Shower Wall Tile – Best Installation Practice
I am planning a new house and my latest, of many, confusions, regards the best practice for shower wall tile installation. My lack of understanding is compounded by what I see in my current house, which supposedly is a well-built house.
In one of my bathrooms, a few tiles popped off the left wall of the shower exposing how the tiles were installed, a photo is attached. What I see does not look good, but maybe it is, because I don’t know what “good” looks like. However, there is another, to me, weird thing. The tiles on the right wall of the same shower were clearly installed in a different way. A photo of this is also attached.
Is there a reason why two different tile installation methods would be used in the same shower? Is there a consensus for the best practice for shower wall tile installation?
Replies
If I’m seeing this right,
The left side was “brought in” to fit the door upper hardware?
I looked several times while watching a ballgame and it looks like they had to pack out those flat on the wall tiles……crap job and they fell off.
Can you post the whole front of the shower door set up?
Here is a view of the shower front. There are 4 showers in the house and the tile for all of them are varying distances from the wall and all with cracks in a 7 year old house.
There must be a better way to do tile.
It looks like the opening before the door was installed was going to be too big so the packed out those tiles on the left, at least the ones on the return wall.
Most of those door units have a track on each side that the finished posts slide into……allowing a variable rough opening. Easy to get it right. Custom glass are measured after tile and fit right.
What should have been done?
The left side wall was packed out with maybe the cement board, which seems to have been done to fit the door panels…..beats me.
I enlarged your picture of the right side, there is a channel to fasten the door panel. Can’t tell if there’s one on the left side.
If they had made the shower less deep, the left side tile would not have had to turn the corner.
Edit: I guess the answer is pretty simple. All of it was done wrong.
Well, thanks for the information.
I'm about to DIY a tile shower and this gives me a low bar to pass!
The problem, for those of us not planning on DIY, is how to have the tile portion (or 50 other items in a new build) specified to prevent the type of work I now have in front of me.
If you really want to know how to build a shower look into schluter products and watch their training videos or take their free classes.
I agree. Schluter is the best way. A little more costly but you get what you pay for
I have heard of Schluter products many times, so I am sure they are very good.
In my case, from the above discussion, it appears two errors were made. The first one being that the shower dimensions were not what they were supposed to be or needed to be. The second error was that the tile installer did not solve the dimensional errors with best practices.
Would the Schluter system solve these types of problems?
There's more to the crap installation that the photos show. The actual tile substrate and tile installation is terrible and isn't close to tile industry standards. Start here for proper installation methods: https://tcnatile.com/resource-center/faq/ceramic-tile/
Don't dig too far into the existing installation- you won't like what you find, especially with the shower floor.
I replied earlier, but my reply never appeared. That is the 2nd or 3rd time the same thing has happened, not sure why.
OK, in spite of this being a high-end house in south Houston, I can accept that the job is crappy. The other three showers are all similar, so I am sure they were poorly done as well. Water under the bridge. I just want to be on top of things this next go around where I will be much more vigilant.
From the above comments, the tile work was done improperly, which would have been much better by following standards like those of the TCNA and by using the Schluter system.
But, there also appears to have been dimensional errors made either by the designer or those framing the shower, which caused the tile installer to compound his crappy installation errors.
Is that what I can conclude here?
I have been responding to the above comments, but my messages are not appearing. I am not sure why.
I replied earlier, but my reply never appeared. This is the 2nd or 3rd time my messages do not get through, not sure why.
OK, in spite of this being a high-end house in south Houston, I can accept that the job is crappy. The other three showers are all similar, so I am sure they were poorly done as well. Water under the bridge. I just want to be on top of things this next go around where I will be much more vigilant.
From the above comments, the tile work was done improperly, which would have been much better by following standards like those of the TCNA and by using the Schluter system.
But, there also appears to have been dimensional errors made either by the designer or those framing the shower, which caused the tile installer to compound his crappy installation errors.
Is that what I can conclude here?
Still trying to send a reply to my own post.
I have been unable to post for some reason.
Sorry!
I have replied many times, but my replies never appear. This is the 2nd or 3rd time the same thing has happened in the last few months, not sure why.
OK, in spite of this being a high-end house in south Houston, I can accept that the job is crappy. The other three showers are all similar, so I am sure they were poorly done as well. Water under the bridge. I just want to be on top of things this next go around where I will be much more vigilant.
From the above comments, the tile work was done improperly, which would have been much better by following standards like those of the TCNA and by using the Schluter system.
But, there also appears to have been dimensional errors made either by the designer or those framing the shower, which caused the tile installer to compound his crappy installation errors.
Is that what I can conclude here?
Not sure if this message will get through, but trying.
It looks like your current shower tiles were installed using a method called “spot bonding.” Installers often used this approach in the past, placing adhesive blobs on the tile backs instead of spreading thinset evenly. While common back then—and still sometimes done today—it’s no longer considered the best practice. Interestingly, manufacturers like Laticrete once supported spot bonding but now strongly discourage it.
Even though spot bonding isn’t ideal, plenty of older showers built this way have lasted many years without noticeable problems. Issues usually only surface when tiles are removed or an edge is exposed, like your first picture shows. Your second photo probably shows tiles installed the same way. Without an exposed corner, it’s just harder to notice the voids behind them.
Today’s best practice, and one I’d recommend for your new house, involves applying adhesive evenly on the entire back of the tile. Proper waterproofing systems such as Schluter, Laticrete Hydro Ban, or Wedi boards also provide additional protection against moisture and mold issues. While spot bonding might hold up fine for years, newer methods ensure your shower stays worry-free long-term.
If you want to dive deeper into current tile installation practices, feel free to check resources like my site at https://daviemactile.com
Just a question for you.
If you’d want to feature homeowners wine corks, would you not place the labeling right side up?
Usually “ads” for a company are considered spam but your link does have job examples which will probably let it stay.
Thanks.
I appreciate the insight, Calvin! The goal was to provide useful information, not just to promote. Spot bonding is a common issue, and I wanted to share solutions that work in real-world installations. If the mods feel it’s too promotional, I respect that.
Davi,
You posted info that informs!
And, your website has more information available.
If you haven’t been around here much you might have missed the bs crap that gets inserted into a reply. Much of it is those damned artificial info posting that merely copy a previous post and then insert a link to a site that usually is for something not even close….
Feel free to return and reply or post anything that has to do with what this site was started for.
Late 90’s till now…..