Shower caulk a darker color than the grout....?
tuckerdc
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
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kats737
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Onyx tile shower: where to use caulk vs. grout?
Comments (3)We plan on very tiny joints. Are spacers used for very thin grout lines? Yes. Usually they're small tapered spacers called "marble wedges", as seen in the pic below. but Bill Vincent recommended siliconized latex caulk in another thread. Are there particular brands that perform well? Whatever the brand grout you used, that's the brand of caulking you get, as well, and from the same place, and in the same color as the grout. Just about all grout manufacturers now make their caulkings with antimicrobial agents in them to put a stop to mold and mildew. Do we fill the tub with water before caulking? If it's cast enamel, it's not necessary. If it's plastic or fiberglass, you'd do alot better to make sure the installer supports the "belly" of the tub with mortar or foam. It'll go alot further than filling the tub. The reason for filling the tub is so that excessive movement won't stretch the caulking past its limits. Even a better idea is to limit said movement (which is what you do by supporting the bottom of the tub). Also, I remember a thread mentioning using caulk instead of grout in the "corners," but I am not sure if that means just the bottom corners, or the whole vertical seams where the back and side walls of tile meet. Any place where one wall meets another, or a wall meets a floor (or in this case the tub), it should be caulked....See MoreGrout vs caulk in shower
Comments (15)Thanks, Bill. I talked to my contractor this morning and he said: 1. He used silicone at the corners of the sheet rock. He also said the reason he doesn't like to use caulk at the corners is that even though it is supposed to be the same color as the grout, it really isn't, plus the caulk will crack if the building moves just like grout cracks. I asked him about grout behind the caulk and he said he recommends keeping the bathroom dry by using a squeegie/towel where needed, particularly along the top of the tub. The grout looks so nice I guess I'll wait to see if it cracks. It probably will as the roof needs more work and I guess I'll caulk at that time. 2 and 3. There isn't grout at the tub line. It just looks like it as the grout is the same color as the empty space. (That's what I get for looking at it at night.) 4. OK 5. Tub reglazing was put last on the schedule so that it wouldn't get damaged during the other stages. I am going to have them cover all of the walls up to the tile line, and the floor, with plastic....See MoreInstalled shower tile darker installed than on sample.
Comments (57)Well, I'm back .. for punishment or for info either way ... I never received any email updates on this thread so wasn't sure it was getting any attention or updates .. wow my surprise! Where to start .. well, we didn't hire a CG - which was a bit of a mistake in planning our back bathroom and car port area that was converted to a room - but nonetheless we're learning as we go, as many people do in their first reno. I'm not going to get into why this was converted into a room, we didn't do it, but the previous owners did. They had a leak issue in the room so we fixed it last year. This year we decided to take care of the room itself, and had no ideas what we wanted. We added radiant floor heating, raised the ceiling 2 ft (in the room not the bathroom because of joist limitations, ect), and had roughed in plumbing (without really thinking of a pre-fab shower pan or custom tile and custom glass - this was one of our costly mistakes). Not having a CG - or asking questions ahead of time - cost us. But we're happy with what we have. Now onto the work itself ... behind the walls are DensShield with latricrete HYDRO BAN and HYDRO BANî Sheet Membrane taped seams everywhere ... the grouting lines and tiles were vertical at the top because the house isn't square, and in fact neither are the walls. You'll notice in the picture the tiles get larger on the inside of the shower than they do on the outside. My tiler recommended the lay the tiles that way since the top row would then have a small piece which would be larger on one side than the other. A tapered subway tile Vs what you see now wouldn't have looked as good. So I took his advice. The shower pan he built as well and is in fact sloped 1.5" to the drain from where the glass will start (installation next week) - 2" actually to the inside of the drain. Anyway, we're happy with the job with what he had to work with, tile, colors, ect. The room was painted last night and once the toilet, sink and stacker washer/dryer are in, i'll re-post with the finished color and product - no matter how much criticism. This post was edited by tdub111 on Fri, Oct 24, 14 at 12:35...See MoreBathroom Shower Grout & Caulking
Comments (15)Why not use a clear caulk? Is that a big no no? It might have been 'correct' to match the grout to the caulk but I think the black looks wrong, like an excel spreadsheet with a bold outline around a group of cells......See More
chispa
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PROCreative Tile Eastern CT
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PRODragonfly Tile & Stone Works, Inc.
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Dragonfly Tile & Stone Works, Inc.
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5 years agoDoing one at a time in case my multiples overwhelmed the upload first time I tried...
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Creative Tile Eastern CT
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