UPDATED:Tiling the Bathroom With Real Tile Before and After

[fulltimedaniel]

So here is the final take on my bathroom renovation:

Before:


AFTER:


I still have a few minor trim things to attend to but essentially it is finished. It is Much much more functional than the original very solid and easier to clean and keep clean. All in all this is a good choice to upgrade your RV Bathroom if you are tired of tiny plastic sinks and cheapo faucets that normally get installed on the run of the mill Travel Trailers.




So here is the next of my chapters in my trailer renovation. You can see the other chapters including replacing the carpet and installing new bathroom fixtures, doing the plumbing and correcting some electrical issues in posts Down Thread...take a look at those too.

Here are some photos and descriptions of putting real tile in the bathroom. I had bought and installed a new vanity and sink and storage cabinet. I built a new counter top from plywood and now I am laying the tile.

Here you see that I am sizing the tile behind the sink.


Now I dont think anyone should use the normal tile installation practices that are used in stationary structures. An RV calls for a different approach.

While deciding on tile and the right approach I had a discussion with a tile contractor at Home Depot who recommended the approach here. His opinion was seconded by the Tile Guy at HD on a separate occasion. And their advice made sense to me.

Here is the product that I used to adhere the Tile to the wall. This will allow the wall to flex and it will flex with it.



This stuff is $21 a box so it isn't cheap. If you decide to try this keep in mind that this stuff is diabolically sticky and you must not let it dry out. If you peel off the outer covering to expose the adhesive you have about ten minutes before it dries on you. So don't remove that covering until you are ready to put the tile up.

Here I have laid the tile behind the sink first. The Tile on the wall will actually sit on this tile.



I had to replace the old outlet box as it had cracked and was missing one of its hold down tabs. These low profile outlet boxes that work in RV's can be found at almost any Home Depot. This one was a whopping $1.27.



Here I have put up the tile behind the sink on to the wall and am fitting it around the outlet. I broke one of the tiles when cutting it and I will have to replace it with a newly cut one. This I will apply with some industrial strength construction glue.



Now I will "grout" the tile with a Silicone based sealant in white. The gaps in this mosaic tile are meant to differ in size and make this a bit more of a chore.

I hope this helps any of you that are thinking of doing something similar.

[Hammerboy]

Off the topic but I found it kind of humorous of you trying to hide behind the door and take a picture. Hard one to pull off lol.

Does look very nice by the way.:)

[shelbyfv]

Maybe you would consider posting updates of your renovation to one of your existing threads, rather than starting a new thread each time. It would make it easier for those who are interested in following your progress.

[Campinfan]

Nice work..thanks for sharing....just glad my wife does not surf this site.

[Hornnumb2]

Only thing I would have changed is left the box out and mounted it on top of the tile.

[fulltimedaniel]

westend wrote:
If you use a polymer modified mortar and grout (maybe toss in some latex additive) your tile or grout won't "crumble the first time you moved". That is a perception that is unwarranted. As long as the substrate is solid, conventional tile installation materials work well.

FWIW, I have a tile entry area and a tiled surround for my space heater. The installation is almost five years old and is just like the day I finished it. This is maybe the fourth or fifth tile installation in an RV that I've done and maybe # 2000, overall.

Nice work from the OP, it looks night and day better than what he had. If you were closer, I'd set up the tile saw for that cut around the electrical box. You can also cut it with a diamond wheel on a small grinder. Tape the back and front of the tile before cutting and grab it firmly to avoid breaking (reduce vibration). There is nothing written in stone (pun intended) to say that you can't cut a grout space where the tile broke if the cut is difficult to make.

For cutting the tile I just put a Masonry/Tile blade on my circular saw. With this mosaic tile I just replaced the broken stone with one from another sheet and re cut it. The original actually didnt break while cutting it broke afterwards.

As for Grout The problem is that the back wall of my bathroom is definitely not stable by any definition. So I will be using a Sanded Siliconized "grout" caulking.

I'll post photos of all of this in my next post.

Thanks for the nice comments and help.

[fulltimedaniel]

SCVJeff wrote:
Have you seen the "sanded" Silicone grout? Looks and almost feels like real grout

Thats actually what I aam using you'll see a photo in the next post.

[westend]

If you use a polymer modified mortar and grout (maybe toss in some latex additive) your tile or grout won't "crumble the first time you moved". That is a perception that is unwarranted. As long as the substrate is solid, conventional tile installation materials work well.

FWIW, I have a tile entry area and a tiled surround for my space heater. The installation is almost five years old and is just like the day I finished it. This is maybe the fourth or fifth tile installation in an RV that I've done and maybe # 2000, overall.

Nice work from the OP, it looks night and day better than what he had. If you were closer, I'd set up the tile saw for that cut around the electrical box. You can also cut it with a diamond wheel on a small grinder. Tape the back and front of the tile before cutting and grab it firmly to avoid breaking (reduce vibration). There is nothing written in stone (pun intended) to say that you can't cut a grout space where the tile broke if the cut is difficult to make.

[SCVJeff]

Have you seen the "sanded" Silicone grout? Looks and almost feels like real grout

[fulltimedaniel]

sch911 wrote:
Seems like a good plan, and looks real nice, but have you considered the weight affects of all that tile?

Well look at it this way; there is probably 20-30 lbs of tile. As a percentage of the overall weight and or capacity of the trailer this is insignificant. My trailer has a GVWR of 10200 lbs and a Net Carrying Capacity (NCC) of 4066 lbs. Thirty lbs is .0029411765 percent of the total GVWR or .00737 percent of the NCC. Not significant.

The key to a safe trailer is balance. This addition will not put me over either my weight limit or capacity limit. Or anywhere near either for that matter.

I would think that only in rare cases where a trailer is truly overloaded would the addition of a bit of tile push you into a dangerous overload situation.

In any case the sink and vanity weighed much more than the tile.

But I am confident it will be OK.

Thanks for the nice compliment too.

[sch911]

Seems like a good plan, and looks real nice, but have you considered the weight affects of all that tile?

[DutchmenSport]

I used some that sticky stuff for some tile work in my house. I see where it would allow movement and flexing. Considering you are using a silicon sealer instead of a concrete grout, your plan sounds like it might work OK. If you used normal grout, it would probably crumble the first time you moved the camper. Campers have just to much flex in everything. Having done my share of carpentry work myself, I think you've done your homework well.

Keep us posted when you take the camper on the road how it holds up.

Looks nice.