@millworkman, good to see you here my friend! :) Cement board went up in my bathroom and a hole was cut for the prefabricated niche. Went over with the niche in hand and naturally it doesn't fit. Why is everything so hard?? The niche flange is sitting at least 1/4" proud of cement board, though it should have been the right depth. Confused as to how this could be happening, I ran a straight edge across the cement board from edge to edge and can see that the center of the board (where the niche sits) dips in. Guess my contractor didn't bother to check if the board was level. So now I'm thinking ahead to the tile job (I picked 6x12" tiles) and from multiple posts, can see that what you are tiling on needs to be flat. I showed my contractor and he said that the wall does not need to be flat and that you can even all the tiles out by adding more mortar where necessary. A whole internet of posts seem to disagree with him. Ugh! So since he clearly doesn't give a crap how my apartment turns out, I'll sort it out myself even though I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Here's what I've come up with. 1) leave the niche proud and try to level around it with thinset, thereby also leveling out the wall. I'm not sure if this is beyond my technical capabilities. I was impressed will all the divets I filled in the drywall (yeah, my GC sucks), but cement might be another ballgame to drywall mud and this is a much larger area. 2) Cement board is quite flexible. Maybe I can add some shims between the board and the stud to bring it out a bit? 3) Cut the outer layer of drywall out behind the niche (it faces a closet). Then the niche flange will sit flat on the cement board and I can feather down the small lip with thinset. The wall itself will still not be flat with this option. Enter the chicken wire mentioned earlier in this post for leveling out the wall. Seems like a great idea and I can pass it on to the tiler!! Is this a common technique employed by tilers when faced with uneven walls or am I going to have to find a creative one? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Here are some pics to illustrate the problem: At the worst point, the niche flange is probably 1/4" proud of the wall. Top seems ok'ish, but this is a LONG niche (36") Running a straight edge along the wall while holding the two side in place. The center of the board clearly dips in.

With a tub/shower combo, I am a huge proponent of curved shower rod and curtain over glass doors. It makes for a much more comfortable shower. With that layout, it will be easier to enter and exit as well. Shower curtains can be left open to show the tile. You can use them as a decorative element of the bathroom as well and they are easy to just throw in the wash and clean from time to time making them much lower maintenance than any glass door. (Squeegeeing after every shower with glass to make it easy to clean later I still feel is a hassle). Double shower hooks make for easy hanging and removal of both a liner and curtain. For a higher end look, you can put your rod at ceiling height and make a custom curtain that extends to the floor. This is not what I personally prefer as it makes it more difficult to put up and take down and since you do not have a light in the shower would make your shower too dark.

A lot of showers are built without moisture barriers, although I think it's cutting a corner. I ripped out a 3 year old shower in my previous house that didn't have a moisture barrier and there wasn't a lick of mold (ripped it out to change the tile, not because of mold or moisture problems). I am going to guess that the wall tile is set in cement board, which is water resistant, which is why builders don't use a barrier, but not waterproof. As for the floor, using tar to waterproof the pan is routine, you should be ok. Again, I think the bigger concern is whether tile will pop loose on the floor.

The fix is to remove it and source better tile. The installer should have put the breaks on and refused this tile order when he went to the vendor to pic it up and pay the balance. Since the tile installer bought the tile approved the tile and installed the tile id say he or she is responsible. Wait, You didnt source and buy the tile yourself did you? I just dont know any professional tile installers that would go ahead and install this material, usually its A novice or handyman that havent been down this road yet, begs the questions who did you hire and what installation standards are referenced in your agreement? who bought the tile? Someone else had posted earlier and had misquoted the TCNA standards I thought id clear that up for anyone serious about the tile trades and standards and is getting misinformed on houzz(surely well intended).. Understanding the TCNA and how ANSI is implemented is indeed a little tricky if you not in the tile trades but to clarify . It is ANSI A137.1 that sets the spec for Allowable warpage in tile as being acceptable from MFG. While they may make recommendations on how to minimize lippage, its the tile mfg themselves that shall spec their products stagger. In many cases the tile gets sold and its already not in ANSI tolerances from the get go. One more reason I as the end installer must control the tile purchase and selction or pass on the job. You can learn more here: