Tile Fiasco.

Recently I had a strange experience with a potential customer. Attached is a blog from that customer with the experience in her own words. It was a great exercise for diplomacy and understanding. Thanks Rebecca for the opportunity!

Custom Shower, Garden Tub & Floor

Below is a bathroom that I've been working on "on&off" for about three weeks. Work was broken up by Thanksgiving. I used 12x12 tri-color tiles on the floor and tub deck. I also cut in stone dots randomly throughout the floor. There is a close up of these dots below where I used it above the shower door. Then I used 8x10 wall tile in the shower, on the tub surround and the WC privacy wall. There is also a cool feature band that runs throughout.
This is an example of the dots that are used in the floor tile. This one was bigger than the field tile used here so I allowed the top stone to grow "out of bounds" like a little peak.

Can't go wrong with a Better Bench.

Two custom insert niches and a custom soap dish made out of field tile and some bullnose.

Custom Shower, Garden Tub & Floor

These next two pictures are an inside view looking out of the shower posted above.

Wall for privacy while your pooing.

This is the crazy floor plan that I had to work with. Came out nice though. Worked real hard on keeping the lines straight throughout. You can see the door to the bedroom in the mirror. It's hard to capture these tight bathrooms on camera.

Granite Shower, Floor & Backsplash Part 1

The following three posts are in the same bathroom. All the tiles here are granite except for the blue glass dots. The wall tile in the shower is the same as the granite slab used on the counter top. After about 10 or so layout ideas we decided to go with the clean and simple plan of using the shower accent tile as the field tile for the back splash. I then used the polished Absolute Black granite bullnose to match the accent band in the shower. So basically the shower's accent band was used to tile the back splash.
Here are two matching soap dishes with the accent band running through them.

Here is a clean termination of the accent band on the edge of the outside wall.

Here the shower tile continues beyond the shower and onto the exterior wall and wraps around the front door frame.

Granite Shower, Floor & Backsplash Part 2

Below is a close-up of the shower bench. I've shown step-by-step how this is done in previous posts if you're interested.

I love pebbled shower floors. It's not slick and feels great on your feet. They say they're therapeutic!

Here you can see the sharp contrast between the shower tile and the black/gray main floor tile.

Granite Shower, Floor & Backsplash Part 3

Below is a granite tile floor with a super complicated pattern and to top it off I installed radiant heating underneath. It's kind of hard capturing these small rooms on film so I'll explain the vantage point for each shot. This first shot is from the entrance to the bathroom.

Here you can see the pattern is the same in each quad. The shower and toilet are to the left.

This shot is from the window looking at the entrance. The shower and toilet are on the right. Notice how the thin row of field tile's pattern between the black accent tile keeps it's consistency.

This shot is from the inside of the shower. Entrance is on the right.

This shot is looking into the WC. I created an alternate design in the walkway between rooms.

Marble Shower Part 2

Here is a marble tile job I just finished up around Sept. 20th 2009. It is a classic marble design similar to the one a few blogs ago that one me the Gold Ribbon in the Wilmington, NC Parade of Homes. I used a combination of glass and marble and I think travertine for the accent tile. More detailed pics are featured in the previous post.

The missing tile is explained in the previous post.

On the floor each piece has its tips clipped to accommodate for the feature tile. The 45 degree layout on the floor contrast the straight lay on the walls.

The two shampoo niches were made from preformed plastic boxes whereas the smaller soap niche was custom made from 2x4s. Notice the tiles on the upper, inside faces of the large boxes. They are very thin L shaped cuts. Knowing that marble is very fragile, I'd like a little recognition for these detailed cuts. Your silence is praise enough. Thank you!

Marble Shower

Below are some detailed pics of the marble tile job above. Here is a shot of the custom miter cuts for the right hand corner of the garden tub.

In the far left you can see how I has to cut into the curb to go around the door frame slightly.

I decided to use a full piece of field tile for the corner of the surface of the garden tub. This way it looks cleaner and the small cuts ended up in the corners and not as noticeable. The reason for the missing rail tile is that after the glass door is installed, I'll cut the rail tile to fit on both sides of the glass.

Travertine Shower and Floor Part 3

This is a Travertine shower and floor. Travertine is a natural soap stone. It is porous so needs to be sealed if being used in a shower. See previous two blog entries for more pics and details.

Travertine Shower and Floor Part 2

Here is the floor completed. Below are some pics of the job in progress.

Niche complete.

I tiled the back of the niche first and went from there.

Closet: using wedges to keep the tight grout joints straight.

Travertine Shower and Floor

This is a Travertine tiled bathroom that I recently installed. Below are the before pics and some pics of the prepping. Originally there was linoleum on the floors. I removed it and laid 1/4 inch cement board.

Here I used 1/2 inch cement board on the walls and created the niche using 2x4s and plywood as the back ground. Then I covered all the wood with pieces of cement board. Then I taped and waterproofed all the seams.

Powder Room Floor

Next up is a small powder room that need a simple, clean upgrade from the linoleum that was originally installed. You can see an example of the old linoleum in my next post above at a later date. I first removed the toilet, then the linoleum and scraped the glue off the sub-floor. That took some work. I still have the scar of a blister that was created and later ripped open by this job two weeks ago. I remembered to use gloves on the next job. I then installed 1/4" Hardi-back to the sub-floor for a level and sturdy foundation. The blue and white tiles with the bright white grout really popped with this traditional blue and white wallpaper and art on the walls.