Maybe a dumb question, but I have no visual examples to help me. I am about to tile a shower with the same tiles on floor and walls (4×4 tumbled travertine). It seems to be common sense that the floor tiles go down first so that the wall tiles butt to them and the joint is on the wall and not the floor. However, I don’t want to dump thinset all over the floor tiles or otherwise damage them, so that’s telling me I should tile the walls first. What should I do?
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JonE, I'm just a carp that occasionally does tile. I have done three tiled showers. I set the floor tiles first on the sloped mortar. Then, I place a carefully leveled straight edge representing the bottom of the second row of wall tiles and use this to support the wall tiles while I set them. After wall tiles are set I then put in the bottom row which I get close to a full tile but I have had to trim these a little due to minor flaws in the mud pan or small amounts of lippage in the floor tiles. I just carefully cover the floor tile by taping down some rosin paper to avoid getting thinset on the floor tiles. I am curious how my methods compare to a full time tile guy. Good luck with your install.
I'm no tile guy but on a recent job I watched him do a walk-in shower. He did the floor tiles first. Once the floor was done, he covered it with cardboard for protection. Then he scribed the bottom of the first row of wall tiles to match the slope of the floor. From there up it went pretty quick. What I found interesting was that he took off his shoes and worked all day in just his socks.
I do the walls first. I then do my floor. I personally find that easier. If your floor is pretty level you can start from there with a full tile just up from the floor a 1/8"-1/4" The thickness of your floor w/tile ...but in these pictures my floor wasn't deaD level because I had to cut the preslope Kerdi pan slightly uneven which is totally un noticeable to the eye but it wasn't dead level and I knew that when I did it.
A wet saw makes everything much easier and cleaner as far as cuts go.
http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Edited 7/9/2007 9:20 pm ET by andybuildz
Try looking over the John Bridge tile forum. Lots of great advice there and they are all very friendly. Link is below.
http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1