Reader’s Projects
After a LOT of prodding from my readers (the high-voltage was unnecessary, by the way) I have finally worked out a way for you to upload pictures of your projects. To upload your own photos and get your gallery here just visit our upload page (click here).
Below are galleries of reader’s projects. These will help everyone see what can be accomplished with proper techniques, some hard work and a little imagination. We want to see YOUR projects as well – don’t leave me hangin’ in the wind here. It will help everyone who may be stuck for design ideas, solutions to tricky layouts or simply a little inspiration which, let’s be honest, everyone needs at some point in every construction project.
This page is for my reader’s projects. If you want to see my work you can look at my mini-gallery up in the right corner there (refresh the page and the picture will change) or you can visit my professional site at Tile Art. They are not pictures I’ve stolen off the internet – I actually do this stuff. 
It’s great for design ideas, though.
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours! The slideshows will change photos every five seconds or you can just click on the photo to change to the next one.
Jane’s Bathroom Remodel
Jane’s bathroom is still under construction. I’ll add photos as she sends them.
Dave’s fireplace and kitchen
Janet’s fireplace
Rick’s Shower
Last year Rick began a long and very laborious remodel on his shower. What he ended up with was nothing short of spectacular and I am seriously impressed with the end result. the base materials in the shower are travertine and onyx tiles. However, Rick also made his own white concrete accent tiles with glowstones and dolphin inlays. Not only that – he incorporated led’s and fiber optics in the shower itself! All the dark photos show the shower at night – the pinpoints of light are led’s drilled through the stone and the larger blue points of light are the glow from the glowstones. The led’s can be seen on the shower floor from inside the curb.
Rick’s project truly deserves an individual page – and if he ever gets the full description written up and sent to me I will do that. He was even kind enough to send me one of the insert tiles and soap dishes he made with the dolphins in them – very nice!
Add a Brilliant Retort
Hi, I stumbled on to your site while looking for some info on defective grout and thought i drop you a line and say its nice to see some one giving GOOD free advice. i also checked out you bus. page and you do nice work. Do you do mud work? cuz your showers etc. look too nice to be over backerboard. anyways thanks for the free advice. tile setter for 30 yrs / So cal contractor. Dan Phillips
Hey Dan,
Thanks. Yup, I do mud as well. Most of my stuff is over kerdi these days – hard to get people to foot the bill for mud lately, but I still bust ‘em out every now and then just so my body can let me know how damn old I’m gettin’.
Currently doing a shower larger than my first apartment with 18 x 18 thassos marble – feel about 100 years old this week.
Roger – I was in the midst of uploading some photos on my master bath project and got a Floor Elf server error! Sorry if my uploads over-burdened the elves and/or caused your dog to burst into flames…
Maybe you could hold off putting up my photos until I can get time to try again. I’d like to get the ‘after’ photos up because most of the ones I think I got up before the elves rebelled were the ‘before’ ones and don’t reflect the amazing work I was able to get done with your guidance.
Thanks
Hey Tim,
Elves are drinkin’ again – bastards!
I got seven of them including the after of the vanity and the vanity with lightbar. The error was likely just from attempting to create the thumbnails from photos that large. I need to try and fix that. It uploaded the photos anyway so don’t worry if it tells you that again. I had three copies of the last one (with lightbar) so I’m gettin’ them anyway.
Hi Roger:
I wrote to you at the end of August about a leak that had started from our 4 year old tile shower. You explained how the contractor installing the cement board without a vapor barrier was where the leaking was coming from. We contacted the contractor and explained the problem & reason for it and that the tile & board had to come down and start from scratch, this time installing a vapor barrier first. He agreed to do this but wanted to do the job when he had some down time. Well now he’s come to us with this 511 Impregnator Sealer from a Miracle Sealant Company and is claiming applying this to the entire shower (tile & grout) will make it water proof. I’m not going for it. I went to the MiracleSealants.com site and looked around, watched a video on it and it says “resistant” not waterproof. Do you have any information about this method? What do you think….oh great tile elf?
Thanks,
Shelly
Don’t know if he actually doesn’t know what he’s talking about due to lack of education about sealers or if he’s purposely trying to blow smoke up your ass. Sealer doesn’t waterproof anything. All it does is assist in making tile and grout stain resistant. There are different types of sealer which can give your tile different looks and two basic types of sealer (impregnating and topical), but all of them only do the one thing – assist with cleaning by making your tile and grout more stain resistant.
