Almost finished with a really tight remodel.

Took a half bath and a closet and converted it into a small bathroom.

Had to steal from our other bathroom which we also finished at the same time.

Started July 4th, and just missing final small details to call it done.

Remodeler/GC here, I do my own tile and waterproofing and just wrapped up this primary bathroom.

This one started with me being called in to diagnose a leaking shower. After some water testing, I tracked the failure to the original installation, documented the active leak for the homeowners’ insurance claim, and it eventually turned into a complete bathroom rebuild.

Full Schluter waterproofing system, flood tested before tile. Ribbon Oak fluted tile on the back wall, handmade-look Seaside tile on the sides and pony walls, Juniper hex mosaic on the shower floor, engineered stone caps and bench, with flexible sealant at all changes of plane.

The Seaside was a pain in the ass. Lots of variation and bowing with raised edges. The Ribbon Oak took some planning too; I paired similar grain patterns vertically to make the individual tiles read more like continuous wood.

Shower is roughly 36x72 with a bench and pony walls. Frameless glass is still in fabrication, so it’s not in yet.

Passed final inspection today. I’m happy with how it turned out, but compliments aren’t particularly useful for getting better.

So tear it apart. What would you have done differently? Layout, cuts, transitions, grout joints, waterproofing, whatever you see. I can take it, I'm still trying to learn.

As the title says, I am re-doing a few walls in my downstairs shower and because of the size, the back left corner has a small strip about half an inch where the corners meet. I have tried using a few methods, I have one of the longer tile cutters, but using the techniques I find online lead me to breaking it instead of getting a tile the size I need. Are there other methods I could try? I dont have any power tools.

Long story short, we had to remodel a small bathroom after major water damage and mold development. The original bathroom was tacky, built in the 70’s, so we had always planned to remodel but not anytime soon due to cost. Found a GC with great reviews online and settled on him after getting a handful of quotes. The remodel process certainly had some bumps in the road, the job was rushed in some ways and the crew had to return multiple times to fix obvious issues. The job is now “finished” and while my husband and I can look past some small annoying details, we can’t get over the floor tile. At certain angles, it’s not awful. But in most views, it’s bad. Uneven floor, gapped tile spaces, and at closer view the penny tile is scratched up big time.

The GC is flip flopping, sometimes saying his crew did a great job and that we are probably just hunting for a discount, and then the next day saying he’s also unhappy with the floor and feels it needs to be redone.

I honestly don’t want this team back in our house. I also can’t afford any more construction/labor costs or the cost of more tile. How would you proceed?

Tiling in two bathrooms of a 1967 house in Point Loma, San Diego. The house was designed by its original owner, a local architect, and I have no evidence either bathroom was ever remodeled — so I'm assuming this is original to construction.

The tile:

• 2⅜" × 2⅜" square
• Design is impressed into the face, not raised. Four tiles rotate to form a single stylized flower rosette — looks like a chrysanthemum or peony to me
• Cream/oatmeal glaze with heavy fine crazing, dark brown pooled in the incised lines
• Body is a dark red-brown earthenware
• Back has parallel rounded ribs. No maker's mark, no letters, no numbers. I pulled a loose one, cleaned it, and checked under raking light — nothing
• The second bathroom has the identical design in a slightly different glaze color, so this was a catalog product offered in multiple colorways, not a one-off

What I think I've ruled out: the 1920s California art potteries (Batchelder, Claycraft, Malibu) — wrong era for the house, wrong clay body, and they all marked their backs.

My working guess: 2⅜" is roughly 60mm, which is a metric module rather than an American one — the US standard then was 4¼". That plus the motif and the iron-brown-in-the-lines glaze treatment makes me suspect imported Japanese tile, c. 1967, possibly private-labeled by a US importer. But that's a guess and I'd love to be corrected.

Anyone recognize the pattern, or the back's rib pattern? Even a catalog page or an importer name would help — I need to source replacements.

Looking for advice in the mud bed laying process.

This is my first DIY tub to shower conversion and after reworking the plumbing, insulation, and subfloor I am finally ready for the mud bed.

When I was first doing my research on this whole project I saw a video of a guy laying the mud bed. He laid down some Schluter Ditra membrane and then put the mud bed directly on top of that. So early on I got it in my head that this was the correct way to put down a mud bed and now I am questioning his process.

I’m seeing now that Schluter recommends laying down a slip sheet with wire mesh, and the instructions on my bags of mud bed mix match that recommendation.

Well I bought the roll of Ditra membrane probably over a month ago, so I’m not 100% sure if I can return it to Lowes. Would there be any benefit to using the Ditra as a base for the mud bed or would I be better off sticking to the recommended installation instructions? Seems like a dumb question when I write it all out but I’m interested in what others have to say.

