New Tampa Bathroom Shower & Floor Tile Remodel

We were contacted by a customer near us in New Tampa, Florida to look at redoing their master bathroom shower, garden tub and master bathroom floor. I set up a same day appointment for an estimate because they were really close to me. The house was in the Hunters Green development and was built in the early 90’s. The bathroom was clean and the floor tile was in nice shape, however the shower had some area’s of rotting showing through and there was possibly mold in the walls and rotting the bench out. Another thing was that the style of the tile itself and bathroom were dated and that’s the reason they contact us. I did my measuring of the area’s to be tiled and we went over some idea’s they had for a look they wanted. They wanted a medium brown looking tile to go with the dark cherry cabinets and a brown granite or quartz stone counter. The walls were going to be painted a Sage Green so all the colors had to flow and work with each other. They also wanted some type of small glass tile accent band or deco rope band.

After talking to them for a while I could tell they wanted to do this bathroom tile project the right way. They told me they wanted me to build a niche on the back wall and also wanted me to build a solid seat in the same corner. They also wanted me to do a quality waterproofing membrane on the walls and floors prior to the tile installation. So I could tell they were doing their research and wanted a quality job. I gave them a few names of tile distributors I use in the Tampa area and sent them there to look at some tile and get samples. They went to a couple and ended up at Alpha Tile and my sales lady showed them a bunch of tile. They selected a tile from Ege Seramik America in a brown color called Alabastrino Noce. A 10×13 for the shower and garden tub deck, a 2×2 for the shower floor and a 18×18 for the  main bath floor area. They also selected a small antique rope molding liner and a 5/8″ sheet mosaic as an accent band of dark marble and glass tile in caramel & brown. They would like 3 rows of the small mosaic bordered on each side by the rope liner as an eye high accent band on the shower wall.

When we started the project we did the demo of the shower and floor tile first. The studs in the shower were pretty rotted out and the seat was almost totally gone from water rot. There was absolutely no waterproofing on the shower walls on seat. The builder had already removed the tub, vanity and counter top prior to us starting. The builder then framed out a new tub deck since the old one was really low and the owners wanted a higher tub. We then framed in the new niche area and started to install the cement board in the shower and on the tub deck. We removed the curb and decided to make this shower semi curbless, there is only a small drop into the shower no. We also installed a Schluter Kerdi drain and did the dry pack mud shower floor that day. The next day we finished doing the niche and built the bench from 3 cinder blocks and cement board. Next we started to do the liquid waterproofing and the shower waterproofing we decided on was Laticrete HydroBarrier. I applied  a couple coats of the liquid membrane on all of the walls in the shower and also a few coats on the shower floor. Used a fabric mesh in all of the corners and painted the niche real good to make sure the full shower was totally waterproofed. After the waterproofing was completed the next day we started to install the wall tile.

I laid out where the accent border would go and how it went across the niche, tub and shower bench. I started to set the porcelain tile on the back wall of the shower with modified thinset mortar. The customer wanted the tile set in a brick joint and that’s how we set them. After I got done setting the lower section of the shower I then installed the 1/2″ x 6″ antique rope pencil liner eye level and stacked the 5/8″ mixed marble & glass mosaic above it with another row of rope pencil liner on top. I also installed the mosaic tile in the back part of the niche. We finished the shower wall tile and bench and then worked on the garden tub deck and face. After that was completed we set the shower floor tile and called it a day. The next morning we started on the main bathroom floor tile. The slab was flat but with the 18×18 porcelain tile we decided to use the Tuscan Leveling System to ensure a flat lippage free floor install. The floor tile installation went real easy with the assist from the TLS. We also used a 3×13 bullnose for the base around the perimeter of the bathroom. After everything was set and dried the next day we grouted all of the tile. The grout selected was Laticrete “Sand Beige” in sanded and unsanded.

After everything was done the Contractor did the final painting, installed cabinets, toilet & tub, installed the shower controls and glass shower enclosure. The homeowner was very happy with the final product and loves the tile installation.