I've never tiled a ceiling but I do have a bathroom with a tiled ceiling. It's 60 years old and still going strong in a bathroom with no windows. It's a small bath and we really like to create a steam room in there, so I think the ceiling tile is a very good idea. I did some minor grout repair when I first moved in and made sure to seal it. My understanding is that tiling the ceiling is definitely a challenge and requires a highly skilled installer.

If you want to DIY, would it be possible for you to set up a trial in your garage or somewhere? Buy some cheap tile and test out your installation process before trying it on your bathroom? I would guess that smaller tile is going to be easier and will probably look better, sort of like using smaller tile on the shower floor. My ceiling is 4x4 tile.

Consider a shower drying fan - really eliminates mold.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shower Drying System

Just the guy I wanted to hear from :)

TILE TALK:
My area will be open to the rest of the room with about a foot from the shower door to the ceiling. That is just a guess because I have not decided on shower doors yet. I want to mount everything higher because there are a couple of tall ones in the family like 6'-4".

Thanks for the great ceiling tile instructions!

I do know a few that advocate using a "tie-together" system like TLS. But TLS, when it registers one tile to another, can pull a tile away from the ceiling. That's what you DON'T want to do, break the suction between the tile and the ceiling.
That is something I thought those systems would do, so didn't think of looking into it much.

The ceiling area will be 4x3 which isn't too big. Maybe I can try it. I would love the peace of mind with the mold. The large tiles would be great to use because of less grouting. Maybe I can get DH to shove the tiles in place :)

QUESTION FOR TILE:
1) I was thinking of tiling the ceiling first then set the walls. Would that be proper - does it make any difference?

VENTILATION QUESTIONS:
1) If I straddled the glass shower door with a fan, is it as effective as having a fan in the shower?

2) In my 8x8 space, which will also house a stacked washer and dryer, would it be better to have 2 fans? One in the shower and then one outside with a heater?

3) If I went with a shower fan and room fan do you size the fans for their prospective space? shower fan for the shower and room fan for the remainder of the room?

4) How do you like the humidity controlled fan switches for controlling moisture?

HERE ARE MY "COMING TOGETHER" PLANS:
Plan view, with north at the top, that is getting fairly detailed. The wall behind the shower and w/d stack will actually be a 6" wall but isn't drawn that way. The pocket doors are 32". The shower head in the shower stall is drawn to scale, the Hansgrohe Raindance e420 2jet :)

This post was edited by enduring on Thu, Apr 25, 13 at 11:54

Enduring,

The first bathroom we renoed was in our basement, and I was really concerned about the musty smell it used to have, no mold that I could see. We gutted, and jackhammered and built a new drain, and put a drain in our furnace room which adjoined and had never had a drain. It had had a fan in there, (only bathrooom that did), but I don't think it was particularly useful... The room is a little bigger than the one you are doing, and we only have one fan in there, a Panosonic Whisper on a timer. We have it just outside the shower, between the shower and the toilet (again, for smell issues, LOL). Our ceiling is actually 3" lower than 8 feet, and we did not tile. We used a mold resistant drywall designed for bathroom ceilings (we used that throughout the bathroom), and painted with BM Aura. Not a speck of moisture, mold or anything on that ceiling, and musty smell completely gone!

Our PO had tiled the ceiling of the miniscule shower we used to have in our Master Bath, it was separated from the rest of the BR by headers, but it was ugly, flowered tile, and perhaps that is why I never even considered tiling the ceiling again!

As a fellow DIYer, plastering and sanding seams and screw holes on the ceiling will be enough of a pain in the neck (literally), I certainly wouldn't tile. Aside from the difficulty, (and we have DIYed just about everything else 'cept re-roofing), I'd be terrifed of my less than perfectly laid tile falling down, hurting someone or something, especially the honking big 12 x 24's we are using on the walls!

