River Rock/Slate Shower

This is a slate shower where one wall is tiled with river rocks coming out into the main bathroom. Slate is always an amazing challenge because it varies in shape, size and color. I like to seal all the slate once before installing. This makes it easier to remove thinset or grout that touches the surface. It also protects against water stains that may occur while using a wet-saw or grouting. Slate is very soft and porous and soap scum can easily be absorbed into the tile. I recommend using a penetrating sealer before installation and a sealer that stays on the surface after grouting. I did a total of three sealer coats on this job. Slate is a great natural stone that comes in so many colors and textures. Sometime you can find fossils in it too.

This is the view when you first walk into the shower.

It was kind of hard capturing this room with my camera. This is the wall that will have the sink & mirror on the outside of the shower. The insert boxes are opposite of this wall. The faucet and shower head are opposite of the rock wall.

Here I got to blend the rock wall into the base tile that frames the main bathroom floor.

Bathroom w/ Porcelain Floor Tile

This is a simple diamond or 45 degree pattern based off the position of the shower. I started at the front door of the shower and centered the grout joint with the center of the door. I used a 1/8 inch grout joint throughout. The tile is made of porcelain with a high gloss finish. Simple but came out really dramatic.

The first picture is grouted and caulked around the tub. The next couple of pics are before I grouted.

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 4

Original shower floor.

Starting from scratch. Had to replace subfloor because original was rotted out.

New floor.

Soap dish.

In case you like what you see, pick up a business card!

Custom Showers Misc.

Here are some misc. custom shower features.

This pic was taken in progress. Sorry for the mess. This was a very expensive shower considering that these glass tiles can run $30 to $60 a square foot! But I just wanted to show the floating corner bench.

This is a cool insert shampoo box. Basic design for these.

Another insert box an floating corner bench.

Not the best pic, but this is a variation of the floating bench. It goes from one wall to the other.