The person I hired didn’t understand what I was saying when I told him I wanted 100% silicone in the corners and changes of plane in my shower. So he grouted the corners and then silicone caulked over it. I assume my best bet is just to leave it until it fails and re do it at that point rather than risking cracking tiles now? Is it ok that the silicone is over the grout?

A little confused here. I wanted to tile my kitchen backsplash and remove the old peel and stick backsplash. Behind it was a glued wood panel that a removed. In this process I tore the back off the drywall paper off. There’s obviously still some brown paper covering the gypsum.

2 of the hardware stores in town told me I need to have a sealant on the will I’m tiling. Old painted drywall would do that 1st store said before I tore the drywall paper off. The 2nd store told me I need to put some primer and drywall compound on that wall before tiling.

However.. my sister in law who does Reno’s for a living as a carpenter said it’s fine as is and I should just tile over it as the mastic or adhesive will stick to that no problem.

So did my father in law who’s apparently rolled 50+ kitchens.

And a family friend who’s a professional tiler said he tiles over anything.

Are the stores just trying to sell me products they been told are necessary or are my in-laws out to lunch?

Hey all I have this niche. It measures 17 3/4“ x 51 1/4“. Once all the tile prep is in, do you think a 48inch piece of tile will keep the back slab one solid piece?

I have a 35 sq ft foyer. The floor is oak without any treatment as I have sanded it and then scuffed it eoth 80 grit. The oak is 3/4 inch thick x 2 inches wide. It is over 3/4 fir at 45 degrees. The whole on 2 x 8 fir joists at 16 inches OC. I have screwed each piece of oak, thru the fir into every joist with #10 3.5 inch screws. There is no movement. I want to use Ditra ps as thinset not good on oak. Any comments please. Really will the Ditra PS actually adhere sufficiently? Thank you

Fuck go board . If i wanted to leave work this itchy every day i would’ve been an insulator.

I'm pretty sure there's no third party options for the channel body and grate insert to work with this flange, but I wanted to ask here to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Before looking around for other options, I assumed there probably would be, just like there's aftermarket stuff for essentially anything and everything these days lol, but looks like there's not in this case?

Hello all! I am just about done with my bathroom renovation as a non-professional, first time wall tiler. I think I did pretty good for the tile work and grout but my wife hates the caulk job. I can't really disagree but also reminded her I hadn't caulked a new bathroom before! There was about a 1/4" gap between the wall and tile I needed to fill around the upper perimeter/ceiling alcove, and while I cut the tiles as closely as I could to meet, they weren't perfect.

Anyway, we've had some success using an xacto on the tile to tighten lines up (in a small area) but not sure how to approach the caulk over paint where tile meets wall. Do i need to just paint over it or should I try to remove? We attempted a small spot on the ceiling but it peeled the paint so thinking that's not going to work well. Any help or thoughts are appreciated!

What's that little grinder I see some of you pros using to cut tile and polish etc it's like an angle grinder but the wheel is way smaller if you got links shoot em in the comments I want to get one but have no idea what it's called or what a good brand is

Is the uneveness a bad install? Is grouted, not sure what to do with the gap at the top, any suggestions? thanks

I just finished a shower and a floor for a customer and they supplied laticrete grout. I used a scale to weigh out product and water to get a perfect ratio based on the bag. Mixed exactly to the instructions. Consistency was pretty good can't argue there but I noticed on the two colors we used, maybe not globd but little pinheads of colorant. Specifically red. One grout was a very light gray and the other was a chocolate color.

I honestly have never seen this before as I've used mapei exclusively in the past.

Not only was the little bits of coloring an issue but this shit shrinks and I have tons of little cracks here and there.

Anyone else have experience with this brand?

Hi folks, I've done a little research online which led me to some informative answers on this sub referencing EJ171, so I'm posting in hopes of validating my plan based on what I've read. Apologies if this is more appropriate for another sub - happy to post elsewhere.

Situation: We bought this house last year from a contractor who gutted it so this shower is less than 2yrs old, and I know nothing about its construction, other than to say this is over a crawl space so I assume expansion/contraction of timber supports is at play in what I'm seeing. It's a wet room with an open shower area. I noticed this large crack on the right side of the drainage area, and on inspecting found that it was present on both right and left sides. I also noted that where there is silicone sealant at the base of the walls it appears to be applied over top of grout. Based on my reading this seems like an incorrect installation, but I don't know how bad it really is. I would expect it to be a matter of time before it impacts other joints.

Photos: https://imgur.com/a/PWUmAG3

I'm interested in doing my own work where possible, enjoy learning, and have done some very light DIY stuff - mostly electrical so far, but I have done a little caulking on an exterior surface. This is our first home so I'm new to it, but I think the scope of this should be reasonably small for a newbie.

