Shower from the 60's

[HooKooDoo Ku]

After a three day weekend, I've got most of the tile on the walls. Biggest thing is FINALLY figuring out all the little issues of exactly what to do at the transitions from old to new.


Despite having very flat walls, I still had some issues where the tile install is NOT flat at some of the 3-way intersections.

One annoying issue I keep having I want to ask about is what I'll call hollow trowel lines... After getting more than enough thinset on the wall (like twice as much as the trowel will leave behind) I'll frequently have rows of thinset that have nice strait edges, but there's almost no thinset in the middle.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

SETTING TILE IS FINISHED

Still got to grout and add other finishing touches.

The hole for the control valve was a pain. Took 4 hours and 5 pieces of tile before I managed to create the hole without breaking the tile. I only had an angle grinder to work with. Using my diamond saw wheel, what finally worked was to grind part of the way from the back, then flip it over and (slowly) grind from the front. Once the basic hole was created, a masonry wheel was able to enlarge the hole to account for measurement errors.



Doesn't really matter much now, but I'm still curious regarding the question I asked in my last post that didn't get any response.
Here's a shot of what seemed to happen to me frequently when I would use the notched trowel...

[cx]

Is why God gave us diamond hole saws, Joseph, she couldn't afford to spend 4 hours making a round hole, either.

Can't comment on your mortar issue. Never seen that trick before.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

Update: Tile, grout, and grout sealing are completed. Working on reinstalling the door today. It's an old door that requires screws in the wall. Got the holes drilled in the tile, but anchors spin when I start screwing into them. Trying to 'glue' them in place at the moment with kerdie fix

[Davy]

You may have enough thinset on the wall but you need to keep thinset along the edge of the trowel for the notches to stay full. And if you spread too fast or the thinset is too stiff, the thinset won't have time to run down to the trowel notches and will skip like that. Try to always spread upward, then gravity helps you out.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

The streaks in the thinset would happen even if I had a glob of the set in front of the trowel. The final pass was upwards (the picture is oriented correctly as you can see I stopped the trowel when I saw it happening again). The thickness of the thinset was based on the mixing instructions for shluder thinset (which I'd been warned to follow exactly) and the speed wasn't any faster than what I had seen in any general instructional videos... Not to say going slower might have been a solution.

As for the overall project, after three trips to Lowe's, I eventually got the door hung. Still have to return tomorrow after the silicone holding the other parts in place has set up... then just need to install the magnets that will keep the door closed while in use.

[Just In Tile LLC]

Davy alluded to what I was also thinking for your thinset streaking issue, it's all about having enough on your trowel, you want some thinset built up on the edge so as you trowel there's thinset to replace what you're combing on the wall.

In your picture, when I start next to a tile like that I grab some thinset on my trowel (mostly the front) then quickly air bounce my trowel so the thinset rolls down the trowel in a somewhat even line. You can then take the trowel and close to where you're applying it on the wall (but not exactly where you want the thinset to be), I do one or two "practice combs" to even up the thinset on the edge of my trowel and build up that combing edge. I then comb it into the spot next to the tile so it comes out full and even on that edge.

Don't know if that explanation causes more confusion or helps but I tried.

[HooKooDoo Ku]

FINISHED !

There is some masking tape holding the door magnets in place until the JB-Weld sets up. Tomorrow night, my son can remove the tape and start using the shower.

Mistakes were made, but the lighting is so bad and the color is a various shades of grey that they are not too obvious.

I appreciate all those that gave me feedback during the project... This website is THE best place for tile help.

[cx]

Glad you got it done, Joseph.