New shower (wall and pan) tile at a rental - what is the best choice?
Trying to figure out what tile to use for our new shower (walls and shower pan). At the moment, it's an occupied rental and we will keep the dated 12 x 12 on the bathroom floor. Once it is vacated, we will repalce the 12 x 12, but will keep the mahogany laminate.
Please ignore the paint on the walls - we will re-paint everything (walls and cabinets) a white (similar to ultra pure)
the rest of the condo has this mahogany laminate
pre-exisitng counters with options
pre-existing dated 12 x 12 floor tiles with options
So, from the photos...
Shower walls: 1. brown marbled and 2. beige wavy?
Shower pan: 3. penny tiles or 4. hexagons ?
or maybe just 5. plain white (either 12 x24 or subway) for shower walls?
At a later date, I will replace the 12 x 12 in the entire condo so I really don't have to match it now. The mahogany laminate stays.
Thanks in advance.
Comments (20)
everdebz
2 years agoRelated Discussions
What about a 'shower pan' instead of tiled floors?
Comments (31)Weedy, if you see this... I keep running into you here and there, we follow many of the same threads. You give really good advice and are a natural at this design thing. I went into Lowe's this weekend and REALLY looked. I had not really shopped there for 'a few of my favorite things' in quite some time and I was absolutely amazed at the Tile Department selection. I found several things that I really may be able to use so thanks for the steer in the right direction. Still no heated mats, tho. :) If you get a spare moment, I would like to ask one more favor. You mentioned earlier in this thread (I think it was this thread) that your shower clip hardware was designed for a 135 degree angle. Do you know what other angles other than 90 and 135 are available or from whom? (Probably will depend on each person's Glass Guy's resources). If you have a moment could you photograph a close-up of your clip hardware, so I can show my guy (or whomever) that it exists? I would also like to see how the 3/8" glass is mitered for that 135 degree hardware. I know that it is also held together by the header channel at the top. This favor, only if you get a chance. :) Thanks so much, Anne...See Morebest way to get a 48x34 shower pan for tile?
Comments (17)Yes, she's the same daughter from "way back when". Time certainly flies, doesn't it? She never had any issues from her peers in high school regarding being a smart or a hard working girl, or being geared towards STEM. She's well-rounded. Not musical, though she was in the ensemble for the school musicals. Very athletic. An "All Star" in Field hockey, An All Star, All-State and Academic All American in lacrosse. Team MVP for both sports. No issues in college either in terms of her being committed to her academics. A nice transition for her in her freshman year is that she was in the "honors dorm". So she was surrounded by serious students. But they also knew how to party. And they certainly did! She really is on her way, so to speak. In some ways it's easy, in that a STEM-type education easily leads into a STEM-type of profession down the road. My son is the complete opposite. Very musical, in a few bands, he was the lead in the high school musicals, etc. Also athletic. Also team captain, team MVP, etc. While he is intelligent and does well academically, he does well "when he wants to". He's totally a liberal arts kind of guy. Zero, and I mean ZERO interest in STEM. After his freshman year in college, he took a year off to go out-of-country to do volunteer work. He's back in school now. I wont say he's disillusioned...but he's trying to put together "liberal arts education" with "career after graduation" and he's seeing that they don't line up as well as a STEM-education does. There's always the argument that a liberal arts education is just that...a basis for a well-rounded education. He's a prolific reader. While he's on a path, and doing well on the path that he is on, he's trying to figure out where the path leads. So he's still searching. But yes, we are empty-nesters! Good and bad. Miss the kids, but it's fun being adult-ish again. We're not sure what we're going to do long-term with regards to the house. I love this house, the grounds, everything. It's all "us". But I could move. I just have no idea where to move to! My only requirement would be to remain on the water. Ocean, lake, whatever. Both kids have said if we ever sell this house that they want their bedrooms "pulled out of the house" for their children to eventually sleep in. lol. I told them I'll build them new ones. Good news is long-term the kids want to live near us, or want us to live near them. So we'll see how things shake out down the road. Back on your shower topic! If you want to do a mudded pan, you can make your own pitch strips. For example, let's say you're going to use the Laticrete flanged drain. It needs 1-1/4" of mud under the flange. If your drain is off-center, no worries: 1) Take the longest drain-to-wall (not drain-to-corner) measurement. Let's say it's 30". For a code-minimum 1/4" per foot pitch over that 2-1/2' run, you need 5/8ths inch of elevation change. 2) Add 5/8" to 1-1/4" and you'll have a perimeter elevation of 1-7/8", or 1-7/8" thick of mud at the base of each wall. Now the steepest pitch you can have by code is 1/2" per foot. So as long as none of your other wall-to-drain distances are less than half (3) Make your screed strips that will run from the drain flange to the walls or from the drain to the corners. Your screed strips will all go from 1-7/8" tall at the walls (including corners) to 1-1/4" tall at the drain. No matter what their length they will all be 1-7/8" tall at the wall and 1-1/4" tall at the drain. Since your drain is slightly off-center, the four different "triangular-shaped" parts of the floor that make up the inverted pyramid will have slightly different pitches from one another, but each pitched part will be in it's own plane. And you'll have a consistent mud depth around the perimeter of the shower. If you used those manufactured pitch strips, you'd have the same pitch (1/4" per foot throughout) on all four sloped parts of your