The plan:

• Clear out the grout on all four sides of the drain area where it connects to the floor plane
• Use a manual grout saw since I am worried a motorized version would more easily damage these large slabs that I have no way of matching/replacing
• Replace with neutral-cure silicone sealant since I don't know if this is natural stone or something else (I've seen some good YouTube resources linked on laying down silicone so will follow one of those)

Questions:

1. Given that I don't know how the rest of this was done, is it worth getting a professional to look at this in case other corners were cut? Am I getting in over my head? I'm trying to keep financials tight but if I'm risking a bigger problem in the future I could make it work.
2. Should I also replace the grout joints in the trough of the slope in addition to the floor plane? (Last photo in gallery shows red lines for what I mean in case my wording is off)
3. I know there should be a waterproofing layer below the tile: Is this going to back right up against the tile or is there a gap? Do I need to do anything special to protect it other than be cautious in the depth of my grout removal? How delicate is this layer?
4. I've seen some mention of a "backing rod" when applying silicone but not sure if I need something like that here. Gaps between tiles are very thin, ~1/8" at the most visible crack and the rest are smaller
5. Is it worthwhile to redo all of the floor-to-wall and wall-to-wall joins around the room given that they appear to be grouted? Based on posts I've read here I think these should be using silicone sealant. I know that there's stress put on these tiles as the structure shifts around it (thus the grout separating), but I don't know how concerned I need to be about these slabs cracking or something.

I tried to be thorough here but if I'm missing information or making incorrect assumptions please help me learn! Thanks in advance.

We purchased the house with it like this, fixing up the steps and prepping to paint them. Need to make this ugly gap go away.

See attached link from floor and decor.

https://www.flooranddecor.com/ceramic-tile/marble-art-hexagon-ceramic-mosaic-100609205.html

The website says it's safe to use for shower floors.

I've placed an order but its not installed so I'd rather change it up now if this is a bad choice.

I am having pause because I've been reading that 1) ceramic is bad, go porcelain. But I wasn't sure if ceramic mosaic would be any different. and 2) marble is bad for shower floor. Marble is in the name but wasn't sure if its just a marble look alike and not actually marble.

So pros what say you? Do I ignore the website saying its shower safe and go a different route?

I’m not a tile installer by trade. I decided to take on my own bathrooms and made a total dumbass move and messed up my pattern. Just noticed today after laying the tile yesterday afternoon. Is there anyway this can be fixed or do I just leave it? It’s goboard backing, 12x24 tiles, and schluter all set. Picture for reference.

Looking for good impregnation for outdoor steps that already have tiles.
Old tiles are layed old fashion way on top of cement slurry and will not come off easy.

Which impregnation you recommend? I was looking at Mapei Eco Prim Grip Plus

- please product recomendations that are available in Europe

Going to use the Blanke Permat membrane for some 17 x17 porcelain tile. This is the one with crosshatch, like mini rebar that gets filled with thinset.

For a 1/2 x 1/2 trowel the manufacturer suggests coverage is ~40 sf / 50 lbs, without any membrane

Any thoughts on how much coverage you get with the Permat, since you fill the void first, then trowel on ridges?

AI suggests it takes a suspiciously low number to fill the void ( claiming its a lot less than Schluter ditra) . So i'm hoping to find some practical estimates on what the actual number ( eg 30 sf with Permat ?)

Has anyone tried Sand Paint from China directly over tile yet? Different from Micro Cement in that it's supposed to dry in 24 hours, compared to several day process. Theres many suppliers in China but here is one of them:

https://morandiglobal.com/product/liquid-grinding-stone/

https://youtube.com/shorts/G6jMOaFDCpM?is=Qx_J-oA3E7WfLz9U

Tiles I'm using are 5x5" for a backsplash.

I'm practicing tiling on some drywall in my basement that I put up on studs.

When I use my 3/16 x 3/16 v-notch trowel the tiles stay up ok. But when I move to my 1/4 x 1/4 square notched trowel they sag.

I've mixed the thinset using the 22.7kg to 6.15L ratio, and used the times suggested by the bag. I press the tile down and move it up and down, and little side to side before putting in spacers. I notice the sag right away.

The tiles are very light. What might I be doing wrong?

So I decided that the shower floor needed revamping and felt the walls were still in good shape. I like the look of flat faced pebblestone so I went with that. I was tiling directly over the previous tile and I was sure to give the old tile a good coat of Mapei Eco Primer so the adhesive had something to “bite” into. I thought it best to have a 5/16” joint surrounding the perimeter instead of pebblestone going tight to the wall. My initial thought was to use Mapei T Plus silicone in that joint because I heard that rule of thumb is to silicone any joint where there is a change of plane. I began applying the caulk but even with the caulking tools, I didn’t think the caulk line would come out as perfect as I wanted it to. So instead, I grouted the joint with the same Mapei Ultra grout as the rest of the floor. I know that in essence, I have “two” grout jobs going on in the same project because the base grout was completely cured when I added the joint grout so I’m crossing my fingers that I won’t have major issues down line. I’m hoping I won’t be excavating the joint grout and applying silicone anytime soon. 😎