Tiling a varying-height shower curb; Penny tile OK on top of curb?

[smcquaid]

Hi all,
We are tiling a shower curb and would like to use white subway on the sides and white penny tile on top. I am experienced with tiling having just done a hex floor, but would like some advice on this next part of the project:
- We have an old house (1906) with slopey floors. The shower curb gets "taller" left to right. At its shortest it is just shy of the height of 2 subway tiles (shy of 6"); at its tallest it is about 3/8" taller than the height of 2 subway tiles (~6 3/8"). Is it best to fill the widening gap under the bottom subway row with grout, or cut tile, or...? My intuition says that wedges of very thin cut tile might look weird, but also that a grout line widening to 3/8" might look strange too. We are using light grey grout but could use white here if it helped aesthetically.
- Is it OK to use penny tiles on the top of the curb? Is it easy enough to still achieve a good slope to the curb top for water flow if using penny tiles? Would I mate the subway-tile sides with the penny tile top by using a bullnose that comes up to the thickness of the penny tile + thinset?

Thanks for the advice; this is a great forum and has already helped me tremendously.

Sarah

[Davy]

Hi Sarah, do you have any 3x6 bullnose with the bullnose on the 6 inch side? If so, I would use the bullnose on the top of the curb and use the hexagons or penny tiles on the curb face.

[chuck stevenson]

Sarah,

Have you considered going to a stone fabricator and check their remnants for a curb cap that they can cut for you?

[Jhereg]

Redguard looks a little thin too, may want another couple coats.

[Hammy]

Sarah, what is under the Redgard on the curb?

Is it cement /bricks ect

or wood?

What is the whitish surface in your shower floor?

Hammy

[smcquaid]

Hi everyone, Thanks for the speedy responses; this is such a great service. To answer the questions posted:
- the curb is made of stacked 2x4s and then covered with Hardi and red guard, installed by our contractor
- the shower floor has an impermeable membrane upon which a cement surface has been laid and sloped toward the drain. There may be other layers too...I didn't see this whole process when it was done.
- I do indeed have subway bullnosed on the 6" side, and could do the top surface of the curb the way described by Davy, (subway on top of curb, penny on face of curb) but it ends up looking a little busy.

My husband suggested we center a 3x6 subway tile on the side of the curb and cut ~1.5" tall pieces to make up the area above and below the full 3x6 subway. This seems like a pretty good way to deal with the increasing curb height without emphasizing it much. I think we'll try a mock-up of this today.

Can someone clarify the function of the red guard? If we already have the impermeable membrane (don't know the tech word) does the red guard just help protect the Hardi?

Thanks again all, Sarah

[Davy]

Sarah, the reason I mentioned 3x6 bullnose on top of the curb is because we usually will overhang the top tiles over the side tiles. Small tiles on the top edge of the curb may break off if someone steps on it.

Redgard is a waterproofing membrane. I still wonder what membrane is on the shower floor.