floor, but the depth of the mud at the walls would vary throughout the shower. So your bottom course of wall tile would have to be scribed for it to fit. Easiest way to make your sloped screed strips is to rip the required slope on a table saw. It's very easy with a home-made scrap wood tapering jig. Some folk like to have a perimeter screed strip (in your case 1-7/8" tall) around the entire perimeter of the shower. They pack the mud against that, then pull the strip, and fill in the gap with mud and pack the gap full. If you do that I recommend tapering one side of the strip (wider at the top, narrower on the bottom), it's easier to pull a tapered strip out of packed mud than a rectangular shaped strip. So: Pack your perimeter mud. Pack your drain flange mud. Fill in the remainder, using the screed strips as your guide. Pull the strips, fill and pack the gaps. Clear as (deck) mud?...See MoreHow to select tile (floor, shower) and shower pans
Comments (30)Hi tmnca! One thing to think about with the Kohler shower pans is whether you may ever be using a shower stool with legs. If you were to get a longer shower bench, the Salient may cause problems because the oval really does have quite a bit of "curb" to it, as shown in Badgergal's photo of her son's shower. With a small shower stool set in the center of the shower, it is fine. If you ever need a longer shower stool, the Bellweather gives you a surface not impeded with the raised oval. I does, however, have a slant to the overall shower floor, so that must be taken into account. I have seen the Bellweather in person. It is a non-slip surface. It almost felt like a surface that would make me trip - catching my foot if I did not pick it up and step. Like if I dragged the foot, it would catch and I would trip and fall. It was a funny feeling to the bottom, and I wondered how it would feel when wet. It was NOT going to feel slippery, though! As for tile in a shower floor, the other reason to have small tiles (besides the grout lines giving traction), is that the small tiles allow the tile layer to better cope with the slant toward the drain. Larger tiles only allow you to slant in one direction. The smaller the tile, the better it is for following contours on a floor that is flowing to a drain from all directions....See MoreConcern about drain installed in new Kohler shower pan
Comments (9)I think the best thing I learned is to be incredibly explicit on the front end about your expectations--put it in writing and say it several times--and then to monitor the work carefully day-to-day. I was too trusting that they were doing what I'd asked in the early days. The lion's share of our issues were around the shower construction, and that one is tricky. I'd done a lot of research to understand how it was supposed to be built and waterproofed and had a very clear sense of what we wanted, but what the GC's worker ended up doing was problematic in a lot of ways. The GC was very insistent that it was "how they always do things" (and for all I know, it was--when I circled back to the friends who had recommended the GC, they shared that they had no idea how their bathrooms had been waterproofed). In our area, the shower pan, walls, and waterproofing are all inspected so when I explained how they had been built, the City issued a corrections notice and we worked with the GC and City until we settled on a fix that the City considered "good enough" (but that I am still not especially happy with). Hopefully most of the issues will just shorten the life of the shower rather than cause catastrophic failure, but even that is frustrating for a brand new bathroom. And I should have checked that the new walls were square! This didn't even cross my mind since it seems like a very basic expectation, so we didn't discover this until it was too late to do much about it. It's not too noticeable aesthetically--none of the existing walls are square in our old house so my husband jokes that at least the new ones match--but it caused unnecessary drama when the tiler showed up. All of that initial work was done by the same worker, and the GC was not on site for most of it, so I think just wasn't supervising well enough. Luckily we have been happy with the work of the other subs, but I am mentally prepared for the possibility that we will have to go back and redo the shower in the not-too-distant future. At least if that happens, I'll know what to do differently...we'll see!...See Morexjjordan
2 years agoxjjordan
2 years agolast modified: 2 years ago
PROBeth H. :
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoI don't understand why you don't redo that tile floor at the same time you're doing the shower. It's not that much more work, the bathroom is already torn up, and you could use the same tile that youre doing inside the shower.
This tile is very gray and griege toned. The marble look does not work w/your vanity or the creamy cultured marble countertop. (are you changing that at any point?)
your laminate is brown/red.
I think you're better off doing something in a plain color that works w/the laminate, is inexpensive and super easy to clean.Doing a pre-formed shower pan would be a great idea. Those smaller mosaic tiles cost more to install, grout and keeping them clean is a nightmare.
pre formed shower pans look like this
If you like this marble look tile, you could use it, but I'd get a diff vanity top.have you seen pre-fab quartz countertops? you could even find a remnant at a local fabricators shop and have them cut it to fit your vanity.
Paint the walls a soft white or soft sage color to go w/the white/gray tile.
BTW, you can paint over that ceramic floor tile w/any color, and use a stencil if you like.
very simple to do and makes a big diff in overall look.
xjjordan thanked Beth H. :xjjordan
2 years agoxjjordan
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoThanks Beth, I am not re-doing that floor tile now because the same old 12 x 12 tiles are in the kitchen, laundry, hallway, and second bath. For cohesiveness, I'm waiting to re-do the floors all together. Promised the tenant we would be quick in the shower work so don't want to do more now, with the tenants living there.
