Shower and Bathroom Tile Installation

What is behind the tile

Grout is not waterproof, and neither is most tile once you count the joints. What keeps water out of the wall is the layer behind it. In a Willow shower that is:

• Cement board or foam board on the walls, not drywall.
• A bonded waterproofing membrane (sheet or liquid-applied) over the walls and pan, lapped at every seam and corner and sealed around the valve and niche.
• A sloped pan that drains to the drain, so water never sits under the tile.
• A 24-hour flood test of the pan before tile.

This is the part you never see, and the part that decides whether a shower lasts five years or thirty.

Layouts and sizes we install

• Large-format wall and floor tile (24 by 48 and up), set with leveling clips on a floor we flatten first.
• Subway and vertical stack layouts, in ceramic, porcelain or handmade-look tile.
• Mosaics and hex for shower floors, where small tile follows the slope and gives grip.
• Herringbone and chevron floors and feature walls.
• Niches, benches and ledges framed in before waterproofing and wrapped in matching tile.
• Pebble shower floors and linear-drain floors that run continuously into the room.

The details that look finished

• Metal edge trims on outside corners and tile ends, instead of bullnose or bare edges.
• Niches laid out to the grout lines, so the tile above and below lines up.
• Valves and fixtures centered on a tile or a grout line, planned before tile starts.
• Soft joints at corners and changes of plane, filled with color-matched sealant instead of grout, so they do not crack.
• Sealed grout, or epoxy or high-performance grout where you want less upkeep.