I have to replace a tile shower floor 10x10.
Is there anything special I should use as far as the mastic or grout?
Anyone have recommendations for tile and grout. It is for a shower
floor in a swim club. Has to be durable and can handle the extreme
cold. No heat in the winter. NJ.
Need something that will stay clean and will not be that slippery.

Fred wrote:
I have to replace a tile shower floor 10x10.
Is there anything special I should use as far as the mastic or grout?
Anyone have recommendations for tile and grout. It is for a shower
floor in a swim club. Has to be durable and can handle the extreme
cold. No heat in the winter. NJ.
Need something that will stay clean and will not be that slippery.


Are you removing the old tile? If so you will most likely need to
install a shower pan liner. Based upon your questions it doesn't appear
that you have enough basic knowledge to tackle the project yourself.
There's a lot more to it than just choosing a tile and setting agent.

No offense intended.

But to answer your question specifically. Don't use mastic. Use
thinset, porcelain tile or an unglazed quarry, and epoxy grout. I
advise you to check with a local pro as well.

Yes I'm removing the old tile. I forgot to mention that it popped up
during the winter. Cleanly, the thinset holding the tile down is firmly
set onto the concrete. I can kind of see the mesh that was holding the
tiles but it is set in the thinset.

No offense taken. I just forgot the term thinset and was too lazy to go
down in the garage and read the bucket. If I knew exactly what to do I
wouldn't be writing this post but I'm an above average jack of all
trades master of some. I thought mastic was a general term for the
stuff holding the tile. I have basic knowledge. I've set cut stone tile
around the fire place, regular porcelain tile behind the counter,
around the sink, and stove. I have a wet saw.

Local pro wants about 2600 bucks for 180 sq ft, they rounded up to 200
sq ft which is about 13 to 14 bucks a sq ft. Some time down the road we
are going to redo the bathrooms so we were hoping to get a year or two
out of it, you know how that works it will be like 5 years.

The current tile is set on a contoured concrete base to a drain. I was
hoping that someone would recommend XX brand for wet conditions and
will hold through a cold winter if the building isn't heated. The floor
is about 40 years old and the center part of both showers the tile just
let go.

As far as tile, glazed might be too slick for a shower with kids horse
playing. But we don't want any thing hard to clean. Again I was hoping
someone would even recommend a certain brand and a type of tile. I was
going to go with epoxy grout. I also didn't go to a tile place yet. I
wanted to collect info before going so that I don't waste my time. This
way I go there with something in mind and know what to look for.
Thanks.


Are you removing the old tile? If so you will most likely need to
install a shower pan liner. Based upon your questions it doesn't
appear
that you have enough basic knowledge to tackle the project yourself.
There's a lot more to it than just choosing a tile and setting agent.

No offense intended.

But to answer your question specifically. Don't use mastic. Use
thinset, porcelain tile or an unglazed quarry, and epoxy grout. I
advise you to check with a local pro as well.

Oh, one other thing. Speaking about basic knowledge, would a shower pan
liner be used on a 10 foot by 9 foot shower? None of the tile people
said anything about a shower pan liner. Should I worry about them or
did you think it was a residential shower.

Fred wrote:
Oh, one other thing. Speaking about basic knowledge, would a shower pan
liner be used on a 10 foot by 9 foot shower? None of the tile people
said anything about a shower pan liner. Should I worry about them or
did you think it was a residential shower.


It's hard to say or know what you have now without seeing what's under
the tile and your "contoured concrete base to a drain" but there needs
to be a liner or membrane of some sort, whether it be a hot-mopped pan
or vinyl, or metal, it's necessary to keep water from finding it's way
through the grout and substrate and into and under adjacent walls, etc.
Look up mortar bed shower pan on google and you'll find pics of what
I'm referring to.

As for the type of tile, if you don't want a glazed tile but you have
temperature to deal with I recommend an unpolished porcelain. For a 2
year "fix" I would also consider using a product like Hydroment's
Ultraset isolation membrane to coat the existing tile floor and then
tile over the top of the whole works using thinset. But again, without
seeing what you have there I'm speculating some.