Need advice on niche sides and how they integrate with the trim and led track...
Woops.
I have a feeling I'll be saying that quite a bit through this process. ;).
The back of the niche is set all the way to the left and right edges. Since it's a full width niche and has only a top and bottom shelf, the sides are on the same plane as the long walls of the bathroom.
I was going to tackle the shelf of the niche when I ran into a few questions:
Do I set the sides and butt the shelf, led channel, and front edge trim to the tiled sides, or do I set the shelf and wrap the sides around the trim and led channel?
I'm leaning towards installing the side tiles first, then extending the shelf and roof of the niche to the sides. If I go with that, then here are a few followup questions:
Would you leave a grout line between the shelf tile and the wall tile or go as close to the side tile as possible?
Would you extend that grout line so it continues through the led channel and front edge trim, or would you flush the trim against the side tile?
Last question.
Blending the side wall into the niche and setting the niche back wall first created a horizontal grout line that needs to be met on the side walls. I was planning on a ledger board at the bottom of the walls to build up from, but now I feel like I need to work backwards from the first grout line from the shelf in the niche to make sure it all matches up.
Is there a technique I can use to work the first column on the side wall down to determine the height of the ledger? I figure I can do one sketchy column to find that spot, then laser the wall to install the rest of the ledger board, then build up from there.
When we float the walls, they are 1/2” thicker than the adjacent drywall, so a “plug” is needed to fill in the gap.