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.
A More Efficient workspace
First Coat Redgard
First Coat-Protected Tub
Final mudding
Construction photos by David
David's Photo
Jane's Bathroom-New copper plumbing stub-outs
Shower/tub enclosure
Ceiling
Jane's Bathroom-better pic of the pegboard repair on master wall
jane's Bathroom - New Skylight
Need to rotate this one, sorry.
Jane's Bathroom-Caulked shower
Jane's Bathroom-Caulked shower
Jane's Bathroom
Dave’s fireplace and kitchen
Photo of dave's fireplace project before tile
Photo of dave's fireplace project
Photo of dave's fireplace project
Photo of dave's fireplace project
Photo of dave's kitchen project before tile
Photo of dave's kitchen project
Photo of dave's kitchen project
Photo of dave's kitchen project
Photo of dave's kitchen project
Janet’s fireplace
Photo of Janet's fireplace project
Photo of Janet's fireplace project
Photo of Janet's fireplace project
Photo of Janet's fireplace project
Photo of Janet's fireplace project
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!
Heidi’s Bathroom
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, There are so many things wrong in this photo. No wonder it leaked.
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, The old shower is completely removed
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Pre-slope
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Niche
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Trying to get everything and everywhere level and square.
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, The Niche is sloped towards the floor
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Pre-Slope slopes as required and fairly flat.
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Flood test - passed
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, The balloon stopper worked best for me
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Roofing Felt for the moisture barrier
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, I kept in mind the water flow to the floor as I was placing the felt
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, The Bench. I forgot to allow for the finished width of the bench. I had to cut the curb tile, oh darn.
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, I bought the over-priced weep hole protector.
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Taping and Mudding
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Top Mud Bed. I was able to make the floor fairly flat by "rubbing" a sheet of the floor tile on the floor before it set. I was able to feel the bumps and dips much easier this way.
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, The Curb
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, You say the tile is the easy part. Not for me. It was more nerve-wracking because I wanted it perfect. Note: Do not install the large tile above the glass tile until the glass tile has set. The weight of the large tile messed up the spacing in the glass tile, only slightly; but I see it.
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, I used anything and everything to keep the tiles square
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Slow but Steady
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, And it paid off. Look at those straight lines!
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, Looks Great! (If you do not look too closely.)
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, There is perfection!
Heidi's Downstairs Shower, To tie it all together, I added the glass tile as a back splash. Looks Great!!
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Roger, Want to install already purchased acrillic shower base on top of real cement board. Need info on setting it in mud. What to use, how much etc.
Oh yea, and step by step how because many years of beer have left me a
little slow on the up-take. Spelling was never a strong suit or typing either.
Hi Dave,
No real tricks to it. Just measure the height that the bottom of the base sits above the floor (difference between the perimeter of the base and the center) and put down mud about twice as high as that. Set your pan where it goes and mark a line along the front so you know where it sits, remove it and put your mud in there then place the pan in place. It should be sitting high, step into it and work it back and forth until it sits flush then install fasteners either through the flange into the studs (if it has pre-drilled holes) or right above the flange into the studs.
I have a marble floor that I am installing with epoxy mortar on top of hardi-board. I have a corner area that I cannot live with, and need to remove one full tile and three partial tiles for artistic appearance reasons. (if my name is on it, I want it to look right). The problem is trying to remove a tile that has been epoxied in. My plan is to hog out the center of the full tile with a circular saw diamond blade, then get a multi-tool triangle sander, put a diamond flush blade in it, and try to cut out under the tile and then break the tile out in pieces without breaking the good tile. Nothing has been grouted yet, and spacing is 1/16″. This will be a point of no return, so I am asking what methods you have used if you ever had to remove any epoxy-laid tile. By the way, how do you know if a tile actual contains serpentine-my tile has green tints in it, so I went with epoxy to be on the safe side. I hate working with epoxy. (even more now). It is about as messy as transmission oil and sand, only permanent.
