welcome to the kerdi world, Suzanne :) i have less overall experience than you do - never even contemplated building a wall myself - and I successfully kerdi'd my new master shower. (my ongoing post is "lisa's master bath remodel") we did the leak test last week and it passed with flying colors. haven't tiled yet... still waiting on the tile... but these guys here are amazing with how much help & support they will give you. so definitely take the leap! my coworkers look at my pictures & just shake their heads - they don't even know what half the words mean :) one thing i may have done differently was to practice using thinset first. i'd never even seen thinset before, so i had no idea what it really was or how it would react to what i did to it. i would recommend getting a piece of whatever you plan to have behind the kerdi and practice mixing up the thinset, putting it on, combing it out, etc. once you get that down, i'd even practice on a small piece of kerdi -it's expensive, but my first wall is so bumpy that i wish i had taken a 12"x12" piece and just gotten a feel for things before i did a whole wall. i wish i had gone slower that first day, too, instead of listening to my friend who has done tiling before & said "just mix up a big bucket - it will go really fast" ha! not for me. but at least with a small batch, if you go fast, you can make the next batch bigger. if i can answer any questions, let me know - bill & mongo are the experts, for sure, but i can offer tips as a female & novice if you need that, too :) good luck! lisa p.s. - thankfully i have another bathroom - can't imagine doing it without one! guess you'll have to be speedier than i am! just do a lot of planning & draw everything out to be sure you think about the edges, wall/floor joints, corners, etc.

There are still some old names around :) I know what you mean about the grout in the shower. I think its important to not use white grout too. We are redoing our masterbath-finally- and we are going with 8x20 glossy(not matte) white plank tiles. Matte seems to be the more popular choice, but I have soft water and we never have any spotting, and I want the reflective quality. What size tiles are in the floor, if the floor tile is 12x24 in the slate I would do a different size in the shower or I think it will look off.

The first photo the floor tiles look too beige with the walls on my monitor. The second photo I do not like the black diamond pieces with your wall tile. The third photo I do not like the dark grey tiles. I am sorry, I know what it is like to be under the gun time wise. I think a white tile that matches your wall is best (like Sina originally suggested is best). Definitely NOT anything marble - ask me how I know :( You have to get the right tile or you will always be unhappy. The tiler can come back another day and you can live without the shower a little longer. If it is the tiler pressuring you then pay him a little extra for an additional trip after you have the right tile. You will always be happy you did.

What does the tile sales person at your local tiling store (not a Big Box store) recommend? If you are the designer/technical director of this project, you will need to learn the ENTIRE tile industry as well as building code to get this job done. You will need to know slip ratings and slope for the shower, etc. You might be better off bringing in a Kitchen/Bath designer to deal with the aesthetics. And a well versed General Contractor who has excellent tile setters on speed dial who can do all the water proofing/etc for you. Doing it properly ONCE is much cheaper than doing it badly twice. The surface stuff, aka tile choice, is the last step of a very long technical journey. Start with the technical stuff and end with the pretty stuff. It might be the boring way to do it, but it is certainly the most important way to do it.