Large format rectified polished porcelain with no Grout in a shower? - Tile Advice

[craigy]

I am a non pro who has been asked to set some large tiles on a shower wall tight. is that recommended?

 

[Dumbo]

What size tiles .
How thin.
What are shower dimensions .
Conventional wisdom is to grout joints between tiles . But you may be saying large panels that only need siliconing in the corner and at the floor as there may be no other joints

 

[Dan]

Yeah it would depend on the size.

Large tiles are hard to get coverage on. And it's not for the faint hearted. Have you tiled before? What background are you tiling onto? Have you considered how you're going to waterproof the shower area before you fix a tile? The tiles wont waterproof the shower alone. You need to 'tank' the shower before you even mix your tile adhesive etc.

 

[craigy]

I'm in inches over here so they are 12 x 24 x .375, 300 X 600 X 10 USING VERSA BOND LARGE FORMAT ADHESIVE

 

[Dumbo]

They have to be grouted between the tiles and siliconed in the corner . Waterproofing your shower area before tiling is good practice although I don't know if it's a tcna recommendation or not . Maybe something you should check

 

[craigy]

It's an older home, that had 5/8 plywood with old school Melamine panels glued to it. I was going to screw cement board right over everything, tape and seal the joints and corners

 

[Dan]

In tile setting terms, we've only been in metric for a couple of decades and our average member age is 50. So we've got thousands who still haven't converted to metric on here lol

 

[craigy]

They also want it vertical so I am also worried about how flat the walls will turn out. I'm just their caretaker and want to advise them to get a pro but everyone is so busy, no one returns calls in our extremely rural area. Also, the home is shut down in winter, I mean all heat will be off.

 

[Dumbo]

Cement board generally tends to be water tolerant no waterproof. Although your products maybe different

 

[craigy]

They just stock 1/4 or 1/2 Durock? board. Comes with special screws and mesh tape.

 

[Dumbo]

You could consider fixing schluter kerdi membrane to it which I believe is a popular system in north America

 

[craigy]

I think I should tell them I need a grout joint to at least use leveling wedges because of the amount of thinset needed behind these, what I consider large tile. The wedges keep a 3/16 grout line.

 

[Unused Account 1]

Think you need a tiler ,lol

 

[craigy]

Think you need a tiler ,lol

Yep I do

 

[Dumbo]

You need a grout joint because if you don't the tiles will leak . Also recommend using a thinner levelling clip than your joint width . So create joint width with spacers so levelling clips come out easily without chipping tiles .