Previously I’ve shown you how to build a shower niche using backerboard (or drywall) and Schluter’s Kerdi membrane. I did it that way for years – and still do on occasion. However, I have discovered a way to create a niche very easily with much less work and time involved – Kerdi-board.

For the purposes of this post you will need 1/2″ kerdi-board (3.5-4 square feet for a 2′ x 1′ niche) and a tube of kerdi-fix. Kerdi-fix is a urethane sealant made specifically for kerdi products and waterproofs seams. I am building a 2 foot high niche by 1 foot wide.

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When using Kerdi for your shower floor you need to make a hole in it for the drain. If you don’t then you simply have a shallow swimming pool rather than a shower. This hole must be the exact size and it must be in the correct spot. There are two ways to do this.

The first way is to install your membrane on the floor then cut out your hole for the drain. While this method works, I’m not a fan. It leaves open the possibility of cutting more than just your membrane (where it needs to be cut), slipping and damaging the drain or messing up the bond of the membrane around the drain where you need it to be bonded (accidentally debonding a portion of the membrane while you’re cutting the hole).

It works, but there’s a better way. I’m assuming here that you’ve already cut your hole in the floor, installed the drain and mud deck and cut your kerdi membrane to the correct size for your floor – the width of your floor plus four inches, by the length of your floor plus four inches. That is your floor size plus two inches up each wall. Got that? Good, let’s move on.

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I’ve just received another question in the comments section asking how to cut larger holes in tile. Holes for things like the controls in the shower, shower lights, toilet flanges, etc.

My normal smart ass answer is: Mark the circle and remove everything that is not a tile with a hole in it.

The short answer is with a grinder and a diamond wheel.

The slightly longer answer is to draw your circle, take the grinder and plunge it into the tile,, straight down, inside the markings of the circle. Continue this around the entire circle until the large piece is out. Then go back around the circle at about a 45 degree angle and take out the rest of the circle just around the markings.

See, difficult to visualize, isn’t it? (I understood it perfectly well…)

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If you want a little something unusual in your shower installation you can always put glass mosaics in the back of your niche. It looks cool. The problem, however, is that when you buy a sheet of mosaic tile it may be one square foot of tile, but it has all those funny mismatched edges that aren’t straight. Every row of glass is offset.

This is done in order to not have grout lines in the installation line up (it’s supposed to look random) and to allow each sheet to interlock with the one next to it. In other words the left side of the sheet interlocks with the right side of the one next to it.

But if you only need one or two square sheets, like for the back of a niche, it won’t really fit in there in the stock sheet form. A reader asked me a while back if she had to order three or four of those sheets to do her one foot by two foot niche. Like the one on the right there.

(You can click on any of the photos for a larger version.)

Because the sheet is actually more than one foot wide (each row is offset) but there is no way you can cut one or both sides off and end up with a 12″ wide mosaic she thought she would need to order more to fill in the missing pieces. You actually only need two pieces, it fills itself in.

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Porcelain kitchen backsplash with glass accent row and insertsHave you ever found that perfect glass tile that would look absolutely fantastic in your kitchen or bathroom? Me too! Then, after a bit of quick math I started looking at the ceramic and porcelain section.

Completely glass tile installations look great, unfortunately they do not fit into every budget. With a bit of planning, though, you can still have that perfect tile and be able to afford it.

I often install glass tile as simply an accent stripe, insert or even a small, main focal point of an otherwise plain tile installation. With only three or four square feet of that perfect glass tile you can have the look you want and not blow the budget out of the water.

Travertine subway tile shower with glass tile accent stripeMost glass tile is sold in one square foot sheets which are mounted on a backing for quick and easy installation. These sheets can be cut down to accommodate any size insert or row you want. By choosing a nice field tile as your main tile in the installation and using the glass as only an accent you get a great looking installation for a reasonable price.

Individual glass tile can be found in sizes ranging from 3/4″ X 3/4″ up to nearly any size you want.  Choosing a glass tile that accentuates or contrasts your main field tile can turn a very ordinary installation into a very unique space. There are also many glass mosaics which utilize travertine and other natural stones as well as metallic tiles into the mix.

Porcelain kitchen backsplash with glass and metallic mosaic insertsFor a normal bathtub surround, that is the three walls around a regular five-foot bathtub, there is normally eleven lineal feet of wall. With only three square feet of glass tile mosaics you can have a three-inch glass stripe running through the shower. With four square feet you can have a four-inch stripe.

If you would rather have the glass diamond inserts you only need two square feet to give you a total of eighteen inserts that are four-inches square or thirty-two inserts at three inches square. Either of which would be more than enough to scatter throughout your installation.

You can also install a glass tile backsplash on the bathroom vanity with a simple three or four inch stripe and bullnose to match your field tile. Intersperse the glass throughout the entire installation to bring it all together. Depending on the size of your vanity top this usually only requires two or three additional feet of glass.

Ceramic tile shower with glass and travertine tile accent stripeWith a bit more of the mosaics you can line the back of a shower niche and really have the glass stand out as a focal point in your shower. You can have both an accent stripe and use the glass as diamond or square inserts as well. Run a vertical stripe, the possibilities literally are endless. Get creative!