Also, love the paint suggestion, esp. the "Healing Aloe"
How about something more classic that matches everything? White 12 x 24 on walls and white in the shower pan. LIKE THE PHOTO BELOW??
xjjordan
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoWOW, so many thanks for Beth and Lyndee!
Beth, OK, I'll talk to my contractor tomorrow about replacing the bathroom floor tile as well. Must pick something out that works and is stock. tiling is Wed.
SHOWER WALLS: 12 x 24 white polished porcelain tiles, decided. light grey grout.
SHOWER PAN: TBD
(1) OPTION 1: 2 x 2 grey speckled (to be found, Lyndee do you have a daltile link?) Floor and decor is limited with 2x2 and has mostly 1.5-2 inch hex. The 1x1 mosaic with the white 2x2 border also sound nice, but daltile doesn't have the best website. I may have to make a trip to Anaheim to visit them. If I don't find the shower pan tile I want.
(2) OPTION 2:Charcoal herringbone. Beth, do you know where can I find this? I'm also in CA)
Bathroom floors: I agree to avoid dark...maintenance for tenants is time consuming as dust/dirt shows very easily.
Option1: I found a marbled looking hex porcelain (11 x 12) at floor and decor, in stock, which I can use for the bathroom floor. Light grey grout. Unless there is something else that would work better?
or
Option 2: 12 x 24 marbled
venatto II matte porcelain
Yes, a counter replacement is easy and can be done, white quartz would be nice.With "mahogany" laminate (pre-existing in bedroom)
- PRO
Beth H. :
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoI get my tile from State College Distributors in Anaheim. (on tile row. State College between Ball and Katella) Go in and talk to George Solis. show him the pic and mention me.
They have a ton of selections. (most stuff is avail in 1-2 days)
everything I've pictured, they have. Plus more
I did this other one for my neighbor, used the warm griege elongated hex on the shower floor (porcelain) and a 4x12 subway tile. the curb is a quartz backsplash piece cut to length
they wanted a decorative tile on the backwall, so we did this porcelain 8x8. on the floor outside the shower, 24x24 terrazzo-look floor tile. This would be great for rental! and goes w/the laminate.https://www.tilebar.com/rizo-cenere-24x24-terrazzo-look-porcelain-tile.html
This bathroom was 8x5, so I only needed about 8 of those floor tiles.
Since you need them sooner, Go to the anaheim place, show george and see if he has a match.
Do you like this look? next the laminate, and your white shower tiles, I think it would look great.
Kenzzi Paloma 8x8. (this is great for rentals since dirt doesn't show. I'd do a medium gray grout on all your selections. (a stain-proof grout)bring in black handles, maybe diff vanity lights.
Kichler, Lowes:
the place in anaheim has these cement-look alike tiles, as well as everything else!
10x10 hex? comes in all colors. They even have a terrazzo look that would be great for rentalslove this charcoal one.
IvyHill tile, Home Depot
That marble hex you've chosen would look nice. I like the hex way better than the 12x12.24x24 is find if you have the floor space to support it. it's more of modern look, so keep that in mind. hex would be a little more casua
xjjordan thanked Beth H. : everdebz
2 years agoxjjordan
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoThank you to everyone for all your help, esp. Beth - you are AMAZING!
This is what I decided on for my new shower at our rental. I looked at a dozen in stock gray/charcoal (Lowes, HD, Floor and Decor) and this one seems to show staining the least.
- shower floor Antrhacite procelain hex with Mapei Fe grout and
- shower walls (12 x 24) arctic white ceramic with Mapei warm grey grout.
- Bathroom floor - contractor doesn't have time for it now, it seems. I will probably stay away from a marble looking porcelain on the floor. Possibly a terrazzo...to match the grey shower floor/niche.
Lyndee Lee
2 years agoxjjordan
2 years agoFinal shots. Thanks to everyone who helped, esp. Beth H (a serious gem!)
Only zoomed out shot I took. The floor is partially wet. This project took 5 days (start to finish).DIdn't take any photos with the shower door off.
- PRO
Beth H. :
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agothat came out very nice! tile job looks good. can't go wrong w/black and white.
what are the plans for the wall? I think you could do a better color. Plus a few other suggestions.
(what's on the floor? that wood?
Over the toilet, take down that towel bar (use a hook near the shower) and replace w/some wood shelves to warm up the black and white,
(and if you plan on changing the shower glass, something like this black grid would look great, or do a frameless glass)or, you could paint the walls a soft beach-glass color and bring in some marble shelves (try CostPlus World market)
or, do a bit of art or a picture above the toilet, and either the marble, glass or wood shelves above that.
if you like this wall color, try BM Calm.
or if you like more of a warmer griege/neutral like this one, try Pale Oak
the bottom two are a soft beachy tone.
get some towel hooks, a nice towel, maybe a little rug in front of the sink area.What did you end up doing w/the vanity?
Beth H. :