I am going to attempt a tile job in a shower

[SAWYER]

I have an extra bath that I have not used the bath in a year's years. The hot water valve was stuck on so I capped the lines off. It is a tub with a shower, the tiles were messed up when I removed the valve. I had thought about putting a tileboard insert in but I would like to try to put some real tile back in place instead. I would appreciate any tips. I plan on only doing the shower, not the rest of the walls in the bathroom since they are already tiled.

 

[Subyman]

Are you talking about just a repair job on the tiles you tinkered with or a full tile job? You will likely need to gut the shower and start fresh to do it properly if you want to do the entire thing. It isn't hard, but it will take some time and I recommend having two people as it goes much much faster. Let me know what your plan is and I can help. I just finished tiling a shower/tub in the last house I renovated. Turned out great.

 

[SAWYER]

I was hoping just the shower, if I could find matching tiles just the one wall if possible

 

[paperfist]

What size tiles we talking about?

Do you know if they have cement board behind them?

 

[SAWYER]

Small tiles, mayb 4x4 or 5x5 are used now. I will strip it down to the studs and start fresh

 

[skyking]

That's a pretty technical repair you are attempting, going down to studs on one wall only and matching back up to an existing wall of tiles.
It will be very difficult to strip the wall without dislodging some adjacent tiles on the other wall.
It is not impossible at all, but you have to take your time stripping and prepping, and getting the level right when putting back up that backing material.

 

[SAWYER]

I will do all of the shower since I dont think I will find matching tiles, they are very old. My biggest concern will be where they intersect the tiles in the rest of the bathroom

 

[Greenman]

That joint where the new and old meet is going to be a bitch. You're going to need to make a perfect cut with a grinder, then get the tile surfaces to match. I doubt you'll ever get the grout lines to line up.

 

[gururu2]

demo it and clean everything as well as possible before doing the measuring and planning.
likely, you will have to replace the backer so remove the existing backer up to at least 6 feet.
1)Figure out how you what kind of moisture barrier.
2) Pick tile, go with a polymer grout.
3) Use a high quality thinset if you can find.
Consult the floorelf website for in depth information.

 

[paperfist]

Even if you could match the tile the grout most likely will not.

Just out of curiosity do you have any pics of where you want to repair? It can be done, but it's going to be like performing surgery.

If the area isn't too big it's possible to use accent tile kinda like they do at grocery stores when they break floor tiles and put down something contrasting.

 

[SAWYER]

I removed the tileboard that was in there on the wall where the faucets go, the old ceramic tile behind it was broke
http://imgur.com/96VbPJq

 

[skyking]

you are going the right way sawyer. That needs cleaned up, the rotting wood removed.
It was not done right the first time and I suspect you will find rotted materials behind all the tiles of the bottom course.

 

[Greenman]

It looks tile over drywall except at the bottom where the tile was over bare wood. No tar paper, and the tile setting work was poor at best. That was a hack job.

Rip every inch of it out, and dump the blue bathtub while you're at it. I wouldn't try to save any of it. Whoever did the work didn't know what they were doing, so I would expect all of it to be sub standard.

 

[SAWYER]

I am not concerned about the tub or the color, that is just more of an expense and work

 

[mizzou]

I had a bathroom just like that where it was 1950's circa original tile. The caulking failed and the grout had holes in it. I, being an idiot, never thought to re-caulk the tub. Eventually water got behind the drywall and the drywall caved in with the tile.

I had a spare box of Japanese made tile in my garage and made good use of it. I was able to pull out and salvage 70% of the tile and put it all back in, made it look great. Thankfully I was able to pull out the damp insulation and drywall before it got terrible.

My advice...once you get to a tile where you feel no moisture, remove that row and go one further!

 

[mizzou]

I am not concerned about the tub or the color, that is just more of an expense and work

it really isn't that much work, it's just prepping and waiting. It will take several days to do it justice, and that's mainly just letting the tiles set and then seal afterwards.

 

[Greenman]

I had a bathroom just like that where it was 1950's circa original tile. The caulking failed and the grout had holes in it. I, being an idiot, never thought to re-caulk the tub. Eventually water got behind the drywall and the drywall caved in with the tile.

I had a spare box of Japanese made tile in my garage and made good use of it. I was able to pull out and salvage 70% of the tile and put it all back in, made it look great. Thankfully I was able to pull out the damp insulation and drywall before it got terrible.

My advice...once you get to a tile where you feel no moisture, remove that row and go one further!

Partial shower enclosures can be done, but only by a home owner. For a contractor it's a whole lot of liability for very little money.

 

[paperfist]

I am not concerned about the tub or the color, that is just more of an expense and work

Sounds like you just want to save some money and patch it up.

Not really the way I would go, but not the end of the world to just fix that up.

I'd check out that wood to see if it's rotted or just wet and check it for mold. If it's not rotted make sure to dry it out and bleach it before building on top of it.

It looks like the biggest obstacle you have is there's nothing to support the top 4 tiles.

I would see if you can get some plywood behind there and screw it to the existing lumber.

Add the backer board, and tile it.

Looks like your lucky in that everything is a full tile except on the left side. If you can pop those 2 tiles out it would be easier to replace them with full ones.

You definitely need to re-caulk where the tile meets the tub.

****This is all assuming you have some decent handy man skills.

 

[mizzou]

Partial shower enclosures can be done, but only by a home owner. For a contractor it's a whole lot of liability for very little money.

