I’m planning to redo my bathroom. The current shower is a hideous plastic spa-tub. That’s going to go. I had been planning a tile shower floor, but…. here’s my question:
Can I tile or pave the shower floor with natural stream cobble? I would use fairly small flat stones — I have no idea if there are any big reasons this wouldn’t work. I’m imagining 2-3 in stones, fairly thin and flat: like a nice skipping stone.
Is there a technique for something like this or would I be making it up as I go. Set the stones in the shower-pan mud? Or on top of the pan with thinset like traditional tiles? I’m guessing I would have to use a sealant on the stones to keep them from staining and or deteriorating.
Any thoughts?
Replies
do you have alot of pebbles you want to get rid of??? :) When my wife and I honeymooned in Bali, several places had pebble floors, I loved the look and feel. I think placing all those rocks individually would drive you insane. How about this for an option
http://naturalstoneoutlet.com/Pebbles.html
http://www.zenparadise.net/pebble_tiles.htm
http://www.coverallstone.com/?page=cat2&cat_id=102&gclid=CMPHxfay-ooCFQVqYAodznkBHg
these were the first thrre options when I googled "stone pebble tile"
hope this helps, be sure to ask others how to properly prep your shower pan.
D.
Hey thanks. That does help.
My sanity is already in question, so placing individual stones may not have had an impact. Worse would be picking 'em from the river bank!As for pan prep -- do you mean specifically for this type tile, or in general?Thanks again.cg
Try johnbridge.com with this question also. They really do a good job on answering shower questions.
Most of the showers I've done are with natural stone or slate and I've done a couple with cobble stone floors (hand picked, by me, local riverstone).
With floors, in my experience, the objective is to be very careful with stone selection so that you have stones that are as flat as possible and as close as possible to the same thickness.
To do otherwise is to create a lot of work getting the floor smooth and with minimal "lippage" and without consuming great quantities of thinset.
You'll also find that the grouting is a bit more work, but the results, ultimately, are worth the effort.
Also, I would use the Schleuter Kerdi waterproofing system which is far and away better than anything else I have ever worked with.
The fee for my input is photos posted here of your final results.
Good luck and have fun!
Thanks for you reply Notchman. When using natural stone, hand picked or otherwise, what treatments and/or maintenance is required when used in a shower?It may take a while before you'll collect your fee!Thanks.
Contrary to what others may prescribe, I seal the stone and grout with Ben Moore's clear concrete sealer. I used to use an industrial concrete sealer that isn't made anymore called "Agri-Seal." The Ben Moore product is nearly as good.
The master Bath in my home sports a fairly large walk-in shower of riverstone....it's about 8 years old....I used Agri-seal on it and we 've kept it clean with one of those shower cleaners that keep the soap residue and the cooties knocked down.
This past summer, I sprayed it down with an industrial cleaner and pressure washed all the stone work; after it was dry, i put on two coats of the Ben Moore sealer.
I've built a number of large showers for customers over the years and the maintenance has been similar to mine.
Initially, I was concerned about keeping such a shower and tub area clean using natural stone, but, it really hasn't been a problem, even with daily use.
Think we could talk you & bobbronner into pics of the stone shower?? Please? They sound wonderful ;-)Bobbi
I just got done with this exact project using stone pebbles. I purchased them online from Naturalstoneoutlet.com I think. They come in 12" X 12" sheets that are not exactly square, but are formed so they kind of "Lock" together eliminating any chance of a pattern appearing.
A plumber friend of mine told me how to do it. Here's the process I did.
I laid a thick rubber membrane around the entire floor area of the shower and about 12" up the wall on all sides. You can get this at any plumbing supply place. Just make sure you fit it in a drain that has a screw out fitting. I forget what this is called, but someone here will help with that I'm sure. After the drain and the rubber membrane is in, I laid down a 2-3" thick layer of concrete, making sure it sloped toward the drain. After this, the pebble tiles went down (just like regular tile) and grout and sealer. If you do the floor first, then your wall tiles (or surround) can go over the rubber that is running up the wall.
Hope this helps. If you need any further specific instructions, let me know. This isn't my specialty, but it worked great.
Do a deck mud preslope. Due to there being more grout with the stones, and due to there being a bit of uneveness with the stone, consider pitching the preslope slightly more than the recommended 1/4" per foot.
As previously noted, you'll have more grout showing with stone. Grout is porous, so to minimize deep wetting into the pan assembly, consider using a topcal membrane like Kerdi. I'd go that route regardless of sealing the grout and stone floor and how well I though that would prevent moisture penetration.
If you're going for a certain stone pattern in the shower, consider the following. You don't have to do all this prep work, it all depends on how confident you are in freehanding patterns:
Mock up the shower floor just outside the shower itself, on the bath's floor, for example. Put something like kraft paper down, draw out the floor (say 3' by 4' perimeter, to include drain location.
Take that 3' by 4' and grid it into 1' squares.
Use a sharpie marker to grid out the Kerdi membrane in the actual shower into similar 1' squares.
Layout your stone pattern on the mocked up floor.
When done, mud up a couple of square feet of grid in the shower, and take stones off your mock up and replicate their location on the grid on the shower floor.
The objective is to get the stones in the bedding material ASAP. You don't want to be doing design layout while your bedding material is skinning over.
If not doing a pattern, then just lay them out freehand.
I'd give your collected stones a soaking (drywall bucket) in a mild acid wash first, then rinse them off with fresh water.
Let them dry throughly. Depending on the stone itself, it may help to have them slightly damp (no dripping surface water) when installing them so the stone doesn't prematurely wick the moisture out of yout thinset of bedding material.
There are some progress pics of a drypack preslope with Kerdi installed over it about halfway down this thread.
Mongo