Much depends on the wall tile. With Kerdi, you can do it either way, though. The perimeter cuts are more forgiving if the floor is in before the final row of wall tiles. Measure out the height you want the tile to go to...ceiling or ? Using some 1"x 2" strips, finish nail or screw them in place and tile the walls. Next day, remove them and fill the holes with Kerdi-Fix or a silicone caulk. Now you can tile the floor. Put the full pieces close to the walls and fill in with individual pieces cut to fit. Work from the back wall out is easiest. You can use a 4" grinder with a diamond blade to make the cuts. Fit/cut the tiles to within 1/8" of the drain. I would try a 3/16" inch trowel first. Spread some thinset, set a few tiles and then pull them up to check for complete coverage. If not enough, go to a 1/4." Use enough thinset so that you don't get it squeezing up between the tiles...and don't mix it up too thick. Make it a bit like mayonaise. Use a rubber grout float to evenly "bed" the tiles. Do a section at a time so the morter doesn't dry out. The next day, you can measure and cut the bottom wall tiles to fit. I like to use little wedges underneath them to make them fit tight. I leave the drain cover on. Use blue painter's tape to mask it to the edges...trim flush with a razor. Much neater when you go to grout. Generally, grout should be lighter than the darkest pebbles and darker than the lightest. You might consider using Quartz Lock grout, which is a urethane grout, premixed and requires no sealer. Another good one, available from Home Depot is their new "Fusion" grout...also premixed and quite good. Not the cheapest, but the floors aren't a big area. Can also be used for walls. Best of luck on your project!

It makes me feel a lot better knowing someone like you thinks the system is excellent Let me put it this way-- with one exception, every shower I've installed in the last two years has been installed with the Hydroban system. The biggest plus is that if I use the proper Laticrete materials, I can offer my customers a 25 year MANUFACTURER BACKED warranty. What that means is that even though I'm (about to turn) 55, if that shower fails 20 years from now, Laticrete will back the shower system, even if they have to get someone else in there to fix it. That's how good this system is. One other thing to remember-- I've been using their products literally for decades. In that time, I've had occasion to need them to stand behind thir products. No questions asked, once it was determined that it was the product. Labor to demo, labor and materials (inclluding tile) to re-install-- all covered. That's why I stand behind these people. ALL companies have problems from time to time. No one's perfect. But I've never, from any other company, had the kind of customer service I get from them. I have no doubt they'd really stand behind this if it were needed.

I think the best thing I learned is to be incredibly explicit on the front end about your expectations--put it in writing and say it several times--and then to monitor the work carefully day-to-day. I was too trusting that they were doing what I'd asked in the early days. The lion's share of our issues were around the shower construction, and that one is tricky. I'd done a lot of research to understand how it was supposed to be built and waterproofed and had a very clear sense of what we wanted, but what the GC's worker ended up doing was problematic in a lot of ways. The GC was very insistent that it was "how they always do things" (and for all I know, it was--when I circled back to the friends who had recommended the GC, they shared that they had no idea how their bathrooms had been waterproofed). In our area, the shower pan, walls, and waterproofing are all inspected so when I explained how they had been built, the City issued a corrections notice and we worked with the GC and City until we settled on a fix that the City considered "good enough" (but that I am still not especially happy with). Hopefully most of the issues will just shorten the life of the shower rather than cause catastrophic failure, but even that is frustrating for a brand new bathroom. And I should have checked that the new walls were square! This didn't even cross my mind since it seems like a very basic expectation, so we didn't discover this until it was too late to do much about it. It's not too noticeable aesthetically--none of the existing walls are square in our old house so my husband jokes that at least the new ones match--but it caused unnecessary drama when the tiler showed up. All of that initial work was done by the same worker, and the GC was not on site for most of it, so I think just wasn't supervising well enough. Luckily we have been happy with the work of the other subs, but I am mentally prepared for the possibility that we will have to go back and redo the shower in the not-too-distant future. At least if that happens, I'll know what to do differently...we'll see!

Contact Dulles Glass (https://www.dullesglassandmirror.com/). I had exactly the same situation as you (same size Kohler cast iron shower base in an alcove) and did not want holes drilled into the shower base. DG measured, built, and installed a sliding door (one side fixed, the other slides) without drilling into the shower base. Drilling through the tile was required to the hold the fixed wall and top rail. I paid $2025 after negotiation, yeah not cheap. For a DIY job, I had contacted Dreamline (sold at Home Depot) which told me that the following models don't require drilling into the shower base: Model: SHDR-1260728-01 Duet 56-60 in. W x 72 in. H Semi-Frameless Bypass Sliding Shower Model: SHDR-0960720-01 Infinity-Z 56-60 in. W x 72 in. H Semi-Frameless Sliding Shower Door Model: SHDR-1160726-01 Visions 56-60 in. W x 72 in. H Semi-Frameless Sliding Shower Door Here's a great video about installing a shower door. Note that he does NOT drill holes into the shower base. He's installing a Nadoli shower door. I don't know if that brand is available in the US (the presenter is in Canada).