TileCoach Team Feed

I FINALLY finished my shower tiling and grouting (except for the niches since I'm waiting for really cool glass mosaic tiles). I used Permacolor grout. Should I seal the grout and if so what product would you recommend? I can't find anthing online or on Laticrete product information on the subject.

I'm working on picking the right backerboard for my project. I have a 32" x 60" MTI alcove tub with a flange that is ~1/2" thick. I've had good experience with durock + redgard but am looking to try more modern methods and products.

Because my tub flange is almost 1/2" thick, I plan to use adhesive to attach a banding product to the tub flange and backer board. I also plan to build a custom niche out of whatever backer board I choose. Hydroban was attractive because they sell compatible banding + flange + liquid products.

I'm not a big fan of kerdi board or laticrete hydro ban board due to the flexibility they have. Goboard is pretty stiff, albeit a bit itchy. I really like wedi or similar products like sentinel (Floor and Decor brand now owned by Wedi) / kbrs / prova. Wedi is stocked locally and…

I am doing a full gut remodel on my house right now and am about to tackle the primary shower.

My initial thoughts were:

1. Flowfx drain

2. Tar paper & Lath

3. Mapei Mud bed Mix

4. Hydroban or Ardex 8+9

I need to build an access panel for this tub area. The area of the panel is 32" x 30" (shown in red). The panel will have 8 pieces of tile on it, grout lines shown in blue for reference.

I am trying to figure out the best substrate to use for the base panel to which the tile will attached. The base panel can be no thicker than 1/2". Initial thought is plywood, but I am worried about it bowing after I mortar the tile to the panel

. If you paint a wood panel on one side it will eventually bow. I assume the same is likely to happen if I adhere tile to one side of a wood panel. My friend suggested that I coat the entire panel in HydroBan to completely seal it and thus prevent bowing.

It sounds like a plausible solution but would feel…

I’ve floated 8-10 mud beds but usually on a mostly centered drain. This shower is 7’ by 3’ with the drain centered sideways but longways 18”from one end and 66” from the other end. If I maintain 1/4” per foot from the long end I’ll have crazy slopes from the short end and sides.

One thought I had was instead of trying to keep the perimeter level, treat the side closest to the drain as a ~3 foot square, keeping the perimeter level there and sloping 3/8 to the centered drain (figure B). Then treat the other area sort of like a linear drain situation and slope down to the 3 foot square (Perimeter would slope also in that section) blending in the slope best as possible. This would allow proper drainage without having steep slopes where the customer is standing. Thoughts?

In the figures, the blue lines are the…

Have a glued in drain stub up with my leveled slu floor. Seen the video with the tape technique, however I can’t take the pipe out. Need to cut the pipe from the inside and wondering the best method, my cutter doesn’t have a depth gauge. The tape in the photo is leftover from my dam from the pour, any tricks or techniques to do this?

I believe Isaac said it was a good idea to Hydro Ban (I actually bought some Mapei Aqua Defense as Floor & Decor recommended it and it was cheaper.

My shower is an Alino 71x31 membrane covered shower pan with a curb along the long edge, durock walls to the ceiling (9ft). I covered the walls in Alino blue membrane (similar to Schluter and the other products out there) along with inside corners, outside corners, banding down the corners and along all the seams.

Everything I read says that is waterproofed. And some things I've read said you don't put any sort of waterproofing on top of a membrane.

• Is it a good idea, overkill, or potentially a bad idea to paint the whole thing with a coat or two of Aqua Defense. Is there any risk. I assume it won't affect Thinset attaching to the Aqua Defense or holdi…

  
  

Got the drain vent moved and the valve rough-in and shower head pipes installed.

Got the fitting of my Tile-Redi pan even tighter than before, it's still about 1/16" out of alignment on outside corner from the original curb lines on the subfloor. My perfectionist attitude wants it perfect but the adjustment requires removing material from the inside corner which no hand plane can reach, got a lovely bruised knuckle from my attempts

We have a never installed, 18 year old Jason Hydrotherapy Tub being dropped into a platform. (We are installing it only months after Jason tubs have ceased to exist) We have a solid 2x6 base with 3/4" OSB on top leaving 1 5/8" gap to the flange.

The goal is to tile the base and drop in the flange with a 1/16" to 1/8" gap between tile and bottom of flange for silicone. The tub is designed for full support from floor.

Here is the tile sandwich I am looking at:

The tile will be cheap box store large format porcelain tile that comes out to about 3/8" thick. A 1/2 x 1/2" trowel of thin set should be about 1/4" and Go board is 1/2" so I will be adding a 3/8" ply or OSB to the platform to fill out my gap. I don't mind laminating more she…