Nahhhh, that could NEVER happen!! :-)

Bill, you're so cool. :-) In the bath we're putting in right now, DH put a water shut-off valve in the floor, and wants to do the hidden tile/caulk thing so he can access it if needed to do future plumbing work. I'm not sure that, should the future need arise, pulling out a tile will be less effort than shutting off the water main....

Here's something that might help. I've got a "how to" section in my gallery, and one of the things I did was to document how the access panel in the first of the two tubs above was done. In the link below, start with the 5th pic on the page:

Here is a link that might be useful: My Gallery's

Nice work Bill! Both with the tile and with the website.

If I ever need tile work done I know who I'm going to call!

Mongo

Mongo-- Funny you should say that-- right down the road from you, in Guilford, John Bridge is doing a master bathroom for his sister in law, right now. :-)

Why I oughta drop in on John for a surprise inspection from the "building inspector"!

I need to dig up an email from him, he asked to use photos from my kerdi thread as a supplement to his eBook. Don't know if he ever got the photo files or not.

Mongo

If you want to meet up with him for real, shoot me an email, and I'll give him a call and hook you up. He's been all over the country this summer meeting up with and talking to forum members. He stopped up here a couple of weeks ago, and we got together along with Jim Carlin, the NE rep for the National Tile Contractors Association.

As I posted in the thread below, John's the "HIPPIE" in the middle with all the HAIR!!:

Here is a link that might be useful: RV Summer Excursion 08

Bill_Vincent, I just love that white/gold bathroom tile so much! What tile is it and where can I buy it? I wish you lived near me to redo my kitchen and bathroom floors that are 18 years old.

It's made by Florida Tile, but that picture is about 8 years old, and I doubt very much if they even make it any more.

mongoct - do you have any other pics of the tile in the bathroom pictured above? Looks like there are 2 different floor tiles, or was the "main" area just not completed? How do you like the black tile? Thanks

That bathroom is the one that was used for the "Kerdi Shower" thread. Please, no additional posting on the Kerdi shower thread. It'll disappear if it hits 150 posts. So yeah, I have a few hundred photos of that bathroom being put together. Everything from building the cabinets to installing the trim.

The main part of the bath floor in that photo isn't tiled, it is brazilian cherry flooring.

The black tiled area that you see a raised platform that is used as a drying off area (shower/tub), it also serves as the curb for the shower and as a step to get in and out of the tub.

Here's a better photo:

I've used that black tile several times, it's a good product. Daltile Continental Slate, Asian Black.

The tile has good color, good texture, and I forget how many stamp patterns are in the series, but it can be installed without a repetitive pattern being noticed.

Not much of a problem in that bathroom, though as the black tile came in 12" squares and the cream in 13" squares. Every piece of tile in that bathroom is cut, so it was really easy to avoid any sort of pattern recognition.

On the outside edges of the curb I mitered the corners, then eased the sharp edge with a stone, then colored the grout in the joint to match the color of the tile. The goal was to make the side of the curb look more like solid blocks of "stone" instead of seeing a grout joint at the outside corner.

Mongo

Good Day Mongo,

I really like your tub surround with the easy access to the plumbing, I have a Jacuzzi style tub and need access to the plumbing as well. I like the other ideas with the tiling, but I'm more of a wood guy. we've been living in our home I built for the last two years now and my lovely wife is after me to finish off the master bathroom. can you help me with close up photos of the way your panels hook up and slide off, I'm visual and need to see it for myself before I can attempt to make them.
Thanks for your help, My wife will be grateful to me when i finish of the project.
patrick

The face frame consists of the top rail, the bottom rail, and the four vertical stiles. In the cutaway drawing above, you can see that when the frame is bottomed out on the tub platform (nested between the baseboard and the cleat), there is a gap or clearance between the top of the frame's top rail and the bottom of the tub deck.

The frame can be lifted up, and when the top of the top rail hits the bottom of the tub deck, the bottom of the frame can be swung out in front of the baseboard, then dropped down and out of the assembly.

Each panel works the same way within each panel's hole in the face frame.

Clear as mud?

Mongo

Oh that is very very clever! And here I was going to go buy magnets, or something for my panels!

Mongo, Thanks for getting back to me so soon, now that my wife saw your response I have no choice but to get to work on this project. Very clever in deed, I just had to see it, now clear as mud in fact.
Guess what I'm going to do all day on my day off.
Keep up the good work. We'll probably be chatting when I start my next project, the basement playroom
Patrick

Mongo, another question- obviously you wouldn't have put a wood deck on the tub if you thought it would be a problem, but would one imagine it may discolor? Or are you then just obliged to be meticulous about wiping it down after use/splashing? What finish did you use on that gorgeous wood deck??

Gee, that bathroom really is gorgeous.

The wood is teak, the finish is Minwax Helmsman spar urethane. The spar urethane offers more uv protection than a regular polyurethane, which helps prevent any uv or sunlight related discoloration.

No real problems with water, after any tub fun, any spills get wiped down. No polishing, no "regular" maintenance, just a simple wipe down after using the tub.

Thanks for the kind words too!

Mongo