Bathroom decisions- tile

[Blueper]

We weren't planning on putting a bathroom in our basement for quite a while, but my dad had some free time this week and has been going crazy constructing the room. When he is on a roll like this it is usually best to roll with him otherwise I could be waiting a while for him to regain interest. Up until last week we had no plans for the room, but so far we have decided that

-We will be doing a white board and batten treatment to the walls and will paint the upper wall Mysterious by BM.
-The shower floor tile will be 2x2 b/w checkered tile that will be visible because it is a walk-in shower.

I thought that it would be nice to have porcelain tile that looks like calcutta marble (Lowes has a nice one for under $2 a sq ft), but H says that white floors are "too expected" for a bathroom and he wants to do a slate-like tile. The only problem is that any decent slate tile is more than I want to spend, and I feel like it would be awfully busy to have slate with checkered tile.

I've attached my extremely rough mock-up of the room. Any votes or suggestions?

[ssmjlm]

I prefer if you're going to be able to see the shower tile that the floor tile matches. Unless you do a river rock or something type of shower floor.

[Blueper]

My original plan was to do 12x12 checkered floors, but I'm kind of over that phase now. I know that they are classic (which is why I'm doing it in the shower), but I think that I would be happiest with something more neutral in the long term.

[pamela]

I don't think a slate will go with black checkered. However, I would caution you on the tiny tile because that is a ton of grout lines to clean. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad in a shower where you can just hose it down, but we did it in the main floor of our master bath and it never got clean mopping beecause the grout would catch everything as the mop passed over.

[wawa]

Jan 15, 2013 11:14:35 GMT -5 pamela said:

I don't think a slate will go with black checkered. However, I would caution you on the tiny tile because that is a ton of grout lines to clean. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad in a shower where you can just hose it down, but we did it in the main floor of our master bath and it never got clean mopping beecause the grout would catch everything as the mop passed over.

You need at least smallish tile on a shower floor like that because of the slope. The tile has to be able to conform to the shape of the shower pan.

But yeah, grout is annoying on the floor. (says the girl with two bathroom floors done in <3x3 tiles)

I'm not sure how to reconcile your husband's wish for "unexpected" with your wish for neutral/classic.

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 15, 2013 10:47:50 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

I prefer if you're going to be able to see the shower tile that the floor tile matches. Unless you do a river rock or something type of shower floor.

I agree. If you can see both floors it's nice to have the flooring be the same in a small bathroom. Visually you see all of it as one floor and it makes the space look bigger. Note you'll need to use a smaller tile in the shower floor. 2x2's or 3x3's are ideal but nothing bigger than 4x4's should be used. That means you'll either need to use a small tile throughout the floor or use a bigger matching tile for the floor.

If you don't want to do that I would got with the black and white combo on the bathroom floor and pick one of the colors for the shower floor. We did something similar in our master bathroom. We used two colors of tile on the floor and then used one color on the shower floor and the other color for the front of the tub. We'll be using a glass surround so you can see the shower floor but it's a big space (130 sf) and we used a different tile on the shower walls that really only went with the darker color. Here's a couple in progress pictures:



The floor, shower floor, and tub front are all from the same line of tiles in various sizes. I made sure to pick a manufacturer that would have all of the options we needed and then some (for example we looked at using some of the tiles for accent trim pieces for a while). It's hard to see but the transition between the floor and the tub front has coved tile so the wall tile curves to meet the floor tile and there is no caulk joint there to maintain. It's super easy to clean and it looks like a pro did it.

[FoxInFiji]

Also no real slate on the shower floor please! Real slate is extremely porous (one of the most porous stones you can you use) and is easily damaged/deteriorated by water. My aunt's new house has a shower completely done in slate and she regularly has pieces falling from her walls. Some are actually pretty big. It's scary because they are hard to see and she has cut her foot on them not realizing they are there in the morning.

Use some harder black stone or better yet use a slate looking porcelain.

[Blueper]

Jan 15, 2013 11:14:35 GMT -5 pamela said:

I don't think a slate will go with black checkered. However, I would caution you on the tiny tile because that is a ton of grout lines to clean. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad in a shower where you can just hose it down, but we did it in the main floor of our master bath and it never got clean mopping beecause the grout would catch everything as the mop passed over.

This is leftover tile from a job I did a few years ago, and I'm more concerned about the actual grouting process than cleaning . This is our guest bathroom, and our most frequent visitors are my ILs who usually stay at a hotel so it shouldn't get too grungy.

I would have loved to just put another closet where the shower is going to be and had a powder room, but if we ever choose to sell I figured a 3/4 bath would look better than a 1/2 bath.

[Blueper]

Jan 15, 2013 11:23:44 GMT -5 @charky said:

Do you have a picture of the 2x2 black/white checkered tile for the shower floor?