Hey Ron,
Never have had to remove an epoxied tile. I have removed epoxy grout in tile, that will help some. Your plan may work fine, I just don’t know. You can also hammer the piss out of it and bust it into tiny pieces – hammer it away from the tile you want to save. If you use a heat gun it will soften the epoxy up some and make it easier to scrape the pieces off. That’s how I remove epoxy grout anyway.
Hi Roger,
I apologize in advance if this has been discussed previously on your site but I want to be perfectly certain that I am not going to create a bigger mess.
So, I am a DIY homeowner who is attempting to update a half-bathroom with new tile as a bit of a Mother’s Day present to my wife while she is away on a business trip….she returns tonight! http://floorelf.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_censored.gif). I found a nice 24×6 porcelain tile (http://www.arizonatile.com/ECLIPSE-SERIES-P876.aspx) and seem to have done pretty good job of laying the tile largely using the expertise you provide on this website. I used a sanded Mapei Keracolor grey grout product, used distilled water and followed the instructions on the bag of grout. I did not seal the tile before grouting. I just finished the grouting about 14 hours ago and removed most of the grout haze but herein lies the issue. Namely, the tile has a bit of a ‘pocking’ on the surface and it appears as if I waited too long to remove the grout and very small amount if grout are now embedded in these very tiny recesses. I tried getting the grout off with extremely warm water and a plastic bristled grout brush but with only limited success. I have read on your site about using a diluted vinegar solution to remove the haze and am ready to do this but I wanted to confirm with you before I go any further. Should I use the vinegar or is there a ‘professional’ commercially available product you suggest (read: I am aware of Aquafix and other grout haze removers but I also know you are very specific on the products you use. I am hoping you can give me a specific product name)?
Thanks for a great website and thank you in advance for any help you can provide on my little, but quickly growing, dilemma.
Br, Ken
Hi Ken,
I would try a vinegar solution starting with a 50/50 mix and moving up from there. If that doesn’t work the grout haze removers from Custom, Aquamix and DuPont are all very good.
Hi Roger,
I am getting ready to do the tile floor in my bathroom that you have already been helping me with. I am putting in a Latcrete undertile heating mat and was reading through the install manual that came with the mat and it says to embed the heating mat in 1/2″ of self leveling underlayment or thinset. That seems like a lot to me and if I do that plus lay my 1/4″ think 12×24 tile using a 3/8 notch trowel, I think I will be raising the floor height about 7/8″ from where it is at now. That will cause some issues. One of which will be the transition to the concrete hall floor at the doorway (threshold). This bathroom is in a basement and the existing floor is all concrete.
First, is 1/2″ underlayment really necessary with the heating mat? Second, if I do this, how do I finish the doorway threshold?
Thanks again
Jason
Hey Jason,
You don’t necessarily need 1/2″. You can use just enough to cover the mats, you can make up the rest of it as you set the tile if you need to. There are several transition strips (schluter, etc.) available to transition from tile to bare floors or concrete.
Thanks. How much height increase should I expect due to just the thinset applied with a 3/8″ notch?
3/16″
Is 3/8 ok for 24×12 tile or should I go to 1/2″ notch? Do I Ned to back butter?
Depends on how flat your substrate and tile is. If they’re flat yes, that’s fine. If they’re goofy bump up the notch size. All tile should be backbuttered.
I am working on a bathroom, and plan to make a vanity out of a piece of furniture. This cabinet is kinda like a modern version of the old serpentine antique cabinets (meaning the top does NOT consist of straight lines and 90 degree corners). The top has a lot of curvature to it. I want to epoxy tile on top for the vanity top. In this case, do I still leave a 1/16″ gap (marble tile) and any ideas on how to finish the edges? I found I can shape the edge of a tile using a 4″ diamond saw to rough it out which includes holding the saw at a 90 degree angle to the edge and grinding out the design, and then I can finish it with a belt sander. How do I get a polished edge on the tile where I cut,ground,sanded them? I will have to polish the edges of about six tile, so can use some labor intensive methods, just don’t want to spend a ton on some type of polishing machine. Thank you
Hey Ron,
You can use automotive sandpaper. 3000 grit gets a fairly good shine, 6000 will mirror it.