That is actually one of the main sealers I use, but it doesn’t make anything waterproof at all. It will slow the absorption of water, so it will initially slow the leak, but that’s all it will do. The water ‘resistant’ aspect you saw on the video simply indicates that water will not wash it out of the tile and grout.
Thanks for clarifying the sealant waterprooflessness (is that a word?) Roger!
The contractor is coming back today to start ripping out the tile and backerboard and will be using the “topical” method to moisture-proof. Question: how far UP the walls should he go to remove the tile? He used a copper pan for the floor, is that going to be okay to not touch? There is also a 4″ rise at the entrance to shower that the door sits on, should that also be removed and topically covered? We plan on watching this entire reconstruction very closely – like a hawk who hasn’t eaten in a week.
Also, he seems to think he can salvage the tiles he’s removing, how likely is that?
Thank you for your help, you ROCK!
Up to the showerhead is the minimum for waterproofing. If the curb is not waterproofed (the 4″ rise) then yes – it definitely needs to be taken out and waterproofed. The curb is the number one area of shower leaks, mainly due to improper construction.
If the tile was correctly installed he will NOT be able to salvage any of it. HOWEVER, if it were properly built he wouldn’t be coming to fix it, eh? So I don’t know, guess you’ll find out if he can save it or not.
Dear Floor Elf,
I have a few questions about my tile shower. I have recently found your website learning about weep holes. I have had a problem with a strange smell in my bathroom for months and have done everything I can possilby think of to eliminate it. Up until last friday, I didn’t have weep holes in the shower. Would this cause it to smell bad? and if yes, will it eventually go away? or will i have to tear out the shower again. Have already taken out bottom 2 rows and replaced the base and have had tile redone. I don’t think that the man we paid to retile used mesh tape on the seams and he did put cement board directly on the base and did not use caulk or silicone along the edge of the base but I have access to one of the walls and don’t see any moisture. Do you have any ideas on how I can figure this out?
Hey Alice,
Something back there is wet and likely mildew or mold is growing. Was the shower dried out completely before replacing the wall and tile? If not moist studs, when covered up, can simply begin to grow mildew again. You can try to cut weep holes in there and see if that helps in a couple of weeks of draining properly, but your best bet is probably taking it out again – letting it completely dry out, then reinstalling the tile.
Hello Roger,
When I removed the tile and cement board, all was dry. So yes, in answering your question, it was dried out. This is what I have, wall studs are covered with plastic, cement board then tile. I dont have any other waterproofing installed and was told that I didn’t need it. I wanted to use red guard on the cement board before I tiled. Now, i have removed the sheetrock from the outside corners of the shower and the cement board is definitely wet. While I am going to remove this again, should I take out all the tile and use redgard or is what I have sufficient and just remove the bottom row to put the cement board in correctly so that it is not sitting directly on the base?
The cement board will get wet – it’s completely normal. And the plastic behind the cement board is sufficient provided it is properly overlapped over the tub flange and the back of it siliconed to the tub lip. This ensures that water behind the tile and backer runs into the tub. As long as the barrier and cement board are properly installed you shouldn’t have any problems with it.
Roger,
Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge with all.
Thank you so very much for your advice. I love this site and will be using it regularly. You told me exactly what I wanted to hear. My next project will be my kitchen floor…
Alice
Mr. Elf,
I am currently working on a bathroom renovation–major renovation– for a friend of mine. I have installed the marble tile, shower and floors and now it’s time to grout.
Woot woot
Everything that I have read says to silicone any change-of-plane instead of grout. Makes sense to me. My question is should I caulk before grout or vise-versa.
Also, We put in some black pencil accents and we want to caulk those joints with black so that there is no interruption in the line that they create, and suggestions would be great!
And for what it’s worth, you rock, this site rocks and all of the info you dole out rocks.
You deserve and Atta Boy! Keep up the good work!
Thanks
r
Thanks Ryan!
It’s always better to use grout in the liners rather than caulk or silicone, but provided they are small inserts using black silicone shouldn’t be a problem. Do the black silicone first at least. You can do all the silicone first if you have time to wait for it to cure before grouting. No matter how you decide to do it – make sure to install that black silicone first. You can get any grout or a lighter silicone off the black – you’ll never get the black out of anything else.