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Suggest tile for my tub/shower surround

12 years ago

We've been moving along in our bathroom remodel and have made many of our choices. One thing that we still need to select is tile for our tub/shower surround. I've previously had ceramic tile at a number of places throughout our home, but I've grown to hate trying to keep grout clean. I opted to use wood-look vinyl planks for flooring in this bathroom remodel. But, I'm willing to go with tile for the tub/shower surround if the tiles are fairly large and the grout lines are rather minimal. So--no floor tile to match or coordinate in this case.

I've learned about rectified tile by reading this forum, and I've learned that I can have very tight grout lines if I select a rectified tile. I'd love some recommendations of tile brand and size for a 5' alcove bathtub/shower surround. Pictures would be wonderful!

I'm planning to install this tile myself. I've previously done a tub surround, a kitchen backsplash, bathroom floor, foyer floor, etc., so I have some experience. Is installing rectified tile in a shower surround something that a semi-experienced DIY'er should attempt? From what I'm reading, it's a very exacting process.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

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Comments (5)

mydreamhome
12 years ago
We used Florida Tile's "Pristine" with 1/16" grout lines in our tub surrounds with unsanded grout and love the result. The tiles are nice & large at 9"x18". Here's a couple pics...

For our master shower, we went with Florida Tile's Renaissance with 1/16" grout lines using unsanded grout on the walls. It comes in 4 different colors & the largest wall tile is 10"x 13".

While they are not truly rectified (usually you have to go with natural stone to get truly rectified--cha-ching!$$$$), our tile guy said the edges were cut straight enough to pull off the smaller grout lines. As far as scrubbing tile & grout, the trick is to squeegee after you're finished showering, then you don't get water spots/mineral deposits on the tile and nothing growing in the grout so no grout scrubbing!

Hope this helps!
maryann_m
Original Author
12 years ago
Mydreamhome, thank you for sharing your photos. I like the crown molding treatment above your tub in the first picture. From what I've seen so far in looking at tiles, most places are recommending a 10 x 13 or 10 x 16 tile for tub surround. We need to select our tile soon so that we can move forward with this project!
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Thanks for all the replies! This is our first house, not our "forever" house. We are planning to finish the bath update so we can put our house on the market within the next 8-10 months. Then hopefully we'll be in our "forever" (or at least for a long time) house. :) The tub in the master is somekind of old, original cast iron tub. So I know it will be a pain in the butt for our GC to remove! I'm not much of a bath person except for occasionally, but my hubby likes to take them a little more than occasionally. Really this update is to make our home more attractive to potential buyers and hopefully secure us a fast sale. The master is one of the only things we haven't updated in our home, and we're not planning on spending a fortune. What I DON'T want to do is spend this amt of money period, and then wish I had done the tub. It's in really good condition, but it's so narrow and shallow. I wanted to potentially put in a deeper, wider one, but the walls are an issue. The non-plumbing side is my husband's closet, which is the same size as mine (not very big, but a "walk in," which is the plumbing side.) Moving a wall is an expense I'm not willing to undertake, so that's why I was wondering if we could hack into the wall just a bit where the tub is against my husband's closet. I havent talked about this with my GC yet. I'll do that this week. But y'all have seen that done?? Removing the tub and taking the time/money/effort to create a big walk-in shower is not what I wanted to do. We do have another tub in the hall bath, but not having a tub in the master might make someone not want our house. It's all about resale at this point! At the lowest remodel cost. :)
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I know this is an old thread. I'm comtemplating if I want a tub at all but if I get an air or a jetted tub, if the sides have stone around, how do you reach the motor if you need a repair? Just curious if anyone has dealt with that situation. For my current outdated tub, I can reach the motor through the the cabinet; I have a cut out there. I could do the same thing. But adding a slab of quartz to a tub make for a very expensive tub. Dominique, what did you decide and are you happy with your decision?
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elle3
12 years ago
Mydreamhome, I had to read this post twice, because we are doing two bathrooms--and we chose Florida Tile Pristine for one bathroom, and Renaissance for the other! LOL!
We are doing the 9 x 18 in the walk in shower and the 10 x 13 in the tub/shower.
The walk in shower is our current project, and the other bath will follow (hopefully in the summer).
Nice to see how pretty it looks installed! I did a little digging and saw you got a great price on that tile. I was quoted significantly more...5$ a sq. ft. for wall and 18$ sq ft. for the floor :(
DH can plumb and install tile, but we are considering subbing out the tile and might hold off on ordering it--maybe we can get a contractor discount...
Thanks for posting!
maryann_m
Original Author
12 years ago
Mydreamhome, I have another question. We're planning to create a niche in the tub/shower surround. I've noticed the curved bottom shelf of your niche in the bottom photo you've shared. Maybe I'm not looking at the right places, but I've seen similar curved shelf pieces in other people's niches on this forum, but I've never seen pieces like that in a store. Where do you get them?

We were thinking of using a piece of a marble baseboard or threshold as I've seen mentioned by others. That wouldn't create the rounded edge (which is also OK), but I'm curious where everyone is getting the rounded pieces.
mydreamhome
12 years ago
Good catch, Dreamweaver! We actually used a large marble tile cut to size and design to create the shelf. Our tile guy did it for us based on our specs. It took some work to find just the right color. To do something similar, it will have to be a natural stone product--no other types of tile will work. DH didn't think we needed the extra depth, but I knew we definitely did. The standard depth works fine in the kids' baths but there's just more stuff when there are 2 of you sharing the shower + all the lady stuff :-) Plus it looks pretty!

Hope this helps!

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