Yeah, that’s duct tape around the tub spout!

DennisB – Not proud to say, this is in a rental of mine! A 1927 wood frame that has been severely neglected. Everyone knows, one of the biggest differences that can be made in any bathroom is to install nice clean ceramic tile. Come check out my first tile job with some pictures of before, during and after. Before deciding on ceramic tile, I also considered ready-made shower wall panels…

Tip: Use a 50/50 mix of  bleach & water to remove common black mold from bathroom ceilings.

I considered installing a shower wall enclosure that consists of three panels like the one in the image. However, I was concerned by the reviews of some of the low-end kits. The reviews stated that any imperfection on the walls would show as buckles in the plastic panels. Mind you, these kits range from $59 to over $500 so I’m sure the quality is a lot different according to the price paid. I also read that silicone in the corners is needed to make the walls water tight. Also, cutting the panels for the valves, spout, shower head and window was also a concern. The more I read and thought about this, the more I leaned toward doing ceramic tile. The least expensive ceramic tiles I found were plain white, 4″ squares. Lowes I thought had a great price at .33 each. After some checking around though, I found a flooring/tile super store that had white ceramic tiles for just .09 each! This project required 7 boxes (80 pieces in a box) which equals 560 pieces needed. At Lowes 560 x .33 would have been $184.80. But since I only paid .09 cents each times 560, it was only $50.40. There are other costs involved too, like adhesive, grout, edge tiles, tools etc but the initial savings on the tile was a great start.

So after checking out a dozen or so YouTube videos I was ready to start. First was the demolition. I had to remove all the old surface boards from around the tub. This was a great time to install new tub faucet valves. The old one was leaking and was missing the knob. This new replacement valve below, is a Price Pfister and was actually found in the home when cleaning it out. The old plumbing had a combination of galvanized pipe, PVC and copper. The PVC snapped when I first tried to work on removing the old valve. Needles to say, I didn’t use any PVC when going back with the new valve. After sweating the new copper and re-using some of the old galvanized pipe, it was just a matter of spacing, bracing and leak checking the new valves before installing cement backer board. Oh yeah, also had to replace some rotten boards on the back wall so I would have something to run the screws for the backer board into. Ended up getting five, 3×5 cement backer boards. 4×8 boards are available but they are heavier and harder to work with in a small bathroom. I took measurements and used a razor knife to score and snap the cement backer boards on the floor of a nearby empty bedroom.

I used plenty of screws in the backer board to prevent movement. Any flex when pushing on the boards indicates more screws are needed. Movement after the tiles are on would mean the tiles could pop loose. I also used mesh fiber tape and tile adhesive on all the seams and screw heads.

The tile squares I purchased had “built in” spacers. However, I did use paint stir sticks on the bottom edge to space the tiles up a little. Most instructions I found recommend attaching a straight piece of wood about half way up as a starting point; I saw no reason to do this on this job because the tub was level and I also have a window about half way up interfering. I did start in the center of the wall with the tile as recommended though. The cuts were made with an inexpensive tile cutter, which scores like a glass cutter and breaks the tile by pushing down with the lever. Very easy to use. There’s some good videos that show the tool in use. My son and I were having a yard sale with some of the remaining items in the house and ran across the tile cutter that I ended up using. I honestly didn’t know what it was used for when I first saw it. Luckily we didn’t sell it because it came in handy for this project. All you do is place the tile in position and push the handle forward. It’s like a glass cutter with a wheel that scores the tile. Once the score has been made, the foot part of the tool sits on the tile while you push the lever down, breaking the tile on the mark.

The small edge tiles (on the left) didn’t have spacers built in so I improvised by using nails as spacers. The holes for the valves and spout were were made with a special diamond blade hole-saw. The hole-saw goes into any regular 3/8″ electric drill.

I used marble at the bottom of the window. White was the choice for the look of “clean”. $10 at Lowes and they cut it for free!

Tip: Compare prices on the edge tiles also. The 9 cent tiles were a “loss leader” and the same border tiles were found at Lowes for about a dollar cheaper each. Just be careful if doing this to make sure the color matches.

I used green accent tile, that looked great with the lighting at the store. It was darker than I preferred when it was installed and had less light on it in the bathroom. I’m still happy with it though, it’s better to break up all that plain white tile a little bit.

Now on to the tub and ceiling!