Bathrooms with Ceramic Tile and Porcelain
Two Art Deco Style Bathrooms    
Before Before After After
             
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One condo bathroom
Another condo bathroom
 
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  A tub enclosure using 1"x 1" mosiac  
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  Before Before After                          
                       
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A shower stall with handmade (uneven) tiles
      Before     during After
                   
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The faucet wall in this bathroom was opened up to allow a window to be installed giving a more natural light in the shower as well as creating a unique look. If you look carefully at the second picture from the left, of the floor, near the threshhold where the cement ends,
Before   After you can see the loops of electrical coil used to heat the floor. In the winter the floor will be warm while the sun shines through frosted glass.  
 
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Yuk!
                
  Below are some examples of how bad a shower stall or tub-enclosure can get if improperly constructed or a problem is left to grow out of control until the entire structure has to be ripped out and replaced. That's why I titled this section simply ...yuk!
     
Big carpenter ants!
                 
 
 

If the walls in your shower or tub enclosure look like that far left picture above, then you may have a similar problem. There may not necessarily be ants crawling around on the other side of the wall, but the timber behind the tile wall may be badly rotted. Sometimes there may be a mildew odor that persits regardless how many times the bath area is cleaned. That's because the problem that's causing the smell is coming from behind the wall, namely rotting drywall and wood. Another sign of trouble may be black spots or bubbling paint in an ajoining room.

      The shower stall above looked fine fine at first glance but what can't bee seen here is that the basement stucco ceiling had collapsed from water damage from this shower. If you look at the far right picture you'll notice there isn't any protective membrane on the floor or around the walls to catch any water that might leak through. The shower floor consisted only of wire-mesh stapled to the wood subflloor, a layer of scratchcoat and then "12x 12" marble on the floor with no slope to the drain.  
 

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Some Advice on Shower Stalls

I can't say this enough about building a shower. Always, always set the top wall boards first before doing anything to the floor. You shouldn't have to worry about damaging the vinyl pan or wobbling around unsafe on a stool or pail when standing on a sloped concrete floor to secure the top screws under the ceiling.

Use either Dense Shield with the coating facing out or Durock cement board. I prefer Dense Shield because it's always flat, is light weight, and cuts easier. Some people might disagree with me, but that's a matter of opinion. And personally, I don't like using any kind of drywall in a shower stall. I've ripped too many out over the years.

Between the seams as you see in the middle picture, secure bits of plywood onto the back of the sheets of wallboards between the studs so that regardless how the board wants to move, the joints are always flush.

Before you set the last peice in place, set your vinyl pan or other method you wish to use and have the floor finished. Then set your last pieceof wall board so that it's sitting above the floor not between the floor and the liner. Any moisture running down behind the tile will still land
     

on the concrete and run to the drain on top of the floor, not under it. There are other methods and materials for making a good shower basin and with new materials on the market, it might be worth your while to explore them. I enjoy working with the cement so that is my favorite way.

One last point. If you are renovating a old house you might find a heay lead liner which was used back then for the shower floor. Please dispose of those at the local waste disposal and not just dump it somewhere. They are made of lead and may contaminate the soil.

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  Concrete walls in a bath tub enclosure                   In many of the homes from the 40's and 50's, wiremesh and cement applied about an inch thick on the wall was standard. Getting it off the walls and carrying it away is a sweaty, tricky and dusty task.      
                     
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One of my personal favorites. It reminds me of a lime stone cave

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  3 x 6 white tile in brick pattern
  3 x 6 tile in one third running bond pattern
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Glass Tile Mosiac Tub Enclosure with Travertine Marble
   
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  The flowers are seperately inlaid into the floor using just a basic hexagonal mosiac tile These are 2 inch gold glass tiles bordered by 3/4 inch dark gold glas tile. The floor is yellow gold marble with a heating pad underneath.
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