After over a year of fooling around with other things, and doing wiring and plumbing behind the walls, I have tiled my shower. I have been using visqueen tacked up to the ceiling, and its not fun taking a shower in the middle of it. while I am ordering reeded glass door and return, I will be using a regular shower curtain this weekend. Finally. Feels very good to be done with another project, especially one so important to creature comfort.
Here is a pic. The rest of the bus has royal blue accents - lights, bath sink, drawer handles etc. So that tile kind of goes with the rest of the bus.
Very nice! Cool lighting too. Are the lights LED or Halogen...or something else?
Looks like you've copied my 'headliner!' ;)
JR
chinese LED's from ebay, all together they draw about .2 amp
They are not very bright, hopefully no reflection on the owner, but its enough to see. The fuse panel I have them hooked up to has a small indicator light when a fuse is blown. If I unplug the fuse, there is enough current going through the small light, that all 7 of these will light, although more dimly. I am using this feature as a night light. After leaving them on all night, I can't really tell any difference in house battery state of charge.
Yes, my entire bus still has this classy plywood ceiling. I need to do drawers or even heat next.
Consider leaving the shower curtain in place and skip the glass door. A couple reasons. First, you can leave it open and the shower dries nicely. Second when it's open it gives the impression that the whole room is bigger. Boat supply sells a nice bendable shower curtain track that works great.
craig
Great job! You have a good eye.
I remember when I took my first shower in our Eagle after I completed ours, it sure felt good, and I smelled better too! Ours is not quite so fancy, but it works. I'm sure you will be happy when you can check it off your list.
Keep on keepin' on Jim,
Be safe,
Paul
Hi Jim,
Nice Job!
I tried some LED's in my ceiling pucks and I didn't like the lighting that they put out so, I put the halogens back in.
It looked like the LED's put out about a 1/4 of the light that halogens did..
Nick-
Nick, how long ago did you try the LED's?
The reason I ask is that over the last year or so they have improved them a lot, they seem to be getting brighter...and they are now getting them to where they spread the light better...as opposed to just kind of shining in a spotlight sort of way.
For what it's worth!
Jack
Job well done! I need to quit hanging out here and actually get to working on mine!
Very nice looking shower! I had to chuckle at the visqueen remark. I have not showered in visqueen since doing monitoring on asbestos abatement jobs, in the makeshift decontamination showers on the job site. This might motivate me to move my shower renovation up on the to-do list. I like your choice of lights,,, can't beat that almost non-existant current draw, and i am not a fan all the heat put out by the halogens.
thanks all.
NIck, I don't really like the light put out by these LED's either, its a very cold blue light, and I used 7, but still its fairly dim. For the shower, all that is ok. Although I have several more, I think I will stick with other kinds of bulbs for my other lighing needs for now.
Jack, yes LEDs keep getting better all the time, they are definitely worth watching and trying because of their incredible efficiency. These I bought over a year ago, but since I had them, I used them.
Jim,
Very nice!
What did you use for backer board.....to reduce flex, vibration, swelling and shrinkage?
or is that not an issue?
Skip
Skip,
We'll see if its an issue or not. the right wall has studs to hide the plumbing, so I used 1/2 inch hardiebacker board.
The left side has 1/2 birch plywood over a wood frame, so I used 1/4 on that side. I"m headed to the desert this weekend, so if thre is still tile on the walls when I come back I'll be happy.
Generally, a lot of people have used tile in their buses with no ill affect, so I am optimistic.
Jim,
When we did our shower, we made the walls with 3/4 oak furniture grade plywood covered with several layers of fiberglass cloth (matte in corners) and ployester resin. after it set up. we scuffed the fiberglass surface with a grinder and installed wall ceramic tile using standard wall tile adhesive and non saned grout mixed with latex admixture. About 7 years and 35,000 miles since installation and no problems so far. this includes several trips through some rough terrain in cow pastures at Bluegrass music Festivals. Jack
Quote from: jackhartjr on February 13, 2008, 04:05:42 AM
Nick, how long ago did you try the LED's?
The reason I ask is that over the last year or so they have improved them a lot, they seem to be getting brighter...and they are now getting them to where they spread the light better...as opposed to just kind of shining in a spotlight sort of way.
For what it's worth!
Jack
Hi Jack,
This was 2 weeks ago when I installed the LED's The bulbs pictured [above top] cost me over 20 bucks each.. Anybody want 8 of them??....
Nick-
I was wondering about how the tile and grout would handle the travelling up and down the road, but from what I am reading it seems to be staying on the wall. What did you us to attach the tile, normal thin set? My wife has always talked about inistalling a ceramic tile shower, so maybe I can make one of her wishes come true,lol.
Shower floor tile was done with thinset using latex admixture instead of water. Wall tile was installed using standard wall tile premixed adhesive. Jack
Jack,
Very pretty! Nice job on the shower and the woodwork too!
I just used the premixed stuff in the tub. They said its stickier and more flexible than the regular thinset. I can attest, most of the tiles did not move a bit after I tapped them in. Road test this weekend. Should be ok
Hey Jim
when did you install the tile. I recently redid the shower in my house and used the same stuff you did I think. I had to go back in one spot and break out one to fix a oops and found that the adhesive in the center of the tile was still soft. that was a week after it was put on so I would assume it can take several weeks for it to cure out good in the areas that are not exposed to air. it looks so nice that I would hate it if it moved around because it hadnt all cured. just something to think about.
steve
I installed one wall last Friday, the other on Sunday.
