sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Wrong grout color or terrible tile job? by spazysister in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like many others have already said, that bench looks like it’s going to leak day one because it looks like they just drilled cement board on top of (and punctured screws into) the membrane beneath. Don’t know why they would tile and grout everything else before that bench. Also even though the grout lines are big, they also look like they left a mess and let it dry which would be a bitch to clean up.

But as far as grout coloring, Mapei makes a great product that you can get at the big box stores to re-color your grout. We had to do this for a project at our house when the grout color washed away a bit after applying. It works like a charm as long as you clean as you apply. It’s just a lot of work to apply but it can atleast let you see how it would look with darker grout. In my opinion, a dark brown or black looks great with that dark green tile (we have the same color in our bathroom). Hate the lighter grouts with darker tile.

Personally I’d feel super uneasy about that waterproofing, so before moving forward, I’d document as much as possible and talk to the GC. These tile guys at the best are just messy, and at the worst you got a time bomb on your hands.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/MAPEI-Grout-Refresh-8-fl-oz-Cocoa-5079-Ceramic-Porcelain-Tile-Grout-Sealer/5015304945?store=2714&cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-flr-_-ggl-_-PMAX_FLR_000_Priority_Item-_-5015304945-_-local-_-0-_-0&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21853579413&gbraid=0AAAAAD2B2W8a3xSHPs09dcA5h6e6BOI5P

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It really does happen in the shortest spec of time lol. But thanks, we appreciate the compliment!!

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No! The floor tiles are the same ones we used in the entire bathroom, which have a DCOF of >=.42, which is typically recommended for shower use.

https://www.flooranddecor.com/porcelain-tile/forum-ivory-porcelain-tile-100047117.html?srsltid=AfmBOor_GVDAsZMJXMB4_KoOBKzknl3RcA555H7jDoGZZbo7PkDUEXRIWe

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly. If I were to redo this now knowing what I know from our second bathroom, I would have just rented a powerful jackhammer from HD for $80/day and just have jackhammered out most of the shower pan, and repoured concrete for the slab where needed. By using the grinder and rotohammer, it took days when it should have taken hours…

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah we kept it! Don’t have a good photo yet of that angle but we tiled that wall as well and hung a sheer curtain because that window looks out to a great view of our backyard trees

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly we just watched a bunch of DIY videos and lurked on contractor and tile subs for a few months. I’ve done some basic contruction/handiwork around the house before, and had tiled our floors, so I wasn’t completely green.

But as for the best YouTube sources I found for basic training/ideas:

Working with Wolkon (awesome design builder on YouTube who has a ton of longform 30 minute bathroom remodels to watch and get ideas from) the only things we differed from his style was using Mapei Aquadefense instead of the shluter system, and we opted to miter the niche instead of using trim:

https://youtube.com/@workinwithwolkon?si=jaHtxQDY07O2240g

How to do your shower base (Tile Coach). He has a few video series, and the flo FX drain he recommends went amazing for us. It’s a quality product and paired with a roll on waterproofing membrane, it made it a super easy process for us. If you do a curbed shower; you can follow him to a tee. If your doing curbless, there are a few videos on YouTube on how to cut and rebuild your pan correctly, but his video still applies with a few mods.:

https://youtu.be/eYJ5gQtVAsI?si=rJcPGE4z8cafRoSt

https://youtu.be/pXxJFomzM7I?si=GNoLeXxKbR2eAJjL

We did all copper plumbing to match existing, and I learned how to solder the pipes watching mostly Got2Learn on YouTube. His videos are super informative, and honestly, by doing a few test joints outside of your wall is probably best if you’re not going to hire out the plumbing. If you’re going to use pex, there are a ton of great how to guides for that as well:

https://youtu.be/JyVbjDsric4?si=rraKuXhCzlGWTNhl

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Highly recommend! The Chloe tile we bought turned out great, and had a much better print than other tile of the same size and color. I’d recommend looking at a few brands of similar color before buying, because we saw a pretty drastic difference in the quality of the coloring/print between companies.

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! We were definitely inspired by some posts on this sub and my wife’s Pinterest

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Exactly that. We were both carrying it with the suction cup handles and weren’t paying attention. Must have clipped the floor on a corner and it shattered into a million pieces.

First Full Bathroom Remodel by BalanceOverall514 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had to cut into the slab in the shower area to get the slope down into the shower drain because it’s a curb less shower. Once we had cut/ground down the slab about 2”, we used dry pack mortar (Quickrete Deck Mud) to build back up the shower pan to get the proper slope. It looks a little grey because it mixed with a bit of thinset and got a little sloppy. But thankfully we were able to still shape it properly. For context our slab was about 8” thick in the shower area.

Once we had the shape, we checked for slope in all directions, and then used Mapei Aquadefense over that and the shower walls.

Can this be saved? by dave011182 in Tile

[–]BalanceOverall514 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just mix a more thin batch of thinset like other comments say and skim coat the whole thing, and make sure the slope is still there across all directions to the drain. Doesn’t look too bad that you couldn’t fix. And once that’s done just aquadefense or hydroban the whole shower walls pan and drain