I just did what you did in an efficiency I own. But didn't go with those systems. They went with hardi board on the walls with a red guard waterproof tape on the joints. I went from a tub to a 3'x5' shower. (I did the entire bathroom) Here's what I paid
Demo and throw away $700
Shower pan. build up of a 6" ledge/curb and installation $500 (I'm not sure what they did for the shower pan, but was done by a professional plumbing outfit.)

Moving all of the plumbing and installing a single shower handle for the water supply $500
Installation of the tile and 2" tile floor, including a curb (narble) $1650 (also included tiling bathroom floor and grout)

Tile 11x22" for walls, 2" for shower floor and wood looking porcelain for bathroom floor $550

Finished Rockwool installation last night.



Tile guy started today on the Kerdi system board, membrane, drain, and floorpan.

Tile tomorrow. Grout on Friday. Functional shower ready to use on Sunday. Frameless glass door measured/fabricated/installed next week. (We have a temporary shower rod/curtain for the meantime.)

Question: When installing the round escutcheon plate for the shower control, do I need to seal around the plate? Delta appears to think that you just screw the plate in and the foam rings will seal it. I don't know how much I trust that in the long term, and most of what I read online recommends to seal it further with caulk/silicon/putty, though not all. What do the Sigforum guys say? If I need to seal it further, what product do you recommend I use? (Tile is nearly white with whiteish grout, if that matters.)

Install the escution, and then apply a small bead of clear 100% silicone. Go all the way around, except for about 1.5" at the bottom of the escution.

This?

That will work. Do a very small bead, 1/8, such that you can smooth it down with your pinky. I do this also on any other fixtures. Grab bars etc. it is mainly the grout lines where water might sneak in. Do it neatly and it disappears.

Thanks. There won't be any other trim pieces or fixtures, other than where the shower head comes out of the wall, but that's above the tile line in the drywall and subject to negligible water.

On the shower head I do one dot on the top. Most of them are loose and will move around, but yeah don't get wet.

I'll check, but I shouldn't need to monkey with that. We didn't change anything up there except swapping out the head itself. The pipe isn't loose. (Several of the other pipes in the wall are strapped down, so that one may be too, but that portion of the wall isn't exposed.)

We're only swapping the escutcheon and handle because the wife thought the old one was kinda ugly, and it's was ~$40 for a replacement she liked. The interior valve and supply lines remain the same, as does the pipe feeding the shower head. I did go ahead and swap out the cartridge while everything was apart, though.

Kerdi installed. (Plus overnight tool storage.)

Tile is 5/8ths done. Remaining portion of the wall, the curb, and the floor will be done on Friday. (Neither I not my wife could take tomorrow off, and the tile guy has another job he can do tomorrow before resuming ours.) Grout now pushed to Saturday. Shower ready to use Monday.

Door measurements being taken on Friday evening. Door fabrication next week. Door install on the 21st.

I wasn't completely sold on the embossed/debossed old warehouse brick look that the wife wanted, but now that it's on the walls, I like it a bit more. Cosmetics aside, it remains to be seen how much tougher it is to clean (which is another one of my concerns with it).

Shouldn't your wife be the one that's cleaning it? She picked it out and all!

Tile's finished. (Finally.) It was all grouted today.

We had a delay of over a week, because the last of the tile never arrived for the planned work on the 11th. Tile company claims it was a computer error from their supplier. Had to reorder and wait some more, and then our tile guy wasn't available again until this weekend.

Glass company comes tomorrow to measure for the door. Then install is estimated for 10ish days. We'll hopefully be completely done by the end of the month.

Dammit.

Discovered this morning that the grout on the pebble floor is cracking all over, after only about 12 hours of drying.

Digging around online, we discovered that the grout that our tile supplier had recommended and supplied for this project is specifically cautioned by the manufacturer as NOT being suitable for pebble floors. (It was Fusion Pro by Custom.) The grout areas between pebbles are too wide for that product, so the grout shrank and cracked as it started to dry.



The tile supplier has the right grout for a pebble floor in stock (Prism by Custom), so they're sending their tile guy back out this afternoon to tear out and regrout with the correct product.

Oy. I'm about tired of this renovation. This is the second time the tile supplier has dropped the ball on us. Fingers crossed that their solution works.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

quote:

The tile supplier has the right grout for a pebble floor in stock (Prism by Custom),

You do know that is a cement grout and not as good as the Polyurethane or Epoxy versions?

