Thursday, 19 November 2009 07:43

Recently, Jason has gotten started on converting a fiberglass tub surround to a full ceramic tiled shower.  This shower area is going to be tiled with a large format wall tile with a glass mosaic listel installed at eye height.

 Our first picture shows Jason removing the existing fiberglass shower.  We went in about a week prior to our actually starting the job so the old shower could be removed and the plumber could be given the adequate time needed to change out the plumbing work including a new diverter (faucet) and move the drain from the end of the shower to the center.  We want the new drain in the center of the shower in order to accommodate the new size and shape of the shower.

Next, Jason is seen working on the removal of the existing flooring of this bathroom.  The old flooring was a vinyl flooring over top of a layer of 1/4" luan plywood.  Our homeowner had pointed out the staining around the toilet area and as he suspected there had been some water damage for a leak at the seal or flange of the toilet.  Here Jason is seen pausing from the tedious job of removing the many staples that were holding down the plywood.  Next, we placed a small heater and a small fan at the wet area and left this area to properly dry.  Fortunately the sub-floor was in good shape. After drying out we used standard mold remediation over the area prior to covering with our new tile underlayment.

Behind Jason in this picture is the new area now treated with our tile backer.  Notice the front curb that Jason is resting on.  This was built after the tub area was removed from 2" x 4" lumber and then wrapped in tile backer.  Later, Jason will wrap this curb in our Shluter's Kerdi Membrane as he does this over the entire shower floor area.

In this picture we can see that Jason has now built, installed, and wrapped the diagonal suspended corner bench.  Notice the orange product in the right hand corner of the picture.  This is the Kerdi Membrane that is covering the shower curb as well as the shower floor.  The green coloring around the bench and the circular spots on the wall is a waterproof membrane made by Laticrete called Hydroban.  We install two coats of this product (Hydroban) over all areas that may be suspect to water penetration.  This includes the small holes produced by the screws used to mount the tile backer as well as the seams and inside corners in the backer board.

Next step was for Jason to layout the tiles in order to get started installing the new tile on the walls.  In this picture you can see the glass mosaic toward the top of the layout The tiles are actually a 10" x 14" ceramic which will look very handsome in the new shower area.  Large format tiles are the trend right now just as 4" x 4" tiles used to be popular back in the 1970's.  Many times our homeowners do not realize what is current when it comes to picking a tile but our homeowner John and his wife chose something to bring their bathroom up to date.

Our final shot shows that Jason is well underway with this tile project.  You can see the diagonal bench is now tiled as well as the wall up to shoulder height.  Notice the shampoo niche that Jason has wrapped in tile.  The brown area just above the tile is a "dummy board" that Jason is using to replicate the size of the glass listel he is will be installing after all the tile is in.  More on this later as well as some follow up pictures as this shower area becomes complete.  Until then, good job Jason!