Dall tile, from home depot
Let us know how the tile holds up after your trip. We are going to be putting tile up in our bathroom in a month or so. It looks great.
Amy :D
Jim,
Looks Great!
You gave me the kick in the arse to get my tile board up this weekend.
Work on your bathroom next and put up some pics, I want to finish that next... ;D
Cliff
Cliff here's the bathroom sink. Of course its in the bedroom, but thats the way the plumbing and floor plan and windows worked out. It actually is just fine in practice.
Cliff, What are you doing inside looking at your computer when you could be working on your shower? :o)
You can see the visqueen that used to be there. Yippee its gone!!! The shower is just on the other side of the wall behind the sink.
Found a mail order place in Boston that sells those sinks for $200, way less than anyone else around here or even on the web.
Now on to the floor, but there are a few other things higher on the list. heat. light switches. more wood shelves, drawers, cabinets and trim.
Gumpy - thats a great idea on the NO shower door, I have postponed ordering the door and glass to see how it is with the shower curtain. I'll need to get that flexible shower curtain rod / holder for longer term, I'm just using a make shift rod I made from a clothes pole.
Tile weathered the trip just fine. The firest hurdle was a nasty twist in my driveway just to get it to where i can back down a road to the more main rd. Also did fine on the dirt roads, and then the desert sand. Using the shower was GREAT. No more visqueen on my tail when getting the soap!!
I'm still thinking about Gumpy's idea to just leave the shower curtain and not get a glass door. I will use a shower curtain for the next several months or more to get a feel for it, but so far, it s pretty good. Makes the bathroom bigger, and the shower does dry out faster. The glass would really keep hte air from circulating and the water from evaporating.
I haven't yet done a leveling system, and most times that's ok, but oftimes the bus is just a wee bit off, and that keeps a little bit of water in ths shower pan from draining. A shower curtain vs glass doors is better in this case.
for what its worth, the mastic / thinset came premixed in a bucket and is called Omnigrip. It weighs about 2/3 of what thinset does, and I can testify that its really sticky.
Quote from: H3Jim on February 18, 2008, 03:20:52 PM
I'm still thinking about Gumpy's idea to just leave the shower curtain and not get a glass door. I will use a shower curtain for the next several months or more to get a feel for it, but so far, it s pretty good. Makes the bathroom bigger, and the shower does dry out faster. The glass would really keep hte air from circulating and the water from evaporating.
I haven't yet done a leveling system, and most times that's ok, but oftimes the bus is just a wee bit off, and that keeps a little bit of water in ths shower pan from draining. A shower curtain vs glass doors is better in this case.
Here's a tip on the water ponding, too. Go down to your local Walmart or Home Depot and find a window squeegee. They make one that's just the rubber squeegee with a D-handle on the other side. Works great for pulling the droplets off the tile wall and pushing the ponding down the drain when the bus is a bit off level.
For the flex shower curtain track, check Boatersworld.com. That's where I found mine. It was $24 in 2005.
Gumpy,
Several years ago I was looking for exactly this item for another application, but I never did find it. I just ordered one to try out, Thanks for the lead.
$19.99 plus shipping, total $26
I've got a glass shower door. Works great until you take a shower. I gotta lay a towel on the floor because the damn door drips water..a lot of water on the floor when it's opened following a shower. It opens outward (obviously) and drips off the length of the door.
Not a major issue, but a wet floor isn't cool.
Curtains have their advantages.
JR
The glass shower door on my home shower has as drip edge on the botttom that's slanted toward the hinge so when the door is opened, the water still drips down into the shower. JR, Is that practical for your door?
Quote from: H3Jim on February 22, 2008, 10:32:59 AM
The glass shower door on my home shower has as drip edge on the botttom that's slanted toward the hinge so when the door is opened, the water still drips down into the shower. JR, Is that practical for your door?
The shower door in DML is the same. No problem with water dripping outside the shower.
Richard
Quote from: DrivingMissLazy on February 22, 2008, 11:05:20 AM
Quote from: H3Jim on February 22, 2008, 10:32:59 AM
The glass shower door on my home shower has as drip edge on the botttom that's slanted toward the hinge so when the door is opened, the water still drips down into the shower. JR, Is that practical for your door?
The shower door in DML is the same. No problem with water dripping outside the shower.
Richard
Good point...I'll go down and look at it. I don't know what's on the bottom of the door...just know that it drips when it's opened.
I used a standard RV type fiberglass shower with the el-cheapo RV glass door. The enclosure works fine...no leaks or such as long as the shower door is kept closed. Sometimes the shower door gets bumped open when T and me are sharing the little shower in an effort to conserve water...that'll wet the floor! ::);D
If there's no return drip rail, I'll check Lowes to maybe ID what ya'll are talking about.
When I convert the D, it'll have one of those nice round sliding shower doors... ;)
JR
Jackjr,
The leds have always had the feature of spreading light. They come in a tournement of angles of dispersion. 5, 10, 25, etc. That is determined by the curvature of the top lens. As for brightness "I THINK" we have always had that option as the things are speced for lumens produced within a range of volts. Higher volts and the little darlins don't last quite the 700 years they are supposed to. Thats the little ones. I also see they are making physically larger little lights.
As far as color, they come in a wide varity of that also. I think the bluetinge is very cold. They make softer whites and they also come with a lamp fixture cover that is frosted and seems warm....at least in comparison. I think you will find that as you reach for the ones you prefer, the price will escalate.
I will install them everywhere I can for their efficiency but they ain't reading lights, not in my book.
John