Hi again Roger,
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen info on your web site regarding what I’m about to ask but I can’t seem to find it now. What I am wondering is how to tape and mud an outside corner where my concrete board ends and sheet rock begins. This is on a doorway into my shower. If it were all sheet rock I’d just install a metal outside corner strip and mud it with drywall mud. Should I just do the same thing here using drywall mud or this set? I haven’t decided how I will tile this doorway. I am thinking of just running a bullnose tile to the edge of the corner (not wrapping the corner with sink rail).
Thank,
Jason
Hey Jason,
You can tape and mud it with thinset (it will sand and finish like drywall mud) or you can use a plastic corner bead and thinset the backer side and nail the drywall side.
Hello,
I’ve just poured my shower pan using my sand topping mix. I have installed a kerdi drain and will be using kerdi membrane on the floor. I have kerdi board on the walls. My question is, my slope is consistently 1/4″/ft around the shower. I have one spot that seems to be a little flat however. I was wondering if I can create a tighter pitch with mortar and let that dry prior to putting down my kerdi membrane on the floor. Or do I need to rip out the entire pan and redo it?
Hey Marc,
You can do it with the mortar as long as it’s not thicker than about 1/4″ – 3/8″ or so.
I am in the process of installing a tub insert in my bathroom currently the walks are down to the studs. I plan on doing dura rock with redguard over. How far up the walls should I dura rock should I put it on the ceiling or use green board there? And also how do I set the tub in place? Thanks
Hey Chris,
If you are tiling the ceiling then use durock, if you are painting it use greenboard or regular drywall. I do not know what you’re installing. You started with a tub insert, then asked how to set the tub in place. They are two completely different things – what do you have there?
Hi Roger,
My shower walls are in and I’m doing the dry wall in the rest of the bathroom before I tile. I plan on tiling the floor last. The floor is a concrete slab (basement floor). I’ve already put a self leveling compound down over the concrete. The house was biult in the 70′s and the floor doesn’t have any cracks. I was thinking of putting a heating mat under the tile. If I do that should I still put 1/4″ backer board down first? I don’t want cracks in the tile should the concrete crack later.
Alternatively I was wondering if Redgard (same water proofing I used in the shower) would work as a crack barrier on a concrete floor.
Thanks,
Jason
Hi Jason,
If you have slc down that’s all you need, that’s your substrate. You do not use backerboard over concrete floors or slc (with or without the heating element), it’s only for wooden flooring substrates. Yes, redgard will work as a crack isolation membrane, it’s what it was originally developed for.
How do you decide on what width grout line to use? Does 1/16″ grout line have any limits or problems with it and can it be used with wall tiles 12×24?
Hi Bob,
Here you go: What size grout line should I use?
Hi Floor Elf,
I thought your site was very helpful. Was hoping you could provide some guidance…I have a neo-angle shower, so I will only need to tile 2 walls. I am going to run 8×16 tiles in a vertical subway pattern. Is it better to have a whole tile next to the bullnose piece, which will leave me with a 2″ sliver in the interior corner. Or should I cut the tile that touches the bullnose, so I am not left with a sliver in the interior corner?
Thanks!
Hi Tara,
The best option is actually to move the bullnose in two inches. If you can’t do that the next best option is to center the wall so there are cut tiles on both sides.
Roger, will a mold sandwich be created in this instance:
In this order (attic to bathroom interior): blown in fiberglass insulation (tons of it), 2×4 ceiling joists, 6 mil plastic, 1/4″ hardiebacker, thinset, Kerdi, thinset, porcelain tile. The reason for the 6 mil plastic is so that I can keep the bugs out while I finish my bathroom in stages (1-hour every other day) and I want to leave it up as I progress.
Hey Michael,
You should be fine with the plastic just on the ceiling (unless you’re building a steam shower).
I have done way too much internet research and it has boggled the brains. I am considering your ebooks and want to know the format of them. I certainly need to be able to read them.
Hi James,
Internet research on tile does boggle the brains.
All my manuals are in pdf format.
