Rebuilding the Shower: One Room Challenge Week 3

After all of the demolition, rebuilding the shower was such a huge, nerve- racking piece of this renovation for us. While my husband is very handy and a great craftsman, this would be his first experience with preparing a shower and then tiling, grouting and sealing it. Our shower is not a huge space, so even more difficult for him would be the limited work space and smaller tiles.

Although it was a long and somewhat back breaking process, I think the hard work really paid off! Our shower turned out absolutely gorgeous and I am so in love with the beautiful tile and mosaics from The Tile Shop and all of the great niches that my husband built in for added storage!

Check out all of the details and pictures of our shower rebuild below! And keep following along with me and my fellow bloggers for the rest of the One Room Challenge! Only a couple more weeks until the big reveal!

Shower Base...

For the shower base we used a Swanstone shower base which is made of a solid surface material making it sturdier than acrylic or fiberglass bases and should help prevent creaking under our feet. This base also has a molded in drain which allows for easy installation without access from below. The base was set in a bed of mortar for support.

Shower Walls...

We wanted to ensure that all of the walls would allow water to drain into the base instead of behind it. First we shimmed out the walls using pieces of 2x4 wood which were ripped to match the thickness of the vertical shower base flange. We used flashing tape around top of shower and base against the studs; if any water ever got behind cement board it would be directed back into the shower base.

Adding Niches...

The next step was to frame all of the niches. This included 4 pre-fabricated niches on the wall without plumbing for storage of shampoo and soap. Then we added one down low that I could comfortably put my foot up for shaving (Ladies- I know you will agree with me this is ESSENTIAL!). We were careful to plan the niches by centering them within the space between the future shower door location and back wall. Also, we spaced them to ensure that tile joints would line up with them.

Cement Board...

We then installed the cement board (Wonderboard by Custom Building Products) per the manufacturers recommendations. We taped and mortared all of the cement board seams using cement board tape and thinset mortar (Flexbond by Custom Building). Once the mortar was set coated the entire shower with Redgard waterproofing membrane. Using the waterproofing membrane makes the shower area fully waterproof before the tile is even placed.

Tile...

The tile we picked out for our shower was from The Tile Shop. The subway tile is "Bulevar White" and the mosaic is "Hampton Arabesque". We are so happy with the quality of the tile we purchased - it was exactly what we wanted!

Luckily my husband is an engineer by trade and was able to completely plan out the entire tile layout in CAD ahead of time. Once it was all planned out we used the same Flexbond thinset mortar to set the tiles with 1/8" joints in between.

The back wall of the shower was tiled first to ensure that the corner tile joint would be less visible from outside the shower. Once the back wall tile was finished, we tiled the wall with the plumbing. A Bosch Laser Level mounted to a tripod came in handy to ensure the tiles were level and centered.

Since this was my husband's first time tiling a shower there were definitely bumps in the road. One of the most important things he learned was to be sure to clean mortar from the tile joints as you go instead of waiting until it has dried. It will make things much easier!

Tiling Wall with Niches...

The final wall to tile was the one with the niches. We had to tile the niches first and then complete the wall tile surrounding them. The back was the arabesque mosaic and then the edges were matching carrera marble tiles cut to fit.

The tricky part with tiling the niches was that our marble tiles did not have a bullnose so we had to create a transition to the wall. We used Schluter Quadec tile edging in satin nickel to match our fixtures. The corners were mitered using a 96-tooth Diablo Laminate/Non-ferrous metal cutting blade on our miter saw. Unfortunately we had trouble getting them to stick on the wall and stay in place individually while the mortar set. Instead we used an elastic band to hold them in the rectangle shape and mortared each frame as one. Once the niches were in then we tiled the remainder of that wall.

Finish Work...

We finished the tiling job by grouting all of the joints. We used Custom Building Products Prism grout. Then we sealed all of the vertical joints in matching 100% silicone caulk. Finally we sealed the grout.

The final step was to install the Dreamline Encore Semi-frameless shower doors. We like them because they are pre-fabricated but have thicker glass similar to what is typically found only on custom doors.

Final Product...

I absolutely love our new shower. The tile is so beautiful and I love how it has a slight texture that catches the light. The mosaics were one of my favorite selections in the bathroom! The niches are perfect for holding all of our shampoo and soaps as well. It is amazing how this new shower totally upgrades our bathroom!

Thanks for checking out our progress! Can't wait to show you the final pieces coming together the next couple of weeks!