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Remodeling Bathrooms Flooring

New tiles over old on shower floor?

2 years ago

I am in the process of renovating a bathroom, with hex mosaic tiles on the shower floor. The person doing the tiling just finished, and I noticed that there are two different tones of gray on the floor. The tile was from a reputable tile store and all supposedly from the same lot— in fact, the mosaic tile was all in one carton. Nevertheless, there seem to be two different shades and somehow (?!) the tile guy didn’t notice. Because it’s on the floor, it would be very complicated to take it out. The tile guy says he can’t do it without having to redo the whole shower pan, which he does not want to do. But I obviously do not want to live with the mismatched tiles. I’ve been doing a little research and it looks like the easiest way to deal with this might be to put a new floor over this one, using a drain extender. The “old” floor is level and in great shape — it’s brand new! So hopefully that makes this fairly straightforward? I’d appreciate any thoughts/suggestions. Thanks!

Featured Answer

Chrissy Anne

last year

We added teak tiles which my husband cut to size. I know its an old post but for anyone facing this dilemma. Underneath is crappy old 1970 green mosaic. Its held up beautiful, drains well & nice on the feet

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Comments (7)

Nancy in Mich
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
A shower floor cannot be level. It must slope in all directions toward the drain. As for the color problem, a tiling professional should lay out the tiles before spreading the mastic. If he had, he would have discovered the issue. One solution would have been to randomly pull single tiles out of the other sheets and replace most of the tiles on the odd sheets with those of the majority color. A careful homeowner might have checked the whole order and seen the problem, but it is the responsibility of the tiler to be ready before starting the job.
Fori
2 years ago
Wow that's quite a bad match. (I'm sure it's not LEVEL...you just mean nice and smooth.)

I don't know if it can be tiled over but I'm surprised that such a tidy tiler didn't notice! Love how the curb tile lines up...
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It CAN be done, but that doesn't mean it SHOULD be done. They do make covers that can go right over the present drain cover, and then you can tile right over its flange, and that's what holds it down. You first need to make sure there's no foreign material on the tile-- no soap scum, no body oils, no nothing. Then hit it with a sander to rough up the face of the tile, and use an unmodified thinset mixed with a liquid latex additive.
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You have got to be kidding me. Your tile bond is only as good as the bond beneath it. I set 6" x 6" wall tiles and 3" floor tiles in my 4 wall shower 30 years ago and have never had an issue yet. Sure, there are a few very important installation procedures that must be done before and during the actual installation. 1. The original tiles must be solid, sound with no issues. If there are they need to be addressed...pan is intact, wall tiles have no cracks, hollow sounds or mold, drain is solid, etc. 2. All tiles to be covered must be roughened up and I don't suggest a sander but a 4 1/2" grinder w or w/o a serrated diamond blade and score the surfaces well for the thinset to have a good bond. 3. Straight liquid acrylic admix mixed into the thinset (i use a fortified thinset and admix) will not fail you. 4. The back buttering of the tiles and set onto the spread thinset is a good idea but can get tricky to keep the consistent spreads equal to eliminate elevation differences having to tune your tiles in a timely manner. 5. Don't forget to use a beater block to tap onto over the tile surfaces to ensure an even flat surface plane. 6. Grout with a grout sealer admix rather than the penetrating sealer after you grout. I strongly am a believer in this if you don't use epoxy grout. What a mess epoxy is. Score, acrylic admix, back butter, beater block, grout admix and you will have your tile project last forever.
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I hear ya Joe, and i struggle with that all the time. Thing is youre name is on it last. Sure the homeowner says youre off the hook, you educate them and they realize its a Temp fix and its not meeting any standards but here is where you lose me. say months down the road its still failing, maybe worse so now as it harbors all the mess and muck below the patch. And you dont get the call to replace it for whatever reason (im sure you will but hear me out). Now lets say the homeowner is feilding quotes to get a proper shower built and shares with the other potential hire that they attempted a patch repair... well they didnt attempt it themselves JC did the work for them but they fail to tell the other potential hires the handshake deal you and them had and they fail to mention they knew it wasnt the right way to go. Now youre well deserved hard earned respect and name are dragged around by who knows what competitors in youre market ......and all we have Joe is our name, thus I dont touch it for a few quick bucks and many times i go hungry as i pass on work.....if they cant rebuild and do it right......word travels and the finer points of the deal you and said homewoner had may not travel with it........My point in long form! - best
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cat_ky
2 years ago
I dont know if it can be tiled over either, but, I would have a chat with your tile person. I think he is going to know the answer. He did a very nice job of tiling and matching everything up, so much nicer than a lot we see on here. He is obviously very good at what he does, so he will have the answers for you.
Rachel
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks to all of you for your responses. And yes -- sorry for the confusion! I meant smooth (no broken tiles, etc.), not level! It of course slopes down to the drain. Here's a previous thread that includes a bunch of comments about the problems that would arise from trying to replace the floor, but also a mention of something called an EZdraincap that raises the level of the drain and makes it possible to lay the new floor on top of the existing floor: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4515626/can-i-replace-tile-in-shower-floor-only-and-not-walls? That's what I'm hoping could be done. But my tiler has not suggested this (he seems to think I need to live with it) so I thought I'd do a bit of my own research and see if anyone has had experience with this process.
catbuilder
2 years ago
Where are the valve and the shower head located?

I wouldn't be happy with the slivers at the top.

It's possible that it just hasn't finished drying. You can see at least 4 different shades on the floor, with the lighter ones sprinkled throughout.
Rene Newen
last year
Rachel, what did you end up doing with the shower floor? Did you have it tiled over? How did that work?

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