Tiling the Shower Floor

Last weekend we tiled the bathroom floor and did some prep work for the shower floor.  Having never done any tiling before, it was a little tricky getting the hang of it.  Had we known the issues we would have with the shower floor, handy hubby would probably say that the bathroom floor was a piece of cake!

Gray tiles (from Lowes) ready for the shower floor -



When we set up to work on the shower floor, we thought it would be quick and easy, especially compared to the entire bathroom floor.  Maybe it would have been quick if the thinset had mixed properly. What a mess. In an attempt to mix half the bag and half the liquid, something went wrong. Too much liquid, not enough mix. This was our first attempt to mix our own thinset, so we didn’t know how bad it really was until after we got started.

Here is the floor ready for tile – you can see where we have been attempting to “dry fit” the tiles after cutting on the wet saw.



As we set the tiles in (each “tile” had 36 little tiles) they started to SINK in the thinset. At this point, we knew we were in trouble. There are no photos, because we were just at a loss. The floor was covered in thinset, that was so “thin” that it wouldn’t hold the grooves from the trowel. We felt we were committed since the floor was already covered though, so we waited and waited to give the thinset some time to set. It gradually started to set, so we went for it. In all honestly, we probably should have just scraped it out and started over. The tiles would probably have layed much easier and smoother.

Here is the floor right after we finished laying the tiles -

That ledge at the edge of the shower will eventually be covered in the gray tiles.  Oh, and the ledge really does not curve. Let’s call that a camera trick…

Here is the bathroom floor (with grout!) and the newly installed shower floor (without grout) -



We learned some tiling tricks through the process. One suggestion, make sure you don’t set the drain too high… Oops.  Another suggestion, buy 2 bags of the little wedges. They were just as handy as the little circle spacers.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know we have been tiling more in the shower this weekend!

More tiling updates to come!