I showed my tile guy and builder pictures of the really bad glass tile installs posted on this forum and told them, "If it looks like this, you will have to re-do at your own cost and I paid X for this tile." My builder told the tile guy to treat the tile as if it were gold plated. In one corner of the bathroom, he has stacked all of the extra tile. Three tiles, one row of tiles, 15 extra tiles, etc. etc. It's very funny that he's not disposing of any of this tile. I was scared to use someone who had never done a glass install before this one, but he assured me he would figure it out. The install is taking forever, but I'd rather it be slow and good than quick and disasterous.

YAY on someone having glass tile success. I am hoping to use some of Susan's tile in my kitchen and I've heard of some problems with the paper-faced tiles, but yours looks great! I am considering using some of her 1x3 subway tiles in the bath as well, although now I may have to pull out the mosaic samples again to see if I want to use those instead. Gorgeous!

That's an excellent thing to do.

You set your expectations right up front and showed them the good and bad of glass.

Nice lines through the glass, and Kerdi!

Do post a post-grout follow-up pic.

Mongo

I was doing great with this until Mongo's last line of his last post about a grout follow-up pic. If I've read everything correctly to this point, the glass is still sitting with the paper backing over it (I'm assuming that's what's shiny in the pics). If that's correct, them I'm assuming that's thinset smushed up between the glass? Here's my question...where does the grout go? I'm not trying to be sarcastic or negative, but this is exactly the question I wrestled with when I did my glass install in the bathroom I'm doing.

My tile was backed with a paper that you could not see thru. As a result, I put up my 2 row strips, let them sit for a couple of minutes then removed the paper and adjusted. What I notice was several instances of the thinset pushing up between the glass. Using regular tile installation logic that says remove all excess thinset for proper grouting, I arduously removed all the excess thinset from between each 1" glass piece. All the while wondering if it was necessary. It's all done and grouted and looks fine, I'm just wondering if I wasted allot of time.

Spanky - You're correct that it's only the thinset and not yet grouted. I hope I'm not posting in a couple of days about how they messed up the thinset and couldn't properly grout. I know Susan Jablon sent detailed instructions with the tile on how to install. I haven't read the instructions, but I've seen them laying around the bathroom, so I know the tile guy has read them. I also know that they had to use the same color thinset as grout, but I don't know "why".

On more than 1 occassion I had the "what the hell, they're the same color" conversation with myself regarding the thinset and the grout. If I had to do an entire wall, I may not have been so diligent. As it was, I cut a fairly good chunk out of my index finger when trying to dig out some thinset that I let sit tool long. Always check the position of your other hand when digging out thinset with a utility knife...D'oh!!

I pulled a set of directions off a link over at John Bridge that were quite detailed. Hopefully, Mongo will chime back with his input. I know Bill V. has deferred to him when it comes to glass installs.

Well, went by the house tonight, and all they did today on the glass tile is tear out the shower floor. I have no idea why, as I thought it looked good. That's a lot of lost tile; don't think I ordered that much extra. So, perhaps I only thought things were going well.

Wonder if they found a leak?

Lordy lordy.

Sad to hear that. Especially over Kerdi, as the fleece surface that the tile adheres to or the polyethylene core that makes up the membrane of the Kerdi can easily be damaged in a demo.

Some basics, and I'm not saying you isntaller did anything wrong. Just some basics knowledge here:

The thinset should have been "thinset" and not mastic.

Mastic is water-soluble and should never be used in a wet area to adhere tile to a substrate. When exposed to air it will dry and harden, when exposed to water it'll absorb water and turn soft again.

Thinset would have come in dry powder form and it would be mixed on site, mastic comes in a tub and is premixed.

Unmodified thinset cures via hydration. It's a chemical reaction that consumes water. It does not need air to harden.

Modified thinsets also need air to fully cure, as the "modified" part of the mix needs to "dry" in addition to the chemical hydration cure that doesn't require air.

I'm going to get a bit persnickety here, but I'm also offering generalities and taking a few liberties with my words:

Glass tile is usually installed with a modified thinset. Air can't pass through glass. But glass is usually installed over porous cement backer board, and with the combination of cement backer board, small mosaic glass tile sizes, plenty of grout lines, and the "porous" cement board, air can get to the additives in the modified thinset to allow it to dry.

For warranty reasons, Schluter specifies what types of thinsets can be used with their products. They usually want an unmodified thinset due to the non-permeable nature of the Kerdi. When I talk to their tech guys, they do allow lightly modified thinsets, but when used judiciously.

If you sandwich modified thinset between glass tile and Kerdi, you take away some of the exposure to air. Still, it's not usually a problem. If using modified, most installers will use a lightly modified thinset instead of a heavily modified thinset.

What all that means is that it just may take a bit longer for a modified thinset to fully cure and harden in a mosaic glass tile over Kerdi installation.

An installer would not want to use a heavily modified thinset to adhere a non-porous large format tile over non-porous Kerdi or Ditra.

The pan had a proper preslope, right?

I was curious but didn't ask earlier...do you know what the black stuff is that is on the Kerdi on the inside corners of the floor pan and the ceiling? Is that a topical membrane of some sort?

I hope the reason for the demo isn't catastrophic and simply turns out to be a hiccup.

Probably information that doesn't apply to your specific situation, but what the heck. I typed it anyway...

Good luck with this,

Mongo

Here's a picture of a somewhat-similar install of glass with subway tile in a shower. However, it is not mosaic but individual printed glass tiles on the wall, not floor. We recommend epoxy adhesive for glass but the installer likely used thinset, since the field tile is ceramic.
By the way, how do I post pictures? All I know how to do is put a link to the picture:
http://www.custom-tiles.com/field-tile-and-mural.htm

Here's a picture of my Susan Jablon glass tile shower. My contractor had never done glass tile installation before eitehr. But he and his son are such perfectionists, and were eager to do it, I wasn't too concerned. They did a GREAT job.

{{gwi:1449433}}

Let me clarify, all they tore out yesterday were the glass tiles on the shower floor ... not the entire shower pan or curbs. The floor certainly was sloped (I only assume that it was "properly sloped"), so that's not the issue. The way they removed the glass tiles, there's a complete layer of the thinset, mastic, whatever they used, still on top of the Kerdi, so I'm confident that the integrity of the Kerdi was maintained.

I don't know what the black stuff is on the Kerdi. They applied that stuff on top of the Kerdi in all of the corners.

Finally, I don't know whether they're using the right thinset. That's a detail that I wouldn't know, as I've been fired from communicating with the subs or the builder (Long story, but the communication is all on DH now). I've been asked to trust that they'll do it right and if they don't, the builder has promised that it will be corrected until it's right. I just can't hover over every detail during the job. Well, I can from afar, as I'm doing now ... just not to the builder or subs directly.

It's good the Kerdi wasn't compromised.

Best wishes during these trying times.

I just had two large areas in my kitchen tiled with 1" glass tiles. The spacing between tiles is inconsistent which of course makes the grout uneven. There are thick sections and non-existent sections. I'm furious and talked to the designer who said that is part of glass tile. It is not like machine manufactured tile and you will never get consistency. Is this correct? I'm sick over this. Please advise.