Tiling around and above Windows: how?

[Andrew21]

Originally Posted by Theoderik

Andrew - they were 1/16. I went with the smallest I could get. (Except the floor which are 1/4".)

Here's pics of the completed shower. (man I love showing this thing. )

The whole thing was tiled (floor to ceiling)

sw (shawn)

Shawn,
I'm just predicting that you put cement board all the way up in the stall or some sort of cbu. Would you have put greenboard 1/2 way up if this was a tub instead? I'm just trying to pick your brain here. If you see my thread, my cement board goes up about 5 feet, along with the tub, then I will have about 2-3 feet left on top. I don't know if I should cement board all the way up or just use greenboard. What's your personal opinion?

Thanks

andy

[Theoderik]

Andy, you'll be fine. I did cement board the whole way. You need to put cement board on any area that will get spray on it from the shower. The water WILL go through your grout and will get whatever is behind it wet. That's why you need the vapor barrier behind your CBU. If you're concerned that it might get wet, either slap redguard on the top portion of your CBU and onto your sheetrock or pull out the sheetrock and put in CBU.

Your pictures look like it's all CBU. In a tub, I think I would still make sure it was CBU but I think you COULD get away with sheetrock/greenboard above the 6' line. Your call but I like to lean to the side of caution. I want it to last forever so . . .

sw (shawn)

[Andrew21]

Originally Posted by Theoderik

Andy, you'll be fine. I did cement board the whole way. You need to put cement board on any area that will get spray on it from the shower. The water WILL go through your grout and will get whatever is behind it wet. That's why you need the vapor barrier behind your CBU. If you're concerned that it might get wet, either slap redguard on the top portion of your CBU and onto your sheetrock or pull out the sheetrock and put in CBU.

Your pictures look like it's all CBU. In a tub, I think I would still make sure it was CBU but I think you COULD get away with sheetrock/greenboard above the 6' line. Your call but I like to lean to the side of caution. I want it to last forever so . . .

sw (shawn)

Shawn,

Thank you. I think I may go all the way up with cement board and tile all the way up. The thing is that scares me is that the girl upstairs from me (in my co-op) rents and is a BAD slumlord. She had her bathroom leaking for years and until i moved in, it was noticable. When I tore everything out, it was still leaking. After numerous calls and a litigation threat she finally got her bathroom renovated but I don't want to go through that again. At least the cement board all the way up will save me some work. What do you think?

Andy

[Theoderik]

Definately! And, DON'T tile your ceiling. IF her bathroom leaks again, you don't want THAT tile job ruined. And, with the tile on the ceiling, it would take a little longer to notice the leaking.

(see - looky how smart you is! Golly!)

sw (shawn)

[Matthias]

Hi all

So I plastered the window recess with RedGard for the last two nights. Should be ok now. The next question i have is how to design the outside corner of the window. In the drawing below, option 1 is that the inside tile on the window jamb sticks out; option 2 is that the tile on the front overlaps. Which is usually done? Either way, I guess for the tile on the sill, option 1 is better, because the water will flow off more easily.

[Andrew21]

Originally Posted by Theoderik

Definately! And, DON'T tile your ceiling. IF her bathroom leaks again, you don't want THAT tile job ruined. And, with the tile on the ceiling, it would take a little longer to notice the leaking.

(see - looky how smart you is! Golly!)

sw (shawn)

Shawn,
Are you saying I should just go with greenboard from the shower head going up to the ceiling or Durock all the way up? I'm not going to tile the ceiling, but will tile all the way up.
Thanks

Andy

[Andrew21]

Originally Posted by Matthias

Hi all

So I plastered the window recess with RedGard for the last two nights. Should be ok now. The next question i have is how to design the outside corner of the window. In the drawing below, option 1 is that the inside tile on the window jamb sticks out; option 2 is that the tile on the front overlaps. Which is usually done? Either way, I guess for the tile on the sill, option 1 is better, because the water will flow off more easily.

Matt,
Can you take a pic for us? Thanks

[Matthias]

With either option described above, I would like to polish the edge of the tile where it's visible. Below are two pics of my wall tile. It's a porcelain tile which is glazed on top, the edge is unglazed and slightly rough. How can i polish the edge so it's smooth? Do I have to buy a polishing disk for my angle grinder?

Another possibility i was thinking about is to buy a countour blade like the Felker PW38 (http://tileyourworld.constructioncom...LK0077JB.html). Can I use this to grind a quarter round bullnose on ceramic tile?

Thanks,

Matthias

[Matthias]

Andy wants a pic of the RedGard. Here's one of the window sill that also shows how it's tilted, as I described early in the thread (the black line is level).

[T_Hulse]

Matthias it looks like you have a nice through-body rectified porcelain. It should polish an edge just fine, but it will be a little different from the surface so some think it looks better with just a straight edge so you don't highlight a bigger area that is different from the face by bullnosing it.
I prefer to wrap my porcelain windows like #2 in your drawing, but the bottom piece is finished like #1 to make a sill. Hard to mentally picture but it looks great. I'll see if I can find a pic of it.

[Matthias]

Tom, thank you for your reply. The mixture of options 1 and 2 like you describe it is what I had in mind to do. I was not sure what the pros would say because it's a mixture...

Yes, when I cut the tile it is solid and smooth all the way through, but it does have a slightly different color because of the missing glaze. I experimented with enhancing the edge, but it still looks a bit lighter than the glazed surface. I guess you are right that by grinding a bullnose I would just draw more attention to this difference.

Matthias

[T_Hulse]

Here's one:

[Andrew21]

Originally Posted by Matthias

Andy wants a pic of the RedGard. Here's one of the window sill that also shows how it's tilted, as I described early in the thread (the black line is level).

Matt,
Thanks for the pic. The only problem I have is that the durock will be flush against the window frame. This weekend I'll show you my problem when I take some pics.

A-

[fosters351]

I have a question for T-Hulse. The pic you posted with the two windows, are the tiles around the window one piece or are they 2 bull nose tiles. One on the wall and one on the jamb?? ray

[T_Hulse]

Hi Ray,
On the pic with 2 windows, the bullnose is on the outside only. It overlaps & hides a squared factory edge on the inside piece. On a 2x6 wall, the inside is usually too deep for a piece of bullnose to cover it, so I don't often get to put it inside.