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Soap niche not lined up with tile

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

Hi all,
I hire a company to redo my corner shower. I requested the soap niche to be lined up with the tiles (top and bottom) and the manager acknowledged it. His employees put up some tiles today and the niche isn't quite aligned the way i want. My question is, is it possible to do it according to my request? Or is there a valid reason why they had to do it this way? Thank you!

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Comments (4)

Lars
3 years ago
There could be studs in the wall that should not be removed or cut. If so, the contractor should show you pictures of those studs.
kudzu9
3 years ago
It is possible to do it more symmetrically, but it will involve removing all that tile, changing the dimensions of the niche a bit, redoing all the waterproofing, and re-tiling. What you have, unfortunately, is a long tile and a wall width that is not ideal, because it is slightly longer than three of the tiles, which has resulted in those slivers. You could have a different placement by moving the tiles over to the left a couple of inches, which will give change the slivers into wider pieces. However, I think with that combination of "narrow" wall and long tiles it will be pretty difficult to have everything symmetrical and a large niche. An experienced tile guy could have made this look better, so I have some doubts about the skill of your tile person.

Totally apart from this, it looks like the bottom of the niche is not perfectly horizontal, but is angling down a bit to the left. Is that an optical illusion, or is it off?
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Here is a picture of a Stainless Shelf we built a Shampoo niche for. Notice in my picture and Bills above that the niches fit right into a tile layout. Exactly. Another one; This is not an accident and it shows forethought and helps to make a bathroom Sparkle. Your tile guy? IS he just a tile guy? Can he adjust the framing for you? Should you settle on out of square or no pitch? Their is lost to learn to this process. Bill and I make it look easy. But we both run crews. We have all the toys. All the training. Most don't. Ask this of your tile guy before he prices the job. Bill might do this just because he is picky and know how easy it is. Most are lazy. The extra 20 minutes is down time. Understand the scope of work and you must sign off on the tile lay out. Don't have a chat on Tuesday with your GC and then complain on Sunday it is not perfect. This needs to be decided in the beginning. Do you think Bill didn't know the lay out before he changed the studs? No chance. Learn more about every step. Dig deeper. Who's advice are you following? JW
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Mint tile Minneapolis
3 years ago
placing A niche is a give and take , requires forethought. for example here i let go of wrapping the inside corners, the payout? a centered niche and Full/half tiles at finished edge...
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Creative Tile Eastern CT
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Top and bottom can be adjusted to align with grout joints easily. Foam board, thinset mortar and a tube of sealant done in 20 minutes. Side to side is a different story. That needed to be planned in advance.

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