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jendaleen

Gap between tile floor & shower

19 years ago

My husband and I recently installed 12x12 porcelain tiles in our master bathroom. The room's shape is somewhat irregular, and after all is said and done, we have about an inch-wide gap between the last tile and the edge of the standing shower. It is too small of a space for another tile. Allowing for the grout on one side and the caulk on the other, anything we cut would be barely a sliver. But the gap sure looks big... We have caulk that matches the grout, but is that enough? Will it hold up to the water it will be exposed to as we get in and out of the shower every day? Will an inch-worth of caulk look as goofy as I imagine it will? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance...

Comments (14)

  • 19 years ago

    Oh dear...

    Hm. Do you have any decor/accent strips you're using anywhere else? Maybe you could put them in there and it wouldn't look so unplanned.

    But generally those kinds of spaces need to be planned for ahead of time so that you don't have little slivers anywhere, but maybe split the difference between one side and another and have relatively half-size tiles in both places. It involves more cutting, but it looks better in the end.

  • 19 years ago

    We did think about it. The other end of the wall has the tile fit perfectly, and it goes all the way across to fit perfectly at the door that is on the same wall as the shower. It looks beautiful when you walk into the room. Unfortunately, it leaves the standing shower with a gap one inch wide and three tiles across. As I said, the room is irregularly shaped and we had to pick our poison. It seemed the right way to go at the time, but now... not so much.

  • 19 years ago

    What about a row of mosaic tiles, to match or contrast with your main tiles? I think they may be small enough, and can be nipped off if necessary. A lightly contrasting border could look nice, or I bet you could find something that melded in. I bought some glass mosaics from SusanJabon (I think) but you can Google for similar if nothing is available locally.

    Good luck!

  • 19 years ago

    Put the sliver in. Anything you use isn't going to look good, but the sliver would be the lessor of the evils. You should be able to use a 1/2"- 5/8" sliver there.

  • 19 years ago

    Nothing is going to look good. Regardless if the bathroom is odd shaped or not, you should have selected a tile size that would have covered the entire floor. As difficult as it may be to cut, put the sliver in there.

  • 19 years ago

    you should have selected a tile size that would have covered the entire floor.

    It's not about size. It's about layout.

  • 19 years ago

    I agree w/ Bill...the sliver will be less jarring to the eye than any accent tiles, which would probably look odd.

  • 19 years ago

    for do it yourselfers, it is very tempting to use a whole tile along one wall thinking less cuts and easier. yes, layout is the answer and the tiles could have been adjusted.

  • 19 years ago

    Using the field tile is right, rather than what I suggested...I was just trying to come up with some way to avoid the look in those photos we see from time to time, and if jendaleen was using an accent strip elsewhere that *could* fit in there, maybe it would be o.k...but probably best not to try to "fix" it but just make the eye go past it as much as possible.

  • 19 years ago

    An accent tile, or ANYTHING other than a sliver piece of the field tile would actually draw MORE attention to it.

  • 19 years ago

    That's exactly what I was saying, Bill.

  • 19 years ago

    "It's not about size. It's about layout."

    Obviously they shouldn't have started with a full tile at the wall. But this is what many DIYers do and this is what they did. They didn't want to get involved with cutting tiles and figuring out the sizes of the two ends. They just wanted to lay them down. Based on that, they should have selected a different tile size which would have allowed them not to think and just lay them down in whole pieces.

  • 19 years ago

    Not all DIYers ;) And I've seen some "pros" do it too, FTR. There's evidence on this very site.

  • 19 years ago

    Just wondering -- did they do a practice layout...putting the tile down (dry) before starting the real thing?

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