It sounds busy and I'd lean towards something less busy for the rest of the floor to balance it out.

[Blueper]

Jan 15, 2013 11:30:07 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Also no real slate on the shower floor please! Real slate is extremely porous (one of the most porous stones you can you use) and is easily damaged/deteriorated by water. My aunt's new house has a shower completely done in slate and she regularly has pieces falling from her walls. Some are actually pretty big. It's scary because they are hard to see and she has cut her foot on them not realizing they are there in the morning.

Use some harder black stone or better yet use a slate looking porcelain.

No problem! I'm not much of a fan of real slate- too hard to clean.

[FoxInFiji]

Is that really the tile or just an example? It kind of looks like glass tile or very glossy glazed tile. Glass tile/glossy tile is highly recommended to not be used as floor tile in a shower by the Tile Council of North America. Even in small pieces with lots of grout. Floor tile needs to have a minimum coefficient of friction of 0.6 or greater or it can be a real slip hazard when wet. The only glass tile that really meets this requirement is frosted and not even all of those do. I'd maybe use that as a sink backsplash or accent tile on the wall or in a shower niche. Tile is cheap in the grand scheme of things. Buy some cheap tile that works better for the floor. That way you'll have enough to use for the bathroom floor as well.

[Blueper]

Jan 15, 2013 11:47:50 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Is that really the tile or just an example? It kind of looks like glass tile or very glossy glazed tile. Glass tile/glossy tile is highly recommended to not be used as floor tile in a shower by the Tile Council of North America. Even in small pieces with lots of grout. Floor tile needs to have a minimum coefficient of friction of 0.6 or greater or it can be a real slip hazard when wet. The only glass tile that really meets this requirement is frosted and not even all of those do. I'd maybe use that as a sink backsplash or accent tile on the wall or in a shower niche. Tile is cheap in the grand scheme of things. Buy some cheap tile that works better for the floor. That way you'll have enough to use for the bathroom floor as well.

That's just a picture from the web, I'm pretty certain that the real stuff is matte porcelain. If it isn't I'll reevaulate my plan.

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 15, 2013 11:52:46 GMT -5 Blueper said:

That's just a picture from the web, I'm pretty certain that the real stuff is matte porcelain. If it isn't I'll reevaulate my plan.

OK good just checking. There is a lot that goes into bathroom design. I would be freaking out if I had to design one in a matter of days/hours like you are! Eek!

Seriously though lets get past the tile and talk construction. What are his plans for the floor? Are there any cracks or expansion joints in the concrete where the bathroom is located? Is he breaking up the concrete to add the shower and toilet drain? Are you hiring out that plumbing work or DIYing? Are you connecting the plumbing vents to an existing vent stack? Do you have a permit pulled for this? Because you should have that inspected.

How is he constructing the floor? Mud base? Pre-made foam pieces? How are you waterproofing the shower floor and walls? Are you adding a bath exhaust fan that runs out of a side wall?

[Blueper]

Jan 15, 2013 12:17:00 GMT -5 FoxInFiji said:

Jan 15, 2013 11:52:46 GMT -5 Blueper said:

That's just a picture from the web, I'm pretty certain that the real stuff is matte porcelain. If it isn't I'll reevaulate my plan.

OK good just checking. There is a lot that goes into bathroom design. I would be freaking out if I had to design one in a matter of days/hours like you are! Eek!

Seriously though lets get past the tile and talk construction. What are his plans for the floor? Are there any cracks or expansion joints in the concrete where the bathroom is located? Is he breaking up the concrete to add the shower and toilet drain? Are you hiring out that plumbing work or DIYing? Are you connecting the plumbing vents to an existing vent stack? Do you have a permit pulled for this? Because you should have that inspected.

How is he constructing the floor? Mud base? Pre-made foam pieces? How are you waterproofing the shower floor and walls? Are you adding a bath exhaust fan that runs out of a side wall?

My dad is a professional carpenter and remodeler and is handling all of the permits/inspections, I probably should have mentioned that in the first post. The bathroom was already roughed in for the shower, toilet, and has a vent stack. The only problem with the floor is that it isn't perfectly even, so he ruled out letting me put in anything larger than 12x12 tiles. I used to do grunt work for him in the past, and all I remember (not that he doesn't do more than this, but that this is all I can remember) is him using a cement board and Red Guard on a shower that I tiled for him.

[kitty]

What are the shower walls going to look like?

[Blueper]

Jan 15, 2013 14:56:59 GMT -5 kitty said:

What are the shower walls going to look like?

I am rooting for white subway tile on the bottom, angled white squares on top, separated by rope tile. H wants something more unique. I'm probably not going to be tiling it for several months, I'm much more invested in getting a second toilet