how to tile around a radius?

[everyman]

Hi,

I'm doing my first bath. I did 2" mosaic hex on the floor, and am doing 4" wainscot all the way round. I picked up a nice cove base tile which rolls out at the bottom. It looks like the tile is actually bent out 90 degrees at the bottom and it appears to want to sit directly against the floor tile. I'm wondering what the best way would be to seal it?

Grout would be a real pain, and is further complicated by the fact that I used black grout on the floor and am using white grout on the walls. Would it be satisfactory to just have big fillet of mastic behind the curved base so that it seals to the floor tile, or should I use a 100% silicone bead there so that is is flexible? Or should I bit the bullet and leave a gap at the bottom and fill it with grout?

One other question please, every tub I've ever seen has had a big fat bead of silicone between the wall tile and the tub edge. Is this just because the grout that was there originally cracked and fell out, or is this by design? I'm wondering if I should not fill this seam with grout at all, and then go back after everything is set and fill it with caulk?

Thanks
Eric

[muskymike]

Hi Eric, welcome! You can use clear silicone along the floor to seal it. You need to caulk the wall to the tub too otherwise the grout will crack.

[everyman]

Thanks Mike,

with almost 10,000 posts, I guess you know your tile !

So you don't use any grout at all on that bottom tile seam over the tub, just fill it right up with caulk?

Eric

[everyman]

Hi,

I'm doing my first bathroom job. I decided to forgo soap shelves and installed a preformed niche. It's Noble Niche #303 Wide Arch (I've been trying to paste a link but it's telling me I'm not allowed? You can just google the name and type and it will come up quickly)

I've already installed it, and now I find myself wishing I'd just gone for the square one. I'm having a hard time imagining how in the world to tile around this so that it looks good. I'd planned on using 1" square mosaic on the sides and back of the niche, and transitioning this to standard 4.25" field tile on the walls and the face of the niche. I'd considered either using matching bullnose tile at the edge to cover the edges of the mosaic, OR running rope tile that's glazed on the sides around the perimeter.

However I'm stumped as to how to handle the top radius of the niche. The only possible solution I can think of is to cut many pie shaped pieces out of bullnose tile, but I'm not very confident that this will look right.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thank You !!

[Scubadoo]

Hey Everyman,

Welcome to the forum. Quick, go select User CP in the tool bar and edit your profile and add a name to your signature. Folks around here like to know what to call other folks. Just makes it easier and friendly. Elst you'll keep getting pestered about it.

How 'bout posting a picher of that niche? Folks around here like pichers too. Kind of hard to visulize what your exact challenge is. You might need a few more posts before it'll allow you to post pichers too.

[everyman]

Hi Dave,

I'll give a shot with a photo...


So if you can envision what I'm thinking. The small square mosaic will cover the back face of that niche and then wrap around the sides of it as well. this will leave an edge visible all the way around.

Covering it with bullnose would be pretty trivial on the straight sides and on the divider, however that upper radius has me stumped.

Regards,
Eric

[TileArt1]

Hey Eric,

I don't have a pitcher of one with mosaics but here's one of a radiused niche so you can get an idea of what the bullnose will look like. I've also done them with the bullnose on the sides and top of the niche and cut the field tile to it but it really didn't look right.

Hope that helps.

[irish tileguy in michigan]

Heres one of your niche we did with the bullnose on the inside of the niche,
hope this helps

[everyman]

Steve,

I can't quite make it out from the photo. Did you use bullnose tile inside the radius wall so that it rounds into the field tile? I might have to resort to this although I was hoping to use some contrasting tile inside the hole. I also may try creating a pie of bullnose on the outside, though I'm not so confident in my abilities to make it look good. I think I'd have to make a lot of cuts.

Regards,
Eric

[irish tileguy in michigan]

Eric,
The entire inside of the niche is bullnose(except granite back), the top inside radius is bullnose cut into 2" pieces to flow with the radius.
This might be a better photo

[everyman]

Hi,

I'll soon be starting my first tub and wall tile project. I'm using standard 4" tiles. Am I correct in assuming that no spacers are necessary for these? They appear to have built in irregularities on the edges. In places where I have to cut off the sides to carve out weird places like around my niche what would be a good spacer to use that would yield a similar tiny gap?

Thank You!
Eric

[cx]

Eric, it helps to keep all your project questions on one thread so folks can see what you're working on and what's been previously asked and answered. Please bookmark this one and use it for all your project questions. We can give it a more generic title if you'd like.

The lugged wall tiles are made to be self-spacing, as you've deduced. But you still wanna have some spacers on hand, as you've also deduced.

For your purpose, wedges are gonna work best because your gonna be dealing with slightly different joint widths and will sometimes even need to fine tune the self-spacing spaces.

My all-time favorites are Tilespikes. Lots of others out there.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[Davy]

Yeah, with that small a joint, spacers won't help any. Go with the small tilespikes. If one isn't enough, put two together.

[everyman]

Didn't go so well. I'm far from a tiling pro but I've done my share and most people who've seen my work give me hearty thumbs up. This job has been truly infuriating though. One, that's it, just one square foot of this mosaic took me two hours, and to my eyes it looks like doodoo.

Why in the world does any manufacturer choose to use paper face mounts? Are they sadistic? Does it save them 5¢ per sheet?

The paper wouldn't come off cleanly, virtually every .75" tile had to be realigned. Scraping out the pookey was a nightmare, and it resulted in every tile needing to be realigned again. I know it sounds like I'm just a complete rube but I've done mosaic tile before and if I'm really, really anal, I might spend 10 minutes a foot total. Why in the world would any manufacturer do this to a customer?

It's a shame because it's really pretty glass, but the rest of it is going back. There's no way I'm going through with using this on the ceiling as I'd intended.

[oogabooga]

You could use the grout additive which turns the grout into an adhesive and grout. Adjust the sheets when the "thinset" has firmed up a little bit and then grout when it's firmed up some more. Gotta be easier than the method you described.

Rob.