More Tile Work

We have a 'no mans land' area in our master bathroom that is in the corner bordered by our sink and tub. The floors and tub surround are all tile, but this area was never tiled. When we moved in ten years ago, we mentioned this to the builder and they gave us the tile to do it. We finally got around to installing it.

 I forgot to take 'before' pictures, so mostly all I have are some 'during' and 'after' pictures. Heidi is great at installing tile and even better at grouting tile. So she did that and I made the tile cuts for her. I also prepped the shower for some tile work (see below) while she installed the tile.

We never installed tile vertically before, so be on the safe side Heidi put the tape on those tiles. It was probably a good idea anyway since it was kinda humid when we did this project and we didn't want to come into the bathroom with a bunch of tile piled on the floor.

 The flat area and some of the vertical areas on the front and side of the tub were done.

In this picture, all the tile is installed, but not grouted yet.

 Heidi grouting the tile.

 Heidi cleaning up after grouting.

All finished, just need to wait a few days for it to completely cure. That is Katie in her school softball uniform you see in the mirror.

The other tile project in the master bath was to fix above the shower. Over the years, the drywall had softened and eroded with the constant moisture from the shower. While Heidi was tiling the other stuff in the bathroom, I stripped down an earlier cosmetic 'fix' and took out the soft drywall. Then I filled the area with new drywall 'mud'.

 This picture shows the area with the 'mud' installed and smoothed flat. 

 Here is the whole area that needed repaired. In this picture I applied the 'mud' and am just waiting for it to dry.

 After all that dried, I sanded it smooth and painted a sealer on the repair. Then I let it dry too.

 I used this new double-sided adhesive tape made especially for tile installed in moist areas. You cut the tape to length and while leaving the paper on one side, apply it to the wall and smooth it out. After making sure it is stuck well to the wall, you peel back the paper from the front side and stick on the tile. It was rather easy because you can stick the spacers to the tape so you can perfectly place each tile. We will see how well this tape works.

 In this picture, all the tile is installed and ready for grout. When installing tile with this method, you need to grout within eight hours of tile installation, which is opposite the traditional method of waiting a day or so before grouting.

Heidi grouted this tile too and also painted the area next to the tiles to match the wall. Hopefully this fix will be more long-term and we won't have to deal with this mess again. In a few weeks, we will do the same tile fix in the other bathroom, since the shower/tub has the same troubles.

The End