Master Bath Reno – The Arched Shower

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The above photo is what our shower area looked like before I did anything to it. I wasn’t a fan of the yellowy beige color of the tile so I figured I’d give Tough as Tile paint a try. It’s a paint that you can use to paint bath/shower tile, you can read more on that in this post. I took the door and frame off in preparation for the paint and planned to put it back on until I saw how much mold was growing inside the frame, so we went with a shower curtain instead.

It looked pretty great after the paint!

Below is a few years after I painted the tile, it actually held up pretty well! There were a few spots that chipped, but full disclosure, I didn’t follow the directions when painting it on accident. I already laid the new floor here, I left some space to extend the shower out about 8in or so.

It was now time for demo! I saved the shower part of this bathroom remodel for last because I knew it would be A LOT of work and it would take a while, but no more delaying it! I started with my multi tool to cut the drywall around the tile, that’s how I removed the tile around the bathtub and it worked perfect!

But that didn’t work out as well for the shower, I ended up just having to smash the tile with a hammer and using the claw side to pry it off. Since the shower tile was on cement board instead of just drywall like the bath was it was more difficult to remove.

Then one huge piece was coming off all at once, so I asked my neighbor to help carry it out because it was huge and heavy and Tyler wasn’t home to help.

I eventually got it all removed and then it was time for the shower pan. I removed the screws holding it in place but it still wasn’t budging. From the YouTube videos I watched that was usually all that was holding it down, but apparently that wasn’t the case here. I cut off the front edge of the shower pan with my multi tool only to find that this shower pan was held down with mortar! Apparently that’s pretty common but I had no idea!

I tried prying it off with a crow bar with no luck, I felt like I was going to break the crow bar!

Here’s a short video on the progress.

But luckily my knight in shining armor came to the rescue! Tyler brought a jackhammer home while I was away on a trip for work (I’m a flight attendant full time), he even recorded it for me! #besthusbandever! This Jackhammer he used is expensive but you can also rent them from Lowes and Home Depot.

He even cleaned up the mess for me!

Then this is what I was left with. Smooth enough, we could fill in the unevenness with mortar when we put the new shower pan down.

The reason we went through the trouble of removing the shower pan in the first place is because I wanted a tile floor, not a plastic one. Like the photo below.

Then on to the rest of the drywall. As you see in the inspo photo above from Cass @CassMakesHome, the ceiling is also tiled, but my walls are covered in satin paint and mortar doesn’t stick well to that. I decided to remove all the drywall and replace it with green drywall, which is mold resistant. Some people disagree with this choice, and that’s okay. A “better” material to use would be cement board instead of drywall, but I had planned on waterproofing it with a Schluter membrane, plus I hate working with cement board! It’s heavy and hard to cut. I worked with it before in my kitchen for my backsplash and it was a huge pain!

I started by scoring the wall where I wanted it removed, I didn’t want to damage the drywall I planned on keeping.

I started prying it off, because of the drywall screws it was coming off in pieces.

Then when I got to the top piece I couldn’t get enough leverage to pry it off, plus I was up on a ladder trying not to fall.

So I had Tyler come and help me get these top pieces off after they were scored.

Once most of the drywall was removed it was time to start framing the new shower. I didn’t removed the ceiling piece just yet because I wanted to see where the framing would go first. I used 2x4s to build the frame. To save on material I chopped pieces of a 2×4 down to the size I needed to the premade door I had planned on ordering from Amazon and attached them to the larger 2×4. I calculated the 2x4s and the tile and added some room for the mortar and waterproofing as well. Turns out I didn’t end up ordering that door, but more on that later, this is just explaining why I built the frame the way I did.

I didn’t put the pieces together just yet, I wanted to attach them to the wall separately to make sure it was nice and secure and I could get my drill in there to attach them. I started by putting the first 2×4 with the cut pieces on it after making sure it was plumb. This will make more sense in a minute.

Then I attached the other 2×4. I had predrilled some screws into it to make it easier since I was doing this alone. Does this make more sense now?

Then I started on the arch. I cut the arched pieces out from 3/4in plywood and attached them together with 2×4 pieces. The 2x4s were also where I would attach them to the frame. I used wood glue and brad nails to attach the 2 arched pieces together. This wouldn’t be very load bearing aside from the tile that was going on it.

