’s great to have a website available like this one. Thank you
- Roger
  
  I did see the picture. With the smaller curb and seat/wall there it may look pretty cool to have the emprador on top of the curb and seat.
  
  If the pencil and field tile are EXACTLY the same width – line up the grout lines. If they’re off even an 1/8″ offset them.
Rudy

Roger-
I am remodeling a master bath and have installed a 4×6′ shower pan following all the (your) recommended/ guidelines. I’m currently at the point of tiling and have several aesthetic questions for you.

1) What tile do you recommend I wrap the dam with? I have 12″ travertine on the wall and seat, tumbled 2″ on the floor, and then 2″ emperador accent.

2). What are your thoughts on tiling the outside of the shower and seat? There are an 8″ and 18″ wall perpendicular to the shower walls? It’s either this or leave as finished drywall.

I’ll upload an image for reference.

Thank you for your time
- Roger
  
  Hey Rudy,
  
  You can do the entire thing in the travertine or do the sides in travertine and have an emprador cap on it. Depends on how much you like the emprador – it’s gonna really stand out if you do that.
  
  I am one to put tile on anything that looks like it may be included in the overall look, that includes walls outside the shower. If it isn’t going to overwhelm the shower than it will definitely enhance it. I would use the main travertine for everything and just have accent pieces of the emprador in a few places.