Installing Stone Shower Soap Shelves

On a job we recently did in Sarasota, Florida the owner decided he wanted to install some type of soap holder in the shower and tub showers as an after thought. Since we already had the showers completed and just finished grouting them we needed to install them in a different way then cutting the tile around them and installing them as we set. So I suggested to him to get a Thassos marble shelve to match his shower sill we were installing in the shower installation project in his home. The tile in the shower was a 32″ x 32″ glass glazed large format porcelain tile, so there was no way to cut out and area to set in the shelves easily.

I would then have to install them on the surface of the tile in a special installation I learned from another installer I know that also specializes in custom installations. We started with buying 2 Thassos marble radius shelves from one of my local tile warehouses. One for the master stand up shower and one for the tub shower bath. The Thassos shelves matched the sill and bright white tile in the showers perfectly. I marked out a center line along the back 2 sides of the shelf then I took my 4″ grinder and made small slits in 2 locations. I also cut the same 2 slits on the shower walls in the grout joint. I took special precaution to mark them out the same so they matched. And if you have a surface applied waterproofing make sure you don’t cut too deep to go through it.

This was done in both showers with both Thassos soap shelves. After that was done I took a heavy duty white silicone adhesive and applied it to the slits and then took some quarter and stuck them into the slits filled with the silicone. I then applied a liberal amount of the heavy duty white silicone adhesive along the 2 edges of the marble shelf. Then I pressed the corner shelf onto the wall making the quarters slide into the slits on the walls. The quarters acts like a woodworking biscuit and holds the shelve from sliding or moving. When I pressed them together some excess white silicone swishes out. I take my finger like I was caulking and remove the excess caulk. I use lacquer thinner on my finger to shape the caulk and make the joint smooth.

and there you have a tricky way to install a stone shelve in your shower.

enjoy the pictures. 🙂