Questions & Answers

The only thing I don’t love about the pebble mosaics shown here is that they don’t fit together seamlessly—not even close.

Through much painful trial and error, I have concluded that I either have to use a different tile, or deliberately set them apart. I chose the latter option, as I already have the pebble sheets, and I can’t return them. These have a slightly more sophisticated look than the typical pebble tiles.

So, I picked up some 12” x 4” matching stone tiles and cut them to a scant  2” wide.

This is my mock-up. One mosaic sheet fits nicely in each square. I chose to place the tiles as shown because of issues with the drain location. TLDR - centering on the drain makes more sense to me. Details below if you care.

I am making the drain the focal point of the floor. For the slot that encloses the drain itself, I plan to mount the pebbles on a fiberglass mesh made for that purpose. Something like this, but with a more consistent color pattern:

Questions:

1. I have not decided whether to leave the 12” x 4" tile length or to cut them to deal with the changing slope. What would you do?

2. I have a hard time laying a single pebble in cases where a pebble is missing or chipped. I have so far been unable to set them without significant lippage. Any and all suggestions would be much appreciated. It looks easy when other people do it, but certainly I must lack understanding somehow.

3. I plan to lay the grid first, then set the pebbles another day. My prosthetic hip gives me trouble, so I don’t think I can do it all at one sitting (or kneeling). Is there anything wrong with that approach? Or anything I should keep in mind?

TLDR; Why I chose this layout: 

Before I took the floor out, the drain wasn’t centered in either direction, and the way the tile was laid made the asymmetry obvious. It would have been less obvious had they centered the tiles to the drain. I’m a bit obsessive about symmetry, so this really bugged me.

After I dug out the drain, I realized that it would have been nearly impossible to place the new drain in the center of the floor.

I decided to center in one direction, between the long walls. This gives me at least one symmetry line. It’s actually about ¼” off, but this layout makes it negligible, even to my overly obsessive eye.