Tiling and Waterproofing your Shower
February 20, 2019Downtown Condo Bathroom Renovation
February 28, 2020Renovating a small bathroom with a sink and toilet and turning it into a bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower is often quite difficult. Either there is simply not enough room to accommodate a three-piece bathroom or the cost to make the three pieces fit is prohibitive. However, every once in a while, we’re able to pull off a bit of magic to add a shower where there wasn’t one before.
First, a stroke of renovation luck.
In the level just below the main one in this split-level home, there was a tiny bathroom with a vanity and toilet. Luckily, just outside the bathroom was a storage area that used to be the room for the washer and dryer. The washer and dryer had been removed and cabinets put in their place. Our plan was to remove the cabinets and use the water lines and drain from the washer and dryer for our new shower space.
Luck wasn’t completely on our side.
After removing the cabinets and the old carpet, we discovered that the concrete floor slab had sunk quite significantly and there was some concern that if not supported properly, further shifts in the floor could cause cracking in the floor and problems with the shower. A plan was made to bring in a mudjacking company to stabilize the floor. Although this set us back a few days in the project timeline, we were confident that the floor was sufficiently stabilized.
Elegance was the focus for this bathroom.
In order to keep a similar tone to the rest of the home, the product was chosen to give a simple yet elegant look. The vanity was replaced with a glacial white cabinet, a Cambria quartz countertop, a simple Kohler undermount sink, and a single lever Moen set of taps. An oval mirror and a wall-mounted vanity light completed the vanity area.
For the shower, the floors were tiled with a small, black, matte-finished hexagon tile that matched the larger hexagon tile used on the main area of the bathroom floor. The walls were tiled with a simple glazed subway tile and grouted with a mid-grey grout color. Unseen, the shower pan and walls were done with the Wedi waterproofing system to ensure that the shower wouldn’t have any issues with mold, leaking or rot.
And finally, the client wanted something more than just a basic shower valve. They picked out a Grohe Lineare dual function rain head and shower arm in chrome to match the other fixtures in the bathroom.