Then it was time for a test fit. I was super proud of this because I cut it just perfect to where it was snug in the opening and stayed without being screwed in just yet. As you can see in the photo, I also added the curb made out of 2x4s.

Next it was time for the ceiling. I scored the drywall again but we couldn’t get the ceiling out.

Tyler went up in the attic to see if he could get it.

I went back down to see if I could help and then this happened…

…luckily the drywall was light weight and didn’t hurt and the piece of wood that fell didn’t break a tile! Tyler ended up just coming down through the hole!

Next up was drywall! Like I said earlier, I’m using mold resistant drywall here since I’m adding a waterproofing membrane, but if I did it again I’d probably just use the Schluter Kerdi board instead! It’s a foam like material and this way I wouldn’t have to use the waterproofing membrane, I’d just have to waterproof the seams so it would have been soooo much easier! You live you learn.

Tyler helped me put the ceiling up since I’m so short. I’m 4’11 and the ceilings are 9’6 or so! I need a taller step ladder!

Once that was up he attached the header I build out of 2x4s and then attached the arch to it. The header was attached to the ceiling joists and the studs on the sides and the arch was attached to the header. My neighbor happened to come over to see the progress and helped, he always ends up in my videos on accident and we always laugh about it.

Then Tyler had to test it to make sure it was nice and sturdy.

Then I started hanging the drywall that I could reach, with the help of my daughter who held it up for me as I screwed it into place.

I had to cut around the arch with a drywall knife, it was kind of a pain but I finally got it!

I ordered some shower niches and was determining the placement of them here. I wanted to make sure I marked where the studs were before putting the lower piece of drywall on so I didn’t have to guess.

Once that was done I started on the drywall under the arch. I cut a piece to size and then scored it in about 1in sections on the back, then snapped the scored areas and screwed it into place.

And it worked like a charm! This was a first for me so I was super excited it worked!

Once the drywall on the outside was done I taped and mudded to get it ready for spray texture. I wanted it textured before the shower floor was put in because it could be messy.

I really hate drywall work, so I did it in sections, which is why this seems out of order. Plus I was waiting on Tyler to do the plumbing before I did the left wall. He sat down and read the directions on our new shower system and got to work fixing the plumbing. He’s 6’4 and with most showers, he has to duck under the shower head since he’s so tall. So since we had this shower taken apart we decided to raise the shower head about a foot for him.

Once the plumbing was done I worked on more drywall. I took a bunch of measurements here, measuring from the top and the right to know where to cut the holes for the shower hardware. Measure twice cut once! Or in this case I measured like 5 times because I didn’t want to have to redo this! But I got it!

Now, in the back right corner of this shower and behind the shelving to the right is a dead space behind the wall. I lot of people say I should add niches here but the space was too narrow for the premade niche I was planning on using and I didn’t need a whole wall of niches or shelving in a shower, like some suggested. So instead I did the next best logical thing…I put a skeleton back there to live for the next 20-30 years or however long it takes someone to remodel this shower again! Some say I should have left him a bottle of whiskey and some playing cards…dangit! Missed opportunity!

Here’s another video update with our skeleton friend!

Then I sealed him in and got the drywall finished.

I went ahead and added the niche once this right wall was up.

I saw this photo on Pinterest and was obsessed with the shaving niche at the bottom!

So I went searching for a Schluter shower niche and this one popped up! I ordered it and got it installed! This is a genius idea for a shower with no bench or ledge!!

And here’s where we ended up after I did the spray texture on the outside of the shower and finished the drywall.

Here’s an up close view of the texture. I’m not the greatest with this but I don’t think I did a TERRIBLE job! This was before it was primed and painted. The right side is the texture the builder did and the left side is what I did. I do prefer this oil based texture better than what I’ve used in the past. This brand just seems to work a lot better.

Then it was time to waterproof the sides. We chose to do the walls and get those done before doing the floor pan because the pan we are using is a foam like material and we didn’t want to stand a step ladder on it and risk damaging the waterproofing membrane on it.

