I am building a shower stall in my summer cottage which is about 100 miles north of Toronto. Temperatures there can drop to 40 below zero in mid winter and the cottage is not heated in winter.
The shower is larger than normal, about 36″ x 60″ (comfortable for two). I can easily find ready made shower bases that are made of fiber reinforced plastic that the manufacturers say will withstand the cold.
My thought was to do the walls of the shower in normal ceramic tile construction. That is 2″ x 4″ framing covered with cement board (or similar high quality tile backer board) and then covered with 6″ x 6″ standard ceramic tiles.
Does anyone out there have any experience with a tiled wall in an unheated building. Will it stand up or will the grout joints and the tile crack up in the extreme cold?
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Big Bill
Replies
Shouldn't be a problem. houses here are closed down for wionter every year and I've never heard of problems associated with it. The only potential trouble i can imagine is if somehow the CMU boards were quite saturated and then suddenly froze hard before they could drain and dry, but a properly done wall willl only have minimal moisture enter it there. Certainly not enuf for expansioon of frost to damage it.
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Thanks Piffin,
How far north are you? My summer cottage is used until about the end of October. Everything gets a few weeks to dry before there is a hard freeze.
Big Bill
maine. We can see a few weeks around minus twenty F here.
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