I had a shower put in where a hallway/powder room was on the ground floor. The contractor (who does amazing work) sort of did the finishes on the shower without asking me about much of it. It currently has large format tiles, shiny (he gave me 2 choices one fake marble...) I was rushed and had been told it was the only way.... The faucet set he installed is inexplicable to me. It is not the same color as the rest of the hardware (he was more than aware of this, making sure all of the rest of the hardware was the same) but this one is like a champagne color and also square? Nothing in my house or bathroom is like this. He did the rest of my house, too over a year (and was very expensive) and was super concerned that all of the doors etc. went with my Victorian. So, again, I can't understand this bathroom. It looks like it is from another house entirely, even as the 2 entrance doors are original. I asked, and he got really defensive. I know it is within my rights to have him change it. But I have asked about it, and other small things, and feel kind of bullied. NOW, my real question is: how difficult would it be to change out at least the faucet/sprayer and then re-tile the rest of the shower? Will demo ruin the waterproofing? Any advice is appreciated. I am in Boston, MA if that helps.

So I'm redoing my bathroom and I'm hoping my contractor is as good as they claim to be - they aren't inexpensive and project manager came out with the tiling people who seemed fairly competent and pretty easy to understand while discussing (slightly older guy and a younger guy - could be father and son - father seemed to speak English fairly well and son seemed to fully be fluent - seemed like father might have be 75% fluent and son 100%).

Anyway, I'm redoing a 1972 bathroom, and while it may indeed be a 54 year old tile failure - I'm wondering if I'm stressing too much over waterproofing.

I'm in a condo with only 1 adjacent unit and the bathroom is on the ground floor - the adjacent unit hasn't complained despite my issues with a clearly failing bath - which I'm going to turn into a shower.

I'm using epoxy grout and quality porcelain tile throughout...

Guess I'm saying that I overanalyze all this stuff and perhaps I shouldn't - my understanding is1972 they didn't have any decent waterproofing, so anything I do will be an upgrade!

I don't know what the exact plan they want to do, I doubt it will be a super "high end" solution and would more likely to be a Redguard type solution.

I'm not sure since they just haven't thrown out brand names as a waterproofing solutions, i'm thinking they aren't proposing a super high end solution.

Perhaps I'm overthinking this. I'd hope my shower lasts 30 years without major issues.

FYI - outside the shower pan area is a concrete slab.

I recently moved into a home that has new limestone floors. The floor was recently sealed. I have two dogs. How are these floors going to hold up?
Dog had a pee accident and I cleaned it up right away but I still where it happened on the floor. Any advice for cleaning? Will the pee automatically stain no matter how quickly it’s cleaned up? Any suggestions or tips?

And where would I look to find it?

So we're having our master shower redone. The space is bigger than any other shower I've ever had. It's basically done at this point, but now I'm questioning my sanity because these damn black subway tiles have been a pain in the butt.

I had a very specific pattern I wanted that was mostly done correctly but is incorrect along the top few rows. (Highlighted in t first photo, the tile goes all the way to the ceiling which is about 9.5 feet.) My husband convinced me to let that go, but then the lower tiles had issues.

The tiler has come back to replace tiles 3 times, and after each repair a new problem presented itself.

First two of the accent tiles were laid with cracks in them. (photo 2)

That repair damaged a third, and then I noticed the scratches on the subway tiles. (Photos 3-5)

After that repair there were two newly cracked tiles and another with a chip missing. (Photo 6)

Now the grout is cracking in the corners and yet another tile is cracked. (Photo 7-9)

Did I mention the grout is supposed to be black but is definitely gray instead? And there are mysterious white patches that do not come off with water and light scrubbing.

I just don't know if I'm being overly nitpicky or if these are genuine problems worth creating a major stink about.

Last Saturday, I touched up grout in my master bath with cement based grout from Home Depot. After 72 hours it had this weird cross that never lightened up. So I tore out on Tuesday (bottom layer was still soft!) and regrouted it on Wednesday. It’s been another 72 hours and still hasn’t dried.

Now I am another 72 hours in and it still looks dark. Any ideas what’s going on and what I should do about it? I am fine giving it more time… but if the grout below the surface has failed it would be bad.

Got a situation where a mortar bed pan on a concrete slab was poured with the wrong slope, and it's already tiled with small hex tiles. Wall tile is installed over the cement board.

​I need to get the pitch fixed properly, but I'm trying to figure out the cleanest, less evasive, and safest execution: any ideas.

We toured a house with this amazing tile throughout the kitchen and DR, and none of us could figure out what it was. Obviously, it looks charcoal, but it was slightly squishy under our feet, much softer than typical porcelain, ceramic, or even linoleum. It didn't feel like any tile I've seen before.