I realize that maybe at this point you just want to get it done.

I read the Tech data sheets on all of these and you are correct Fusion Pro is the wrong one.
Personally I prefer Epoxy or Poly grout (used both) and love the lack of staining and ease of cleaning.

YMMV and good luck on your project.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Personally I prefer Epoxy or Poly grout (used both) and love the lack of staining and ease of cleaning.

Prism is listed as a "stain-resistant polymer-modified cement grout". Is that what you mean by "Poly grout"?

Or are you referring to polyurethane grout? From what I've read, it doesn't sound like any urethane grouts are recommended for pebbles, including Quartzlock2, Fusion Pro, Plasma, or Flexcolor CQ.

The stain resistance and ease of cleaning was the big thing that our supplier touted about the Fusion Pro to begin with, but that turned out to be the wrong product for this application. With Custom also listing Prism as "stain-resistant", does that mean it has similar stain-resistance to their Fusion Pro, or just that it's more stain resistant than traditional cement grout but not as resistant as something like Fusion Pro?

On the positive side, the Fusion Pro on the tightly-spaced wall tiles (where it's designed to go) is working well (so far). Even if we end up having to spend more time sealing/cleaning this other new grout on the floor, at least the walls will benefit from the Fusion Pro's stain resistance and ease of cleaning.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RogueJSK,

quote:

Prism is listed as a "stain-resistant polymer-modified cement grout". Is that what you mean by "Poly grout"?Or are you referring to polyurethane grout? From what I've read, it doesn't sound like any urethane grouts are recommended for pebbles, including Quartzlock2, Fusion Pro, Plasma, or Flexcolor CQ.

I was referring to Urethane grout.
I have used SpectraLock Epoxy grout and Bostik Urethane grout (I think it was Dimension).
Neither shrank but you should also go with the mfg recommendation if it is glass or similar.
Some grouts can scratch or damage fragile tiles.
I used mine on Travertine and Porcelain.
They worked out fine but YMMV on your project.
I will always use one of these two versions over standard grout I can.
Of course you want the grout to work for you.
These grouts are much more expensive than regular sanded and non sanded versions but are much heartier.
Good Luck.

Thanks. I'll talk to the tile guy about Prism vs. Epoxy when he gets here.

The floor is not glass. It's flat pebbles.

Another Excellent source is the John Bridge Forum.

One thing about Epoxy or Urethane is the cleanup of the haze procedure.
It needs to be done and done completely.
Not hard to do but it need to be done right (just get everything off).
If not it will be hard to get off if you delay.
Sanded, unsanded is much easier to finish off.
The end product though is the ultimate result and why I like Epoxy or Urethane.

Nice job.

We have a seldom used stand up shower on our main level I need to re-do. It's a lovely shade of avocado green. Funny, it's actually very similar to the background color of SIGForum. looks to be about the same size as your shower. I'm going to re-do the entire bath, and the foyer it's attached to. Wife wants the same floor tile in both rooms. Of course the entire foyer will also get ledgerstone on the walls, so that's gonna take some saving up., i.e. $$$

I just did a shower last year using the Schluter-Dietra system. Although my contractor buddy was not convinced at first, he was by the end.
2 things. 1 that I learned was system. The Schluter system was meant to work in concert with all of their products. Period. I did not mix and match and had no issues through the install.
Their CS was top shelf. Any questions or issues they answered the phone.

I do know that while the kerdi board is light and pretty easy to use, your framing has to be square and plumb to have correct tile application. It is imperative that all of your framing is totally flush all the way across the tiling surface. You can not have any waning on the tiling surface. That is why I chose greenboard with the aplication of Kerdi band and kerdi sheet.

The shower bathroom project was a big one. The shower itself was 6x7.5 and did 3 walls, walk in with out barrier, and heated shower and bathroom floors. I cut the curb down to 3 in to hava as low a threshold as possible.

I used epoxy grout on the shower floor, and urethane grout on the walls. No issues. The epoxy you have to work pretty fast, one key is to have plenty of clean water for clean up. The urethane grout was pretty easy to work with, just do smaller areas in between cleaning and all will go well.

I have not uploaded any photos of the project but I can say it was a 3 month full time renovation. I can say that there were a lot of companies I researched before deciding on Schluter but feel that I made the right choice. Good luck with your project. email me if you would like some photos of the project.