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Kerdi Tiled Shower – (Tampa) New Port Richey, Florida

We recently did a renovation of a small hall bath corner shower for a customer in the Tampa/New Port Richey area. The old shower was a 6×6 almond glazed ceramic tile and had the usual dirty stained grout along with some mold stains and pretty dated looking. The homeowner located us by a Google search for tile contractors in the area that also did waterproofing in showers. Besides installing tile we also waterproof showers with Schluter Kerdi, Custom’s RedGard, Laticrete HydroBan or Hydro Barrier. The owner decided to use the Kerdi system.

So we started off by removing all of the old tile and drywall, yes drywall. (I still cant believe people were and still are installing tile with mastic over drywall. the rate of failure on that install is about 75-80% that it will rot and leak. The only thing you should use in a wet area setting tile is thinset). After the drywall and tile was removed we cleaned and checked to make sure no mold or dirt was left in the wall voids between the studs. We installed the new Fiberock backer board on the shower walls since the owner had already purchased it. We usually use drywall since Kerdi is an impermeable membrane and water isn’t a problem.  For this shower one roll of 108 ft Kerdi was enough along with the Kerdi drain and a roll of Kerdi-band. We then started to install the Kerdi membrane by dampening the substrate first before putting up the Kerdi membrane.

Once the Kerdi walls were completed we chopped out the old drain. We also decided to leave the old shower floor and do our new mud bed over it. Once the old drain was removed we chopped around the drain pipe to cut  it low and to install the new Kerdi drain. We used an all purpose avs/pvc glue to join the Kerdi drain to the drain pipe then we used thinset to help bond the Custom Building Products Custom Float bedding mortar when we floated the shower pan and created the proper pitch. The owner also wanted a couple corner soap shelves so we cut a piece of brown limestone travertine that matched the Marazzi Montagna Cortina 12 x 12 glazed porcelain wall & floor tile.

We bullnosed the corner shelf tile and then polished them a little with our Alpha dry polishing pads to clean up the cut edge.  We laid out the wall tile and decided for aesthetics to start with full tile in the far visible corner and wrap the tile to the front entry and hide the cut at the door bull nose tile. We set the tile making sure we were level and plum and made sure to mix different tile from separate boxes to blend the tile and make the colors and pattern random. The Marazzi tile is calibrated good and square so we used a 3/16″ grout joint. When we got up to about shoulder height we installed the 2 shelves in the corner and cut the tile around them to lock them in. We also tiled the ceiling of the shower and used the Laticrete 255 MultiMax thinset for it’s non sag properties and ability to stick tile on a ceiling.

Once the wall tile & ceiling was completed we mixed up some un modified thinset and set the Kerdi on the shower floor. We do the floor last to make sure we don’t puncture or rip the Kerdi waterproofing on the shower floor while working on setting the wall tile. We also make sure when doing the Kerdi on the walls earlier we do the Kerdi-band, this allows us to have the required 2″ overlap when doing the Kerdi on the floor. The good thing about Kerdi is after you install it you can set tile right away. So we laid out the 2×2 shower floor tiled started setting it using a 1/4″ notched trowel. When setting the 2×2 tile you need to make sure embed the sheet mosaic with a soft rubber float by tapping on them lightly.

Once the thinset dried the required cure time we grouted starting with the ceiling first since it is the messiest place to grout. The homeowner purchased the sanded grout from Lowe’s and selected Mapei Keracolor #42 Mocha. He also purchased Grout Boost as a stain proof grout additive. We also used the Keracaulk S matching sanded caulk. This project was a smorgasbord of different products from Schluter Kerdi, Laticrete thinset, Custom’s wet bed bedding mortar, Marazzi tile & Mapei grout & caulk. As long as the products I use are of good quality like all mentioned above you will have a good final product. The only bad thing is you don’t get a manufacturer warranty on a system package.

Contact Us if your in the Tampa, Florida area and looking to get tile installed.

Enjoy the pictures of this project.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

David Terranova May 2, 2010 at 6:35 pm

Hi. Very interesting and informative website. Thank you for posting it. I have a question.
Have you ever used the Laticrete materials and not used their thin-set or grout?
I am wondering if there is a reason you could not use the regular materials other
then being forced into buying them from the same supplier.
Also have you ever try used the Hydroment products.
I am in the middle of redoing a recessed shower that has no pan.
I am redoing it because the orginal installation was not correct.
I am trying to find the best way that is the most economical way to waterproof the wet walls and the floor.
The dry walls I think can go up as vapor barrior and cement board only.
I don’t want to do this again. Can you provide me with any suggestions?

Thank you.

David

Ceramictec May 2, 2010 at 8:55 pm

Hi David,

While I am not a big fan of Hydroment products I have used some of their materials and they are good products, just not my brand of choice.

A good product for you to use on your shower would be Laticrete’s Hydro Barrier. It is an inexpensive liquid membrane and works great when done correctly. Also Schluter Kerdi and the “system” with the drain and Kerdi band is excellent but costs a little more then your liquid waterproofing.

As far as using one brand it is sometimes best. Laticrete offers a warranty on using all their products in one “system” installation. Most major manufacturers do like Laticrete, Custom & Mapei. If a customer purchases tile from a store I usually use that stores brand of thinset and grout for ease of purchase and use the waterproofing’s that I like using which are, Laticrete Hydro Barrier or HydroBan, Schluter Kerdi or Customs RedGard.

Best of luck with your shower project.

W. Themes May 4, 2010 at 11:10 pm

Nice post and this entry helped me a lot in my college assignment. Thanks for your information.

Sal May 9, 2010 at 7:26 am

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Emmett Hebert May 29, 2010 at 3:45 am

You’ve done it again. Amazing post!

Neil Bautista May 29, 2010 at 9:44 pm

If I had a nickel for each time I came to ceramictec.com to see or read what they are doing. great post.

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