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Tile guys - how to tile the end of the knee wall? How to top it?

16 years ago

My bathroom remodel is going to involve the construction of a knee wall to turn my bathtub from a corner to a 3-wall alcove installation. Sketch (courtesy of Tom P Pa):

I don't know how thick that wall needs to be to accomodate a shower valve and such, but I assume it will be the standard 5". I want it to end flush with the edge of the bathtub, instead of having it extend past the edge as shown. Is this possible, or will I have leakage problems? I was planning to top it with a glass slab - I've seen some glass saddles that would work, or I could have something fabricated by the people who do my shower door. Again, though, I wonder about water issues. Any better ideas are more than welcome!

Anyway, this means that I'll have a 5" wide area to tile with 3x6 white subways. Hm. How do I get 2 finished edges on a 5" area with 3x6 tiles? Do I even need finished edges on both sides? I ordered 3" bullnose to do the outcorner, so can I just use those and leave the cut, non-bullnosed side flush with the edge of the tub? Will that look weird and unfinished, or will it be hidden by caulk? Also, will it look strange to have those tiles stacked when all the rest of the room is done in a running brick pattern? Should I order some 6" bullnose pieces and run them vertically to make a kind of border on that edge? Opinions appreciated - thank you!

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Comments (5)

biondanonima
Original Author
16 years ago
Bumping...
stonegray
16 years ago
I can only address part of your question. In another house we had a bath with a knee wall like yours, the knee wall extended a bullnose tile
width beyond the tub's side.
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Joe, I usually figure things from my finished surface backwards, back into the wall. If I needed to bring the face of my cement board out 1/4", I'd add 1/4" thick rips off of a stud to the faces of the existing studs. THEN I'd install the cement board. If a wall is really wacky, then I'll run a horizontal string line across the faces of the studs up top, and another down at the bottom of the wall. I'll use small blocks or screws to keep the strings about 1/4" away from where I wish the faces of the studs were. Then I'll add new studs, screwing them to the old studs. Or if you have a nail gun you can air nail. I prefer to not hand mail in remodeling as the hammering can wreck things...like plaster on the other side of the studs. Using the string lines as my guide, I'll keep the faces of the new studs 1/4" behind the string. That'll make the faces of the new stud all in plane. Happy New Year, Mongo
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Bill thank you so much for your insight on the thin set. I have opted to go with a row of subway tiles on top of the chair rail with a 3/4 round on top of the tile. This chair rail runs through the shower as well & I think it will be beautiful this way as well. The chair rail on one end of tub lines up with vanity marble top so aesthetically it should work out!?! Will post pics when tile is in.
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Yes, that's it in the pics. Rittenhouse Square K101 White (I was wrong above with the K100-- I just moved 2 leftover boxes from that job this afternoon-- saw the label, and said OOPS!!). As for the return piece, look at the last piece before it goes into the shower on the right side. What I did was put a 45 degree miter on that last piece, and the cut a wedge shaped "plug" to fill in that miter cut, so that there was a finished piece facing the side from which the picture was taken.
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If you take the tile all the way to the edge of the countertop, then you have to figure out what to do with the exposed ''shoulder'' corner of the backsplash. Does the pencil edging (listello?) stop there? Does it wrap around to a short bit that terminates at the cabinet side? It can't actually bend, so there will be a separate short stub that has to be mitered. Then how does it end at the cabinet? Just butted against the wood? You're going to be calling attention to that detail - is that what you want? You'll have to clean it too. Is there an equivalent situation on the other end of the counter run? Will you handle it the same way, is there room, or will the difference bug you? Now look at the subways and how they are laid out. If you want to extend the backsplash by an inch, there will be awkward little 1'' slivers of subway tile against the pencil/listello. Some people (me) will look at that and think there's a tilesetter who didn't lay out his tile competently. A lot of stuff to think through - I like it as is, personally don't think the look will be improved by extending for another inch, and also think this needed to be thought about before tiling began. At this point, I'm not sure there is a graceful way to add an inch.
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igloochic
16 years ago
My knee wall issue is taken care of with mitered tiles on the outside portion butting up to mitered tiles on each side. (so it fits like a picture frame). I don't know why you couldn't do the same, and on every other row have a split tile with a center line (the stacked look). The miter is cut on site, and you need to use some very good grout to make those edges strong but the look is good.

My tile is travertine on this wall, but I'm doing the same on the tub surround with my italian ceramic tile (didn't offer a bullnose edge) so I don't see that it would be a problem with your tiles...Bill or Mongo can beat me up for that statement if it's incorrect :) I'm just telling you what we're going to be doing with both ceramics and stone. (And it does look great!)
biondanonima
Original Author
16 years ago
Igloo - I was wondering about mitering tiles when I was ordering my tile and realizing that I was paying just as much for 25 linear ft of bullnose as I did for 135 square feet of field!!! I assume they do a miter cut for inner corners, so why not finish the outcorners that way too and save a zillion dollars on tile??? Anyway, glad to know that's doable (unless it's not - Bill, Mongo, opinions?). Thank you!
biondanonima
Original Author
16 years ago
One more bump...

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