I’m tiling 2 bathroom floors. 1 bath has shower only- 1 has a tub only. Each bath is about 12 sq. ft. floor space. Using 12″ ceramic tile, I bought mapei modified ceramic tile mortar & mapei white unsanded ceramic tile grout on the advice of several people in ‘home depot/lowes’ flooring dpts. Tile is going over ‘hardyboard’, which is over wood subfloor.
Question 1: many of the screws in the hardyboard stick up above the surface just enough so that the tile doesn’t touch the hardyboard. Do I need to dig around each screw to inset them flush with the board or will they be okay since thety’ll be ‘buried’ in the mortar anyway?
Question 2: read your piece on using no grout, but several floor people told me I can use ‘clear-caulk’ and say they know pros that have used it in place of grout when they don’t want grout lines and the tiles are butted together. no worry about straight wall-to-wall grout lines here because I’m staggering the tiles like a brick wall where they overlap each other so the lines are zig-zagged as in the following, where each line is a tile bottom edge seen from above: ____ ____ ____
____ ____ ____
Hi Keith,
1. No, you need to get the correct screws intended for use with hardibacker. They have little teeth on the underside which cut out the hardi as you drive them in and countersink them. You also NEED to have thinset beneath your hardi between it and the plywood substrate. You didn’t mention that you did, and I’m certain the people at hd/lowes who did not sell you the correct screws also failed to mention that. The correct process is described here: Installing cement backerboard on floors for tile
2. Not sure who these ‘several people’ are, but I can guarantee you they are not professional tile contractors who stand behind their work for any significant period of time. You stated you read my post about needing grout. That’s it – you need grout – period. I am not going to continue to lay out reasons your tile installation will fail if you don’t have it. Type of tile (in that application) does not matter, pattern does not matter, and substrate does not matter. You need grout. You can, of course, do whatever you like, but I advise against it.
Roger, I’m preparing to set 12×12 inch fully gauged natural slate tiles in rectangular areas ~10×12 feet each, over Merkrete Fracture Guard 500 applied over a well-insulated concrete slab. Three questions on thinset & grout:
(1) I bought the slate from Bedrosian. They’re recommending their Single-Flex multi-purpose thinset which is $4 more per bag than what may be similar thinsets at Lowes & HomeDepot. Is their Single-Flex in fact better than the L/HD products and worth the extra money?
(2) Or is it more like HD’s Flexbond which is even higher priced?
(3) Bedrosian’s Permacolor grout is similarly $5 per bag more expensive; is it’s quality worth it; or is it worthwhile to spend the extra to have bought everything from the one source to eliminate finger-pointing?
Thanks again; I learn something every day on your site!
Hey Seamus,
1. It’s all comparable in my opinion.
2. It is not like flexbond, it’s more like versabond.
3. Permacolor is good grout, but it does have a learning curve. I would NOT choose to learn with it on slate. Doesn’t matter one iota if you purchase products from different places if you’re the one installing the tile.
Thanks, Roger.
So if you were to choose between Lowe’s Mapei Keraset versus Home Depot’s Versabond, which would you choose?
And ditto for Lowe’s Mapei Keracolr grout versus Home Depot’s Polyblend?
Versabond. Keracolor (don’t even touch the polyblend)
I am having my kitchen walls above the counters done in tumbled natural stone tiles. There are three sizes of tile, 4 x 4″, 8 x 8″, and 8 x 12″ to be arranged in a pattern. Having read your article about sealers, I think Miracle Sealant 511 Porous Plus might be best, would you agree? Should the tiles be sealed before or after installation? The tile installer tells me he doesn’t think these tiles should be grouted, just butted up against one another. Does that sound right? Grout lines would not look good with this type of tile.
Thank you,
Judy
Hi Judy,
The tile should be sealed with the porous plus after installation. You NEED grout lines in tile. You CAN NOT butt them together and have it last. If you do not think that tile will look good with grout – pick a different tile. Seriously. Do not install it with no grout lines.
Thank you, Roger. I printed your article about installing tile without grout for the tile installer. Good advice. Wish now I’d bought something other than tumbled stone, but you have saved me additional aggravation and expense.
Judy
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