shower niche tiling questions

[spotfin]

I am about to tile my niche which is roughly 10 inches wide by 15 inches tall. It has hardibacker in it, taped, and 4 coats of redguard. I have 2 choices as to how to tile it. I can bring the tiles on the wall up to the edge of the niche and then put the sides, top and bottom niche tiles over the tiles on the wall. This will leave a grout line on the outside section of the tile wall, which in my opinion is not very pretty. My second choice is to have my outside wall tiles extend past the niche opening, and then put my side niche tiles to butt up against the wall tiles. This will result in a grout line within the niche itself, which I think looks better. However, I worry that there is a greater chance water can seep thru the grout if I tile it this way. My tile is honed and filled travertine.

I'd appreciate any opinion / advice on what I should do.

[scott anthony]

what I like doing is to run the field in continuation of whats your layout is giving you and adjust your layout to make things presentable. But now if you decide to break up the continuation maybe think of doing something on diagonal with a center insert. If you have 4 coats of R/G no need to worry. I also don't particularly care the framed look, where you frame the outside face of the box with 3" bull. How are you doing your bull nose work?

[DoofusOfTheDay]

I like the framed look. After seeing the one Theoderik(Shawn) did, that's what I settled on. My niches are done, grout not sealed yet, maybe this week. I don't think you need to worry about leaks if you have it sealed well.

[spotfin]

Scott,

I was planning on not bullnosing my travertine, since I will have a tumbled travertine border running along the wall and into my niche. The border has square edges and would look funny if the adjacent travertine wall tiles are bullnosed. I hope this will look ok. I'm open to any other suggestions however.

Do you know if I can put grout in my niche if I have the grout lines within the niche, or will I need to use caulk?

Thanks,

Jon

[spotfin]

Gregg,

Thanks for the beautiful pictures. I can't believe how nice the niche and surrounding tiles look.

Jon

[John Bridge]

Beautiful work, Gregg.

Grout the niche, John.

[scott anthony]

Agree, nice niche Greg and when I see it like that I do like that look. Maybe it's the size of the tile that compliments the outside frame.

[DoofusOfTheDay]

Well, Shawn gets part of the credit. I saw his and was like, man I got do that! I will tell you to make the niche as perfectly square as possible, else you will find putting the bullnose surrounding it challenging, and grout lines will show it. For example, if one side was like only 3/16" higher than the other side, you will see a big old grout joint in one corner and a skinny one in the other corner. Not that I did that and had to tool the top of the niche to fix that, oh never!!!

Anyway, good luck.

[purdyd]

that makes my white tile niche that i just finished look lame, please don't post pictures like that again



David

[slb]

Jon,
I did my niche (shower too) in travertine and tumbled marble without bullnosing. I did polish the edges a bit using some diamond hand sanding pads. Here's a photo of the niche before it's grouted (sorry, but I don't have a better photo showing the edge details).

[spotfin]

Steve,

Thanks for the picture. It helps me feel better about building the niche w/o bullnosing. Your tile job is beautiful!

Jon

[bbcamp]

Do you know if I can put grout in my niche if I have the grout lines within the niche, or will I need to use caulk?

Grout'em.

[PaulHG]

David -
A "white tile niche" is just what I am about to undertake.
(see - Paul's Bathroom Redo)
Wall is 3x6 white glazed subway tile - so I don't have the luxury of shaping my own edges etc.
Not sure what to use or how best to make these edges look nice.
ANY suggestions will be welcome.

Thanks
Paul