Tiling: Bathroom Walls (Day 8)

Having worked all weekend relocating the door and finishing the prep of the walls and floors for tiles, the bathroom was ready for Sean (our tiler) when he walked in on Monday morning.

Morning of Feb 27th - the wood batten is set for holding the tiles above.

Similar to how he started the shower, Sean set a wooden batten at the base of the 2nd row on the wall in order to hold the tiles. By locating and leveling the batten perfectly, it provides a stable and accurate foundation for the walls, and later, once the tiles are set, and the floor is tiled, he can go in and tile the gap precisely. This is one of those great tricks one can learn watching a professional -- if it was not done this way, I can now see that there could be inaccuracies that would be visible. Setting such large tiles is an extremely unforgiving task...I'm now really thankful that "Aglaya" talked me out of doing the tiling myself!

Late morning - most of the wall is finished.

After Sean finished the shower, it was amazing to see how fast he could work with just straight walls and full tiles -  in just a few hours he had finished one of the walls and had started the other. These walls are all in limestone - which is a beautiful but soft stone - and they are intended to provide a more neutral background against the bold color of the slate.

Turning the corner onto the final wall. You can see the red line of the laser level on the left side

By 1pm Sean had completed half of the final wall.

While Sean was working on the walls, I was resetting the loo's push-button flusher - it's wall mounted and had to be properly fixed to the wall before the tiles go over it. This was the last thing I did before heading to the airport...now it's up to "Aglaya" to finish overseeing Sean's work!

The mostly completed shower (with the laser level mounted on a pole)

Tiling: Starting the Shower

After a last-minute scramble to get the shower ready for our tiler, Sean, he showed up first thing this morning (8am!) to begin work. He probably has no idea how much effort went into getting everything ready for him - besides building-out the shower from scratch and waterproofing it, we had spent weeks picking out tiles ...and then, upon delivery, I had to single-handedly haul hundreds of pounds of stone upstairs into the flat...

Feb 14th - the first of two tile deliveries - the slate

Sean started by bringing all of his tools upstairs and setting up his cutting area out on the balcony. Because our tiles are natural stone, he is using a "wet saw", which uses water, so besides some dust it also tends to splatter water...everywhere. This is why we decided it best to set up the wet saw outside.

Morning of Feb 20th - the tiler's tools next to the stacks of tile

Sean's set up for cutting tiles with the wet saw on the balcony

Once Sean was set up, we reviewed the layout and design together. This was actually quite complex because of the arch and ledge in the shower, plus the fact that the limestone and slate are sort of woven together in the shower (as if the limestone is passing in front of the slate).

We also went over - in painstaking detail - exactly how and where each course of tile would run and where the seams would be, how wide the joints would be, and so on. This may sound like over-doing it, but if you don't figure this stuff out in advance, you might end up with a faucet, or a shower valve, coming through the tile off-center, or  near an edge. If that happens, it will look like a mistake - particularly with such large tiles, and could also be impossible to cut without breaking the tile.

Ready for tile: right before the tiler gets started

So after everything was worked out, Sean set-up a laser level (which was really cool!) and marked out each course. Using the laser, he then set a wooden batten at the bottom of the first course to provide a permanent guide, and to prevent the tiles from slipping.

The tiler set up a laser to set the level for each tile course

One interesting thing was that the first course Sean set on the wall was not at the lowest level (adjacent to the floor), but the next one up. I learned that the lowest wall course is only installed after the floor goes in, so that there's an overlap (similar in concept to how flashing is done) and also so the exact dimensions can be measured once the floor tiles are set.

Sean on the balcony cutting tiles

Sean moved quite quickly, so by the end of the day, he had completed the entire area of wall under the arch...and it looked great!

4pm - The first set of tiles completed!

Although Sean finished for the day at 4pm, I was mobilizing to continue prepping a few unfinished areas in the shower and bathroom that I had not yet completed. Because there was still a decent amount of work left for me to do, we worked out something of a tag-team arrangement - he would tile during the day, and I would do the prep work in the late afternoon and evening after he left. We agreed that every day we would have to co-ordinate the schedule so that I could stay a few steps ahead of him.

That night - building out the exterior face of the shower & setting the shower ceiling's level

For tonight, we had decided I should finish the outside edges of the shower - this included the step/ledge at the floor of the shower, the upper face (or soffit) at the ceiling, and the side face of the shower. By finishing these areas, the shower's waterproofing and substrate would be complete, and it would also give Sean a stopping point by setting the levels of the ceiling, and outside walls.

Adding the tile backer board on the side and top edges

Adding the tile backer board to the bottom ledge/face of the shower

The mostly completed ledge/step

By the time everything was finished, it was 11:30pm...but my portion of the shower is finally (!) finished and now Sean won't be held back by anything on my end...at least in the shower...

The shower at the end of the night