Bathroom / Slippery Shower Floor Question

10 years ago

We are renovating our bathrooms and plan on having 6x12 honed marble (Calacatta) tiles in herringbone pattern on the floors including on the shower floors (I don't like small mosaics and we are using linear drain so pitching not a problem). Need advice as to whether the 6x12 honed marble tiles on the shower floor will be too slippery? If the answer is yes, any suggestions how to make the shower floors less slippery? Possibly sandblasting or flaming the marble tiles? (I know there are anti-slip liquids you can apply but I prefer a more professional, permanent solution). Thank you.

Featured Answer

PRO

Tres McKinney Design

10 years ago

Go to 2" x 2" mosaic tile in the same marble as the rest of the room's larger tile. The grout lines are what makes it more non slip.

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Comments (8)

PRO
Triton Stone
10 years ago
Hello! You can definitely use honed 6x12 to help cut down on the "slip" factor. Also, with a 6x12, you'll have enough grout lines that you should be ok. Sounds like it will be beautiful! Happy remodeling!
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User
10 years ago
It's just not safe to use a large tile like that.
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m k
10 years ago
We had a similar dilemma. They ended up cutting our tiles to 6x6 for the shower floors.
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Rawketgrl
10 years ago
What if you placed the larger format tiles around the edge as a border and then smaller tiles in the 'standing' area in middle to reduce the risk of a catastrophic fall.

It seems a shame to have to cover such a beautiful shower floor with non slip traction strips when a smaller format tile will solve problem.

I have heard some etching products work well but you need to pick the right product for your particular tile. Try this web site..

http://www.slip-resistant-solutions.com/Fix-Slippery-Marble.html

Post a picture when you can your bathroom sounds like it will be lovely!
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PRO
User
10 years ago
If you are sure you want marble and you are going to be ok with the normal maintenance issues associated with marble in a wet area, then I recommend going with a mosaic tile in that material in the shower area for safety.

If you have to have the 6 x12 bricks then you should plan on getting a clear shower mat to put on floor. Honed is smooth and still slippery when wet with soap,shampoo etc. Better safe than a slip and fall.
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User
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Unless you raise the entire floor of the bathroom and have a big step at the entry so that the entire room can be a wetroom pitched to the drain, you can not have a single contiguous plane with a single surface. You will have the bath floor as a single plane. And the shower itself, which needs to be a minimum of 48", will be a single plane, sloping towards the linear drain at the rear.

Where the two planes meet, there will be a visible and obvious break between the different planes. Which means, that it will look much better to do the shower in a different material. The breaks in plane will be less obvious and it will look intentionally designed rather than an oops.
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bkg212
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you so much for all the input! It appears the majority thinks 6x12 honed marble tiles in a shower will be slippery so I will probably have to give it up. I like rawketgrl's suggestion of the border with the smaller tiles in the middle so I will probably go with that. Thanks to everybody - this was very helpful!