Repairing/Replacing Bathroom Ceramic Tile

Moonriver, glad you got unstuck. Hope the painkillers kick in soon.

I'd gut the room if you have having insulation problems as well. In the long run it may take more time but you will be much more satisfied with how things turn out.

I've tiled one bathroom from gut job to finish and it's not that bad. Time consuming if you are just learning, but it's a great addition to the value of the house. I bought a cheap tile saw from Harbor Freight because I knew I wasn't going to move very fast and didn't want to rent one.

Think of it as an art project and go for it.

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-Northern NYS

Aren't old houses wonderful :-)

Since you just had to take out 3 rows why not go with a different color and make a decorative line around the tub?

So where was the tip to put the level on the backer board BEFORE I started installing the tile?

It's all good. I was soaking in the tub last night and noticed that the backer board was bowed out a little. I'm reinstalling now. Had to put in some new 2x4 supports to screw into. By the time i"m finished, I will be really good at this. Too bad I only have 1 bathroom!

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Rich

Do you make house calls

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Check it Out O added another Plank With O care
http://www.libertyzone.com/Communist...to-Planks.html

This would be my suggestion too. Trying to do a patch job will almost never look as good as a whole new tile layout. Pick up a portable wet saw at Harbor Freight for a couple hundred bucks, a good book on tiling, and have at it. Worked for me on the last house.

Today I get to reinstall the backer board. I was placing the tile against the wall just to make sure it fit right. On the end wall, it fit fine. On the side wall, not so good.

On the end wall, I stopped the backer board jut above the lip of the tub. On the back wall, I ran it slightly past the lip, because that is how it was previously.

Looked it up and the backer board is supposed to stop slightly above the lip of the tub, so cutting and reinstalling one more time.

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Rich

Good. Do it right. You'll be glad you did. Your bathroom is going to be beautiful.

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Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength - St. Francis de Sales

Tip: If you have a small bathroom, here's a tip that can make it look a little bigger. If you have a light colored wall tile, paint the rest of the wall the same color.

I found this out accidentally. I took a tile to Lowes to get paint that would go with the tile. The paint girl misunderstood, and scanned the tile and mixed paint that matched the tile. I figured I would try it and it is really nice. The eye sees a continuous wall and not a 2/3 tile and 1/3 drywall wall.

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Rich

Just figured out why the original tile job was so bad. For some reason, the builder notched the wall 2x4's at the bottom and slid the tub in about an inch. This created 2 problems:

• The backer board extends beyond the lip of the tub.
• The wall has a slight slope to it.

I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. I'm hoping I can just use a lot of quickset and build the wall up a little at the top.

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Rich

Thanks for all the advice. I'm finally finished except for a little paint and grout touchup.

For the other novices like me, this is a time intensive project but not difficult. I did a few things that I think made it easier for me as a novice:

• I tried a grout float and didn't like it, so I used a 2" plastic putty knife and it worked great for spreading grout.
• I used the combination adhesive/grout for both putting the tiles up and grouting. I tried regular grout and liked the combination better. It comes premixed.
• I used a grinder with a diamond blade for cutting tiles. Worked great - wear eye protection and gloves.
• I used a diamond hole cutter for cutting holes for faucet. A little expensive, but to me it was worth it. HD has a cheaper ($6) carbide hole saw for ceramic tile I would have tried if I had found it earlier.

Sorry the color is bad. This is white tile and I replaced the bottom 3 rows all around the tub and regrouted and recaulked the entire bathroom. If you look closely you can see where the new rows meet the old rows. It is only noticeable when you are eye level with the tub.

Here's before pictures:

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Rich

Good work! I agree about level of difficulty. Probably the messiest job I've ever done but so worth it. Ours looks nice and is easy to clean, though it was a week of supermess. Yours looks great!

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http://kottinthegarden.blogspot.com

That looks so-o much better. You should be proud of yourself.

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Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength - St. Francis de Sales

According to me once you managed to remove the tiles then its a easy task, but removing tiles that quite difficult job.