Tiling a Shower – How to Tile a Shower

Gone are the days when a home just follows one overall design or color theme for the entire interior space. The trend today is to have a different theme for each room in the house. Even small hotels particularly the boutique type follow this trend.

This means that you can now break the rules when it comes to designing your home. Even the bathroom can have its own design to make it as comfortable and relaxing as it can be to you and your family every time you use it.

There’s one thing, though, that remains a standard in bathrooms and that is the use of tiles which dates back to the Roman times. Somehow, this part of the house would not be complete with the tiles as flooring and as the finishing touch on the walls.

Tiles make any space look attractive and elegant. And apart from their beauty, they’re also very affordable.

There are numerous tile shower designs to choose from these days. There’s surely one to suit your personal style. They can be bought from home improvement stores, hardware shops and online retailers.

The most common types of tiles available on the market today are the ceramic, quarry and stone. The ceramic tile features an endless array of colors, patterns and shapes and has a smooth surface while the quarry tile is a bit rough and therefore is slip resistant. The quarry type is ideal only for use in floors and not on kitchen counters.

Meanwhile, the stone tile has its own strengths. Marble and granite are classic examples. The most popular between the two, however, is the one made from granite and which is often used in the kitchen as counter tops. Its only downside is that it can easily crack.

Additionally, it needs to be polished regularly and may not always be resistant to heat especially when hot pots are placed on their surface.
The latest tile shower material available today is glass. The most well known glass tile is one that has a mosaic effect. This normally features thousands of very small square glass tiles in various colors and is considered to be environment friendly.

It’s up to you which tile shower among the three to use in your bathroom. It will depend on your design theme and your budget. Each has its own beauty but the most important thing to consider is it should match the bathroom’s overall design and color theme.

Depending on your preference, tiles can be installed in a straight manner or they can also be used diagonally to create a unique effect in your bathroom. You can choose to install them only on the floor and half of the walls or around the entire bathroom from floor to ceiling.

An important thing to take note of when choosing a tile shower design is to pick one that is non-porous. This is usually textured and not likely to cause slips. Keep in mind that water is the number one factor that can make your floor slippery so avoid getting the smooth tiles for your flooring.

Your home is the haven that you ought to be able to go to at the end of a long work day. For many people, their homes are the one place where they can let go of their worries no matter what. And, one of the most comforting places in the house is the bathroom. Nothing can help shed the stresses of daily life more than a long hot bath or shower. Indeed, a lot of homeowners pay particular attention to this special room in the house.

One of the things that you can do to make your bathroom much better is to tile the shower. Tiling a shower provides a lot of advantages. One, tiling your shower adds beauty to it. Depending on the style and quality of the tiles that you use, you can change the look and feel of your shower. Two, tiling your shower adds durability. There are a lot of high quality tiles available in the market – tiles that will not break the bank. For a reasonable price, you can make your shower walls and floor more resistant to wear and tear. Three, tiling your shower can raise the value of your home in case you are looking to sell it in the near future.

How do you tile your shower without putting too much pressure on yourself?

First, you have to strip down the shower stall. You have to do this down to studs. Take note that you may also have to remove the ceiling and the shower pan as well.

Second, purchase a vapor barrier and install it on the walls. This is very important as without a vapor barrier, mold and mildew can grow between the tiles and the wall. The best barriers to use are Wedi boards. Alternatively, you may use drywall or cement boards.

If you do not use cement boards for vapor barriers, you will still need to put cement boards over them. This is where you will have to put a layer of thinset, which will hold the tiles in place. Before you apply the thinset, make sure that the board is a bit damp, so as to avoid cracking.

When tiling your shower, you ought to start at the bottom. Spread a layer of thinset for the bottom row and the press a tile onto the surface. Before laying out another tile, remove the initial tile and check the back if there is enough thinset to hold it. You should then re-apply the tile and continue around the walls to complete the bottom row. Once this is done, wait for 24 hours before going through the entire procedure for each row.

When you’ve tiled all the walls, leave the tiles to set for another 24-48 hours. The next step is to grout the tiles. You will need 30 minutes to an hour (depending on the kind of grout you use) before you can wipe off the excess grout to get sparkling clean tiles. This will need to set for another 24-48 hours before you can start sealing.

At the end of your project, you will have a whole new shower which can give you a lot of pleasure!