With a bit (lot) more glass you can even tie the entire bathroom design together like the steam shower and master bathroom floor in the last two photos. The shower has glass one foot out of each corner as well as one large diamond insert on each shower wall. The floor contains four-inch square glass diamond inserts. It really turns an otherwise plain porcelain tile into a very unique tile installation.

Porcelain steam shower with glass tile accentsKeep in mind that not all glass tile is approved nor recommended for installation on a floor. The glass must be rated for that particular application or it will not survive. The last thing you want are busted glass tiles on your bathroom floor. Please ensure, should you choose to do this, that the tile is rated for floors.

With a bit of planning and some creative ideas you can have that perfect glass tile in your kitchen or bathroom and still not break the bank. Sketch out your ideas on some graph paper and play around with it. When you find the perfect design, add up the amount of glass you will actually need – you may be a bit surprised that it isn’t as much as you thought.Matching Porcelain floor with glass tile accents

Glass wall tile

NOT just an accent

Glass! Awesome! (I like glass tile…)

It is, however, fairly spendy. It is also a highly specialized installation when used for the whole installation. You need to understand the type of glass (there are three different manufacturing processes), acceptable processes, proper installation procedures and what type of glass can be used where.

It’s a lot.

So when you’ve found that perfect glass tile that would look great in your shower three things will happen:

 

  1. You will look at the price and multiply that by the square footage of your shower
  2. You will immediately go into shock
  3. You will decide that maybe a porcelain shower will look okay after all…

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72 hours.

That’s the answer to your question. 72 hours. Three days.

Your question, by the way, is ‘Now that I have my linear drain in and my shower deck fabricated how long do I have to wait before installing my Laticrete HydroBan to waterproof everything?’

That’s a great question!

72 hours.

If you don’t yet have your linear drain installed and your mud deck fabricated – you’re in luck! You have time to do that. Go read this first: Installing a Laticrete linear drain (part 1)

Then you can go on that three day bender vacation.

‘Why 72 hours?’, you may ask. Also a great question. Negative hydrostatic pressure.

‘What is that?’, you may ask.

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laticrete_linear_drainThe wonderful folks at Laticrete sent me a linear drain to play with. And you know me – I bastardized it until it was virtually unrecognizable, ran it through the paces and did things you really shouldn’t do with nice, high-end products like this.

And it survived. Word on the street is that they read my blog, probably for comic relief and to instruct people what NOT to do with their products. So I’m sure they knew this when they sent it… I mean honestly, I soaked their grout in cherry Kool-aid for a week, how could they NOT know?

I did, however, put it to good use in a very cool shower. This is a brief overview of the installation of that drain.

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Proper Expectations and Applications

Not seal -Sealer - Seal-E-R!

Not seal -Sealer – Seal-E-R!

In Tile and Stone Sealers Part 1 I explained how sealers work. If you haven’t yet read that please do so. It will give you a base understanding of how they get into your tile and what they protect against. It will help you understand what you’re looking for and also help decode some of the terms you may find here.

When choosing a sealer the first decision you should make is what you are trying to protect against. Silicone-based sealers protect against water-based stains – coffee, tea, beer Pepsi, stuff like that. Fluoropolymer-based sealers protect against oil-based stains – cooking oil, body oil, shampoo, stuff like that.

Easy enough so far?

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Seal of approval

Not that kind of seal!

How they work

Sealers, I’ve discovered since starting this site, are one of the most misunderstood products used for tile and stone. There are so many different brands, types and uses that it’s difficult to figure out what you actually need for your particular installation. So I’m gonna try to clear some of that up for you.

This will only cover a very small portion of the entire market for this type of product. I’m going to explain the different basic types of sealers and how they work, as well as the proper use for most common installations. This is NOT an all-encompassing article and will not include every scenario and installation. It is only a basic instruction on different types and uses.

Be sure to research any specific product you choose to utilize and always – ALWAYS – test the product first on a spare piece of your tile or stone to ensure you will not run into any incompatibility issues.

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One of the problems with waterproofing a shower is the fact that you NEED to have holes in it. The cutouts for the shower head, shower or bath controls and any other fancy stuff you saw in that magazine. The problem with holes in a waterproof shower is that they make it not so waterproof.

So how do you waterproof a hole? (Please DO NOT email me with the punchline to that joke!)

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Ever get tired of trying to scrub that ‘white’ (it started life as white, anyway) acrylic or fiberglass shower base? Ever try to take one out? It’s stuck, isn’t it? Ever get tired of rhetorical questions?

In order to create a shower floor for tile you must first remove that big, ugly base which seemingly attracts dirt from some unknown aspect of the magnetic force of the universe. It’s not really the magnetic force – it just feels like it. It’s actually the rubber force – as in the rubber gasket around the drain pipe.

Rather than attempting to pry the base out of there until you’re almost ready to fire up the propane torch and see if it will actually melt (it will), you can simply pry the ring from around the drain pipe and  lift it out. Really.

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