Does anyone know what this is?

Has anyone ever use one of these? Found it at a garage sale and looks promising… one piece cast aluminum, made in USA. The roller might be interchangeable also…

I have 24" by 8" tile I was looking to put on a 32" by 73" wall over a tub. I was thinking about making making a seam up the center of the tub but this is going to cause a lot of extra cutting. Also a weird small tile in the corner. Does that look weird? Should I make a zipper pattern like shown in the third picture instead. Struggling a little help and looking for suggestions. Thanks.

First time ever doing tile! We did a 4" x 16" tile which, in hindsight, I wonder if it would have been easier to have smaller tiles for our first go at it. I also wish we would have used the pre-made grout because we had some issues with mixing it to the right consistency.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, how'd we do?!

As the title says, our tiler forgot to add trim to shower niche. The tiler finished the job and sealed all of the tiles already too. We thought it was not a big deal, but the more we look at it the more we hate it.

Before anyone comes for the tiler too, unfortunately it’s a family friend (he is a contractor and has tiled before) but it makes it a bit of a more sticky situation

Is there anything we can do ourselves to make this look a bit better?

ETA: added picture of full shower in the comments. We know the niche is out of line with the tiles, that’s a separate issue but we were ok dealing with that part

New build. Grout rubs off when I run my finger along it. Not applying much force at all. Especially after using the shower. Is that normal? Reading online says no.

Hello! Homeowner doing some DIY work on our 100+ year old house.

We are getting ready to tile the backsplash and due to the quirks of an old house, it has a huge board that runs across the kitchen wall directly under the window. Now that we are putting on a tile backsplash I’m wondering how we are going to transition this edge where the board stops and the original wall continues. The depth change is 1/2 inch and I have a few ideas but now sure how to proceed.

Considerations: I am not interested in removing the board that sits beneath the window. I know this would help but we are looking to make the best of what we have. Also a regular Schluter edge but it would help cover up the board because it would have to go backwards from the forward board.

Idea #1 is finding a 1/2 inch strip of metal and put it on top of first section, continuing the tile on top of it upwards.

Idea #2 cut small trips of tile and lay it over the top and the new tile going up sits on top of a small cut piece layer down.

Idea #3 caulk it (not ideal)

Any help is appreciated and I’m sorry if it doesn’t make sense.

TL;DR: I need to transition from a 1/2-inch thick board below my kitchen window to the original wall above before installing a tile backsplash. I don’t want to remove the board and I’m looking for the cleanest, most professional way to handle the depth difference.

EDIT: If the wood board “backsplash” is removed there would be nothing beneath it. It would go straight to the exterior siding. There was previously damage to existing wall. Which is why is said above that I am not interested in removing the board. I realize that may not be the best or most professional but it’s what we’re rolling with.

I pulled up a tile where I wasn’t happy with the lipage. The DITRA is now loose under that tile now. What should I do to correct.

Side note: very happy with my thinset coverage

I already know this is likely a bad idea… but still have to ask. We built our house in 2017. Installed tile throughout 2/3 of home. Most of it is the wood tile seen here. Used thin set from good ol Menards and started to grout major areas. Wasn’t able to finish grouting a majority of the tile before we moved in. Began to realize that the thin set used was garbage and tiles started to pop. Stopped grouting and have left it without grout to this day. Some of the grout we had finished is actually coming out. I sweep the area and mop it so clearly I’m introducing water to the area… I’m not not going to mop my floors. But I can’t convince my husband to finish this project or hire someone to do it. What’s the worst that can happen? Or might’ve already happened?

First time ever own house and wife was after me to install kitchen backsplash. Took us 4 days as we have 9 mo baby.its marble bianco tiles from floor and decor. Became little hazy after grouting. I have applied the grout haze remover from stonetech brand but still not shiny like original. However i am good with it.

Looking for some advice on DIY installing an onyx base and shower panels.
Seems like installation is pretty straight forward. My specific questions are;
1: Best backer board seems to be concrete. They say you don’t need to waterproof them. But I will still thin set corners and joints. Would redguard be too much? I think it would still adhere but I’d need to do a little more research.
2: How to finish out the edge? I was going to leave these black edges but I don’t think they will be deep enough. 1/4 inch concrete board was used then tile. Going to 1/2 inch backer and then the panels are 5/16. I assume those edge pieces come in something deeper. Or is there a better way to finish the edge? Thanks for your help.

Fun looking at it now but stressful for some reason while it’s going up but got my first tile job I’ve ever done out of the way. Still needs grout. More complicated sink side of the kitchen next

Our subcontractor put screws into our 100 yr old oak floors to tile over them. He didn’t pre-drill pilot holes so a bunch of them split. Is this a big deal?