So true. I had a quote to for the repairs and he gave me some insane $1000 estimate or something, and I was like thanks but no thanks. I decided to open it myself, taking photos along the way of my progress for some minor liability purposes.

 

[NetWareHead]

That joint where the new and old meet is going to be a bitch. You're going to need to make a perfect cut with a grinder, then get the tile surfaces to match. I doubt you'll ever get the grout lines to line up.

This. That image you uploaded shows terrible work. You have rot behind the tile as well as improperly laid tile. Eventually the rest of the tiles will also fall off too. I'm almost certain you have more mold behind the rest of those tiles.

As others have said, it is going to demand a perfect level of precision to reinstall tile and have them match up exactly. Also, how would you reinstall tile? On top of rotted wood and drywall? IMO, this is a gut job, not a patch/repair.

Sounds like you just want to save some money and patch it up.

Not really the way I would go, but not the end of the world to just fix that up.

I'd check out that wood to see if it's rotted or just wet and check it for mold. If it's not rotted make sure to dry it out and bleach it before building on top of it.

It looks like the biggest obstacle you have is there's nothing to support the top 4 tiles.

I would see if you can get some plywood behind there and screw it to the existing lumber.

Add the backer board, and tile it.

Looks like your lucky in that everything is a full tile except on the left side. If you can pop those 2 tiles out it would be easier to replace them with full ones.

You definitely need to re-caulk where the tile meets the tub.

****This is all assuming you have some decent handy man skills.

There is a level of truth behind this post as well. With enough determination, time and money, I guess anything can be "saved" and/or patched. Even a tile job like what was shown. It might not be the most efficient use of time & money but not impossible either. It wont look pretty with patched tile on backer board and the rest of it on drywall.

You're going to have to do it yourself though. Most handymen or tile guys are not going to touch this job with a ten foot pole. They are going to tell you even if they fix what fell off, its still going to look sub-par and not the kind of work most guys will want to represent them. Most professionals guard their reputation and insist it be done the right way or they'll refuse the job period.

 

[Linflas]

Are you talking about just a repair job on the tiles you tinkered with or a full tile job? You will likely need to gut the shower and start fresh to do it properly if you want to do the entire thing. It isn't hard, but it will take some time and I recommend having two people as it goes much much faster. Let me know what your plan is and I can help. I just finished tiling a shower/tub in the last house I renovated. Turned out great.

Did you do just the tile or did you do the entire shower, pan and all?

 

[Subyman]

Did you do just the tile or did you do the entire shower, pan and all?

I've done both. Cultured marble pan a few months ago and just a tub tile a few weeks ago. The cast iron tubs was in great shape, so I epoxied it waited several days and then did the tile. Seems like a lot of 80's renovations had people tiling up dry wall, which is not proper. I'm lucky to find a job that has cement board behind it (probably because if it has cement board behind it, it was done right and doesn't need to be repaired...)

I found a window behind the tile job as well haha. Replaced bad studs, checked stud crowning, new cement board, tape and mud joints, apply tile with border using proper mastic/mud, wait 24, grout, wait 24, seal. Having someone help with cuts makes it go a lot faster. Vapor barrier too depending on what kind of insulation you have.

Type 1 mastic makes the job easier for home owners and if "okay" as long as it isn't used on submersed surfaces like the floor but it is really recommended to use thin set due to mold. Some say they never have any problems, but IMO mastic is best left to back splashes.

 

[shimpster]

IMO, sum great advice and DIY here for ur project

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1

 

[paperfist]

IMO, sum great advice and DIY here for ur project

http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1

Thanks for that link! I see lots of Kerdi topics for me to read up on.

 

[skyking]

since this got resurrected I might as well follow on. A friend of mine who owned a tile business was going to *try* and tile over his kitchen, laundry, and entry area with big tiles, on a 50's house with 2x6 T&G on 60" centers!
He thought 5/8" subfloor overlay and 1/4" concrete board would stiffen it up sufficiently. Read this as : Cheap bastige. This floor was drumming badly with my 265 pounds, and he is heavier. he would have been cracking tiles, let alone joints.
I gave him the good buddy deal, as I have a pile of 4x6 salvaged from a job, and half the pier blocks. He offered his son to help and he was great. I prepped the wood at my house Sunday, we did about 2/3rds of it Monday and finished it by noon yesterday.
All in all, we were under the house less than 8 hours.
In that time we crawled in 24 pier blocks, 73' of beam, fixed some sad plumbing, and split that 60" span. The existing beams are 6x10s on poured piers. This left about 56" clear between them and I split that where I could. Sometimes plumbing would push me one way or another.
Ideally I would have used 4x8, but I had the 6's and we piered it every 42" or so. Results were dramatic.
What I found under there was not good, one of the center beams was split longitudinally between piers, so I brought in more bases and shored that up.
The house design was atrocious, and I just want to remind people to invest in at least one home inspection prior to purchase. I would have rejected it immediately myself.
Issues:
Hand cut rafters with too long a span. Roof had slight bows everywhere and significant droopage over the garage.
The center wall that supported the rafters was *not* over a beam below! It was about 10" off to one side, bearing on the 2x6 decking alone. WTF!
Many years of atrocious wiring. Completely illegal stuff that could be seen in the attic space above by a competent inspector.