Subway tile shower: niche 3/8" higher than 2nd niche. Noticeable?
Would you notice if niches on opposite walls 5.5' apart, niches diagonal from each other (1 near back wall, 1 near shower curtain), were 3/8" off height-wise?
Walls are 3"x6" white subway tile, 50% offset, Bright White grout. Shower total size: 5.5' x 3' x 83" high (i.e., shorter than usual). Painted white ceiling. Some visual clutter could divert my eyes I think? (slide bar for handheld shower; fixed head other side; grab bar along back wall.)
The niches will be tiled with the same 3x6 subway tile, grout lines to
match w/walls as if continuous 50% offset, bullnose on inside like
photo. (except the tile above and below the niche are cut - neither are full tile like photo.)
The only reason I think I will notice is b/c of the subway tile - straight line pattern. I'm hoping you all tell me I'm ridiculous. Tile guy is willing to re-do whatever I want, and if not now we'll never re-do it, but weighing that against the fact that we are VERY tired of reno work. He'd have to rip out 2 tiles deep from all edges of the non-shelf niche to get to the screws to move it up 3/8".
Do you think I'm stuck using white grout? I.e., I was thinking of going light gray, but do you think then I would notice the 3/8" difference?
Comments (9)
cpartist
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Tile experts - Help, please! Niche with marble shelf
Comments (13)DH here. Conventional wood framing, then hardbacker, which adjoined to the rest of the hardbacker that formed the shower walls. In other words, the niche is simply part of the wall. Warning -- if possible, frame the niche at least 2 inches larger than your desired final niche opening dimensions, and don't seal with Hardibacker, nor sparkle with thin-set, until your tiler does the actual tile layout measurements. Depending upon where the tile lines lay, you may want to add layers of Hardibacker to fill so that you don't have to notch tiles at the corners. Then, we waterproofed the entire hardbacker surface (walls and nook) using three coats of Laticrete's Hydroban product (rolls on like thick goopy paint, dries to form a rubber-like seal). According to our tiler, if/when water gets behind the tile (wall or nook), it slides down the Hydroban and exits into the tub. Had to shim walls to make sure the Inside edge of the Hardibacker overhangs the raised lip of the tub, so that water sliding down behind the tile exits inside the lip of the tub. Apparently, an alternative to shimming the studs is to notch the framing so the tub lip sinks into the framing by 1/4", which lets the Hardibacker's inside edge sit inside the lip of the tub. That also helps the tiler bring the tile down inside the tub lip without angling the last row of tile in to clear the lip....See MoreBathroom niche for beveled subway tile
Comments (18)I like them. Though I do agree with you, that if you were Samantha and could twitch your nose to do a redo, I'd match the grout colour to the tiles. But, I would definitely not do it over now! Linelle is right, and as others have pointed out, once the niches are jam-packed you won't give it another thought! You have no idea how much work and how much I fussed over the mosaic limestone back to my niche. Can barely even see it. In fact my sister just saw it for the first time, and as she has JUST finished re-tiling her BR by herself, she was totally closely inspecting ours. I don't think she even noticed the limestone in the niche....See MoreShow me your shower niches and/or accent tiles--
Comments (50)Thank you for posting that example! I was just checking in on this thread hoping to see an example of where I might locate it on a tub/shower wall in terms of height since I will want to access it while lying down as well as while standing. Not a big deal (obviously!!!) but I want it to look right and to function right. I'm sure he is going to lose it on me. I have found all of this quite stressful at a time when work is also quite stressful. Oh well. This, along with a couple of the bathroom rated command hooks for loofahs and we should be all good for storage sice none of my bottles are more than 13 inches tall. I was not thinking quite clearly yesterday when I went to the Tile Shop. I wonder if he will also charge me $200 for tiling the little one? I hope not. He really seems lacking in creativity and a desire to do anything beyond what he "has seen" or certainly to do what I want; first on today's agenda will be me telling him that we are going to find a way to recess a medicine cabinet in a structural wall (after all it does support only the roof, not another whole story). He told me yesterday it would be impossible to do so. I really think he usually just doesn't want to do the work or put in the effort and hopes I will just take him at his word if he seems unpleasant enough to deal with. What s smart strategy! It really is not reflected in his other AL reviews but maybe they just took it as him being a seasoned authority. I probably should remind him I am an Angie's list member....See MoreTwo different grout colors in one bathroom? Shower niche?
Comments (11)For some reason several notifications popped up today that I never knew were on this thread or a couple others. I thought it may be helpful to some who may read through this (and reassuring to those who were concerned) to see in first two photos the watertight way the shower was structured, then in last two photos are the colors of grout/what I ended up doing (per my original purpose of posting this question on Houzz) : ^^^This red/pink stuff is the waterproof material that was put all over the shower/in niche/etc before the tile went on. And as I had mentioned in prior comments, a large curb was always the plan as you will see in this almost-finished photo :) *Note: The unfinished window is a reflection and not actually in the shower Finally, for those who looked at this thread in search for answers to their own questions about grout colors, I went with Tec Dove Gray Sanded Powergrout on the floor and niche (wherever the hex was), and Tec Silverado Unsanded regular grout on the walls with Powerboost added (to make the unhanded grout a form of Powergrout) on the walls...choosing the lighter gray to soften the bright white so that it would work better with the warm white vanity. The Powergrout has posed no issues whatsoever in the last month since the shower has been used. We did seal the floors/walls for additional mold/mildew/stain resistance. This is a good representation of what the colors of tile and grout look like in reality...the Dove Gray appears a bit softer in person though....See More
jellytoast
6 years ago
roarah
6 years ago
PROCreative Tile Eastern CT
6 years agoamanda99999
6 years agopalimpsest
6 years agoI think this is what you are saying.
Your niches are not like the original image but they are lined up in the middle of a row of tiles. But within that row, one niche is 3/8" higher than the other, like this:
It would bug the heck out of me that they didn't start on a full tile in the first place, but that's usually how it ends up most of the time, like A or B. On top of that there is the3/8" height difference.
I would have to compensate for this at the very least but using grout that matched the tile so I wasn't visually measuring that all the time. However, I was trained to differentiate between 0.5 of a mm for my job at one point, so 3/8" is huge to me visually. Not so with many people.
Why do you know about it? Did you notice it yourself? If you did I think you have to have him change it. But if not, use grout that minimizes it.
thatsmuchbetter
6 years ago
lazy_gardens