This waterproofing membrane is kind of like wallpaper, but instead of paste you use mortar just like you would tile. I spread the mortar on the whole wall and then went back and added trowel lines to help it stick and then put it up.

I could only reach so high on this step ladder since I’m vertically challenged so I had some help from Tyler at the top here. We put it in place and then used a flat edge tool to smooth it into place nice and flat.

I did the right wall with the help of Mia since Tyler was busy, and then cut out the niches. I could have skipped this part if I had used the kerdie board instead of drywall and then just waterproofed the seams. Next time I do a shower thats how I’ll do it!

Then when he wasn’t busy anymore Tyler came in and helped me with the ceiling. You like his shorts and boots!? haha! He didn’t want to get his nice running shoes dirty! The hole in the middle is for a light we will be adding.

Then we did the seams together, him getting the high up pieces and me the lower parts. He was involved in this project a lot because I don’t like doing plumbing, I couldn’t reach a lot of it and him wanting the shower done so we could use it again! He just used his hands in the corners because it was easier that way. The corner pieces are individually purchased pieces that are meant for inside corners. They came in the Schluter system I used.

I let Tyler handle the waterproofing around the plumbing as well. Like with the waterproofing membrane on the drywall, you just stick these and the seam pieces on with mortar and smooth them out.

He even did the niches for me. I had them cut out with flaps so we could extra water proof them, it might have been a little overkill since the niches themselves are waterproof and you only need to go over the outer seam, but I wanted this shower to be perfect!

Then it was time for the shower pan! My shower floor was just under 4×4, so I measured and trimmed off the excess of the shower pan by scoring it a bunch of times and snapping it off. When I measured I made sure I measured from the center of the shower drain to make sure that was located in the right spot. Then Tyler smeared mortar all over the floor pretty thick to make sure it would go in the uneven spots of the floor that we had to jackhammer out and then he troweled it. When you add the trowel lines to your mortar you want to make sure they are all going in the same direction so when you put your floor or tile down all the air can escape and it creates a nice suction.

The shower pan bends in the middle and has a natural slope to it that slopes down to the drain automatically, making tiling the floor easier. We got that put down and then Tyler walked around on it in circles making sure it was all smooshed down really well.

He tested the drain to make sure it sat low enough but it was still too high, so he used this bit with the drill to trim the pipe down on the inside and then put the drain part back on and mortared it down. This is the drain kit we used along with the shower system.

Once the drain was taken care of we used the Schluter tape to seal the seams and the corners at the bottom. Once that was dry we did a 24 hour water test to make sure it wasn’t going to leak before we went any further.

NO LEAKS!!! So it was time for tiling! I started with the floor so that I could let it dry and then put the step ladder in there for the parts higher up since we didn’t want the ladder on the foam shower pan. I marked where center was and started there so that way the tile would fall the same distance from the front to back.

Going around this drain was pretty easy since it was square. It took me a few hours but I got most of the floor done before we had somewhere to be. Looking back, I probably should have went backwards first instead of forward! I did let the mortar dry before getting the very back where I couldn’t reach so that I could stand on the tiles that were dry.

I really love working with this tile! It’s called Zellige tile and I got it from Riad Tile. It’s a great tile for beginners since every tile is handmade and different and isn’t supposed to look perfect, it’s supposed to look natural and rough. Because of this I only used spacers every few rows to make sure the rows stayed level, this makes tiling faster than it would have been since I didn’t need to spend as much time making sure the grout lines and spacers were put in perfect.

Because the tiles aren’t all the exact same thickness, I did spend more time on the floor tiles making sure the thicker tiles were pushed down into the mortar more than the thinner ones so that way they were even and wouldn’t hurt your feet. Also, this tile isn’t slick when standing on it so it is safe to use in a shower floor. You do need to soak this tile in water for a couple minutes before installing it to prevent the tiles from soaking up the moisture from the mortar too fast, which could dry it out too fast and make the mortar weaker. This is how I had my little tile station set up. I’d put a group of tile in the water to soak for a few minutes and then take them out and set them on the towel on the floor.

I had my mortar sitting on an old tray table so I wouldn’t have to bend over to back butter the tiles. My wet saw was set up outside, so there was a lot of running back and forth from my bathroom, through my dining room, kitchen, laundry room and garage and back.

