Ceramic Wall Tile Tips

nice instructive site.
any tips on finding (odd?) trim pieces
on line? For example angle cove; inside cove corner; inside corner bullnose;angle corners. Home Depot /Lowes no help and so far any tile websites seem to have no trim index or catalog.

Bruce,
Just keep searching. I suffer just as you do each day. I keep hoping manufacturers will soon *get it* that there is this mass of people like you and I that are tapping our credit cards on the monitors *begging* companies to take our $$$.

do you bring your rockwall straight to the tub lip?does it rest on top of the lip a bit above or below the lip?

Donna,
I always hold the board up 1/4 inch and caulk the gap with silicone caulk.

I'm installing new tile in shower only stall. Do I install the walls before the floor? Where should the bottom row begin? Should I start below where the top of the floor tiles begin, or leave a gap for filling in with caulk?
Thank you.

Patrick,
I cover all of this in *all* of my past Ceramic Tile columns. Grab a cup of bean juice and get ready to read for an hour or so.

I'm installing a new tub and tiling the walls. I am not tiling all the way up the wall. Do I need to offset the tiled part of the wall a 1/2" from the untiled part? Is it o.k. to use large tile like a 13x13, and if so, does the grout line need to be a 1/4" or a 1/8"?

Josh,
Wall is smooth before tile. This is why cement board is the same thickness as drywall. One-eighth joints are perfect if the tile is very uniform.

I know you touch on it, but to be sure - do I grout or caulk the corner joint in a shower wall. It is an outside wall meeting an inside wall. I ask because my kitchen corners are grouted.

Thanks

I want to install new ceramic wall tile over old ceramic wall tile. What do I clean/etch the old tile with and what adhesive should I use?

Dave,
You can grout it.

Dave,
Just clean it with soap and water. Go to a tile store to get the correct mastic.

Hi! Our bathroom wall is plaster (rough from different wall coverings being removed). Is it possible to tile the wall using cement like we did our floor or is it expedient that we use tile adhesive just because it's a wall?

What are the procedures to tile the ceiling of the bath shower since I am going all the way up the walls with the tile?

When I cut my tile (with a tile cutter, not a wet saw), the finish on the surface chips a bit.

Should I be cutting slightly over the width I need and then try to grind the cut edge smooth? Or is this a losing battle?

when you are finishing corners and edges is it better to cut the tile up to the preformed edge of the tile or to place the pre-formed corner or edge tile over the tile. Can you put the corner or edge tile that is preformed over the tile . For instance . Lets say you are at a corner and your tile is already butted up to the edge of the corner . You have a decorative edge tile that you want to use so do your just put it over the tile ??? Or is it better to butt the corner or edge tile up to the other tile

I have 1 wall in shower that has concave surface. Horizontal line where 2 cement boards meets is raised and above/below is concave....

Should I fill in low spots with thinset morter? The tile is being set on wall in thinset. Should I feather out surface like you would on drywall??

thanks
lynn

Do you have an opinion on the use of a grout bag? Im trying to save some work as Im grouting very porous stone tile. I dont think pre-sealing these tile will make it easier to remove excess groug as the pores are crater like.

I am ready to do some wall tile on a partial wall that goes to the floor and I am new to all this and I would like to know if I do the wall tile first or do I tile the floor first? Can it be done either way? If I do the floor first then won't my wall tile sit on top of the floor tile better? I don't want to use a splash board around the edge just the tile and use caulking to the bottom. Can this be done?

Do you have any ideas on how to tile the edge of a rounded counter? Is the only way to just cut the tile or edge board into small peices or is there something made for rounded counters?

We want to install new ceramic tile over old ceramic tile on the backsplash in our kitchen. Is this possible, and if so, what would the procedure to do it be. Thanks. Ann B

Im installing 16" tile on a bias diagnal pattern in my shower.Part way up at 48"s ive installed a decorative 3" trim.Im having a problem matching my tiles above the trim to the tiles below the trim.Any tips?

would you reccommend installing tuscany travertine tile in a shower if you are farmiliar with this type of stone

Tim,
Great article.Questions.What are some basic guidelines for expansion joints for tiling whether it be wall tiles or floor tiles of various sizes and what about for corners of various sizes ties? I'm a newbie and I want to get it right the first time.
Thanks,Paul

I did not get all the grout haze off my ceramic tiles before they dried. How do I clean then now? Thanks

I am installing marble tiles 12x12 on my shower walls. Should I space them evenly and grout or place them together and not grout or place them together and grout the hairlines?

Thanks, Carlos

After grouting my shower/bath upper
wall I stil have a yucky look.
Is there a trim I can put over ther grout and around the stall that woll make it look better?

TRS

I am tiling our main bath shower, my substrate is DuRock, cement board, should I use a product like RedGard to seal it, also, with a 12x12 tile, what is my ideal spacing.

Thanks

Steve

I am placing a single row of tiles around my tub. Do I need to caulk or grout between the tub and the tile and also, the inside corners?

I just finished tiling the full tile fields for my bath tub/shower and starting my corners. Should I leave a gap between the corner tiles or let them come together as close as possible?

What if the grout in my shower is not white like caulk? i want the corners to be the same color.

I just got my shower tiled and found a problem. The wall that separates my shower and toilet is not the same width from floor to ceiling. The shower side of the wall was tiled, but I have areas where the tile extents past the corner/edge of the wall. You can clearly see this from the toilet side of the wall. I can't get the tile redone. So how do I cover up this imperfection so the tile and wall are flush? Please help.

I installed a glass tile backsplash in my kitchen but I'm wondering what to do with the space between the tile and the cabinets. Do I grout or caulk them? Thanks so much!

Re-tiling a shower in 130 year old house adding corner shelves to more than 90 degree corners. What is the best way to secure the shelf if there is approx. 1/8 inch gap from wall at outer edges when shelf is centered in the corner?

I am laying 12 X 12 tile on shower wall, how many rows should I do at a time before allowing time to set?

We are replacing the tile in our bathroom. The house was built in the 30's and the walls are lath and plaster. Ater removing tiles in the shower/tub area, we had to remove the old plaster walls. There is wainscott in the rest of the room and my question is: How to join the cement backer board and the lath and plaster wall above it when the old wall is almost 1/2" thicker than the cement board.

We are tiling a shower, the walls end at a corner. The wallboard has a metal corner edge. I remove that metal edge to put in the water resist board in the shower area. The board doesnt have a dent for the build up of the metal corner.
How do I finish the corner edge..sheetrock meets resist. I have bull nose, but that corner edge needs something to finish it off. Thanks,

I read the comment above about installing accessories but I don't understand how gobbing some plaster of paris in the casting holes of some pretty heavy ceramic corner shelves is going to hold up the shelves. It seems like you need to fix re-bar into the shower wall to fit through these casting hole to keep them up. I can't imagine any kind of tape holding these shelves in place while the thin-set and plaster of paris dries. Does this really work?

i want to put a ceramic bullnose baseboard around the bottom of my ceramic tiled shower can i do this without removeing old tile

I just had my shower stall re-done. The contractor put in two Daltile corner soap dishes. He said they had to be installed straight to the wall. The water from the shower does not drain from the soap dishes - just sits there. The contractor says they are installed correctly and Daltile says the soap dishes are all made the same. Is there anything we can do? (Note the soap dishes do have a small grove in the center outside edge but the water still doesn't drain off.

I have finished tiling my shower but the topper tile is not quite flush with the Ceiling. The gap is a little wider on one side where the tile ends just outside the tub. The gap on the left side of the tub is about a finger width while it is flush on the right hand side. Is there something I can do to make the gap less noticeable