Raehelen thanks so much for sharing your first hand experience with your shower and exhaust fan. Maybe I wont tile. But I may just put one fan in the bathroom, and it can be in the shower area. The odor is really the least of my concerns. So the fan in the shower, to take care of the moisture. When we need to turn on the fan for the odor, it can find its way to the fan, I'm sure :) Since I like to take hot showers this might be the best thing for moisture; get that fan right in there.

Does that sound like it makes sense? It sure helps to talk this stuff over with your guys on GW. Nobody around here can tolerate more than a minute of me talking about this. But on a positive note they always help me when I need the physical help.

Oh, and on this go around I'm paying someone else to do the dry wall stuff. I spent way to many hours working on that last time and want this bathroom done before a years up, lol.

We tiled the ceilings over the shower in our guest bathroom, and over the tubs in the other two bathrooms. While we knew we might not have any issues with painted ceilings (eg., mold, mildew, need to repaint because of peeling/cracking paint), we knew a tile ceiling would be even less likely to have issues.

"Oh, and on this go around I'm paying someone else to do the dry wall stuff. " Simpatico! When I DIY-built my own house years ago, the two things I subbed out were the pouring of the foundation and the drywall work. There are some things that can ruin a spirit, and for me, drywall ruins mine. 8 (

1a) Tiling the ceiling first is fine. In some ways it's easier, as you don't need to fret over thinset or grout drippings hitting the wall tile, because there is no wall tile.

1b) The vent directly over the shower door threshold can work. But sometimes that location can look awkward. It's neither in nor out. Having it there could be a design/aesthetic issue if you do tile the shower ceiling. The vent will probably be half on the tiled shower ceiling and half on the bathroom's drywalled ceiling. That might not bother you, but it would me.

2) If I was building your house, I'd want a vent in the shower and a vent in front of the dryer. With the transom open above the shower door, I simply prefer to keep moisture generated within the shower in the shower space instead of encouraging it out into the bathroom. But again, that's my preference.

For overall ventilation, you could use a single remote fan fed by two vent grills. The grill in the shower space would be primary, the one outside in the bathroom space your secondary/general vent for the space plus laundry.

There is no single correct way to vent the space. You know your space, and your sense of the space plus your ventilation desires as well as how many controls/switches you want will drive you toward a sensible solution.

3) "It depends". Your shower is not fully enclosed, it is open to the bathroom. If you want two fans controlled by two separate switches, you could indeed install two same-sized fans. The shower fan goes on when you are showering and also provides general ventilation for the rest of the space. The bathroom fan goes on when you are doing laundry or when you want general ventilation.

Do understand that I generally encourage fans to be linked to timed light switches. Turn the light on, the fan goes on. Turn the light off, the fan runs for a specified amount of time then automatically turns off. When fans and lights are independently controlled, the fan seldom gets turned on, or it never gets turned off.

An issue there can be a well-lit bathroom. A user may not turn the bathroom or shower light on, so the fan may not get turned on. And that can lead to automation...

4) Automation? Humidity switches sound great in theory. But they can be a bit temperamental. It might turn on at 2am. Or not. It might seemingly run forever, even on a dry winter day.

If you're looking for independent automation like that, then sometimes a motion sensor can be better. Walk in the bathroom, the motion sensor turns the bathroom fan on. Step into the shower, the shower sensor turns the shower fan on. The shower sensor can be aimed to the back of the shower so it doesn't sense movement in the bathroom space itself.

Do understand that the solution can depend on how much control you want. A single fan? Two fans? Will more switches confuse a user? Automation?

Mongoct, as I look through your fan info I like the idea of a fan over the laundry area and one over the shower. How I switch these - I will think about. As far as the automatic humidity control, I don't need that. I always remember to turn the fan on, but a timer has been very helpful, otherwise the fan stays on for hours :)

At this time I am thinking NOT to tile the ceiling. The fixtures that will go in the shower might be a problem down the road and replacements might not fit. So with an untiled ceiling repairs can be made to fit new fixtures as needed.