MORE bathroom progress; the shower cubicle is now tiled! This has been a long time coming as we actually bought the tiles before we went on holiday, back in June!
We went for these two gorgeous marble tiles, both from Stonetrader.co.uk – the total cost came to £150 which I think isn’t actually that bad for marble! I wanted to use something a little more luxurious than standard ceramic and these certainly did the job! We borrowed a wet tile cutter (you can’t use the standard score and snap method with marble!) from a friend and remarkably they were pretty easy to cut! We didn’t have a single breakage!… Except for one tile which was dropped, so not really down to cutting. Top tip for cutting marble tiles – put some tape across the marble where you want to cut and cut through the tape, this will leave the cut edge much smoother than cutting without the tape. Just make sure you use a tape that won’t leave a sticky residue. We made this mistake on a couple of tiles and I’m still yet to deal with it.
The mosaic marble tiles were a little trickier to lay. I found it easiest to insert spacers into the mesh in-between each square before laying onto the wall. This way the mesh won’t bunch up as it’s laid and it’s just generally much easier to lay. Cutting these tiny tiles wasn’t a problem either, it was just slightly more awkward to do as we didn’t want to lose any fingers…
I decided to use some straight edge aluminium tile trim as opposed to the cheaper plastic ones. These were pretty pricey at around £30 (including delivery) for just three, which I purchased from trimtraders.co.uk but I think they’re well worth the extra cost.
As for the grout, I went for a grey coloured one as white grout tends to dis-colour much quicker. I wasn’t sure on the grey at first, but once it dried a little lighter, I’m pretty happy with the results!
As a reminder, here’s what the shower area looked like before:
And here’s how it looks now…
I think we’re ready for installing the enclosure!
COSTS
(rounded to the nearest pound)
New tools purchased:
None – Borrowed a Wet Tile Cutter for FREE!
Materials Used:
Tiles £150
Tile Adhesive £30
Grout £16
Tile Trims £21
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