If you’re going to be doing a tiling project I HIGHLY recommend this mixer for the mortar. I’ve used a corded drill before to mix it with this attachment and there is a night and day difference! The drill is hard to hold on to and hard to control, this mixer has 2 handles so it’s really easy to control. The button is on the right side by your fingers and you can even lock the button down. This made mixing soooo much easier and it wasn’t super expensive. Plus unless you already have a corded drill this mixer is cheaper than buying the drill plus the attachment! You don’t want to use a battery operated drill for this because it could burn out the motor/battery. Once I’m done with it I just rinse it off with the hose and set it aside till next time I need it.

It took me 4-5 hours to get up half the back wall! Again, these are 9.5ft ceilings and I was going all the way up! Once I got all the way up to the ceiling I kept going and did the ceiling too. I back buttered the tiles real good and made sure the mortar wasn’t too dry and stuck them up there. I only had 1 piece fall down and it was on the side where we mortared on the edge waterproofing membrane and mortar was showing, so it didn’t stick as well to the already dried mortar.

This is how I cut around the shower plumbing. I held it up and marked about where it would need to be cut out with a sharpie and then took it out to the wet saw.

The way I cut the circle out was making lots of cuts straight in, really close together and then the pieces would just break off. Then I used the blade to smooth out the circle. The wet saw doesn’t have teeth so you don’t have to worry about it grabbing the tile and pulling your hand into it so I felt more comfortable getting closer to it than I would a regular miter saw blade.

And it fit! Luckily since the shower head has a plate that goes around it the tile just has to be close, not perfect.

These niches were a challenge! They took me about 1.5 hours each to do!

This is how I cut around the edges of the niche. I cut the tiles at a 45 degree angle and back buttered them, I even added mortar to the 45 degree cuts so that I could smoosh them together and I rubbed off the excess.

And this is how it looked. There were some more complicated cuts at the top where I had to 45 the tiles long ways. This would have been so much harder with more uniform tiles.

You can see above that I created a ledge with the tiles. Originally I found this Pinterest post and wanted it to look like this. But when I called around to see how I could make this work I was told it was granite pieces and it would cost about $500 or more for the 3 niches and the shower curb, so that was a pass for me. But it is still so pretty! I also debated the right photo but I really loved the ledge.

My tiles are unfinished on the sides, they are glazed on the top, but some of the tiles had the glaze spilled over onto the sides I noticed. So I picked out those tiles and used them to create a ledge without having to add 45 degree angles to the outside, if that makes sense? And this is how it turned out before grouting. I have a Dawn bottle in this photo for size reference. I made sure to create one niche larger than the other when I added the center piece so we could accommodate different sized bottles.

Then it was on to the arch. I also cut these at 45 degree angles so they would look like the tiles were wrapping around the arch. This took me a whole 8 hours to do and lots of running back and forth to the table saw. I wouldn’t have been able to do this well without my amazing Ridgid table saw, this thing is a beast and can do angled cuts. I think tiling took me about 10 days to do and took me between 3-8 hours per day!

Once all the tiling was done it was time to grout. I started with the ceiling because that seemed like the most tedious, and then I worked my way down. I have used the kind of grout you mix yourself in the past and it’s just not worth the hassle to me because it tends to be runny at the top and thick at the bottom and hard to work with. It’s well worth it to me to splurge a bit on the premixed grout! I also HIGHLY recommend this microfiber sponge, it works a million times better than a regular yellow sponge. I put a trash bag down on the floor to protect it since grouting is a messy job!

And this is how it turned out. I’m pretty proud of the arch!!

We did ran into a slight problem. The middle handle plate was too small, or more like I didn’t cut the tile around the opening small enough. When we installed the plumbing we didn’t realize that the middle place was smaller than the bottom one.

But luckily we went searching the internet for another plate that had the right diameter center hole and was large enough and was about the right shape and color and found one! The other option was to removed the tiles right there and redo them, but I wasn’t sure how that would affect the water proofing membrane and I hate redoing things I’ve already done if I don’t HAVE to.

Here’s one last video for this post before the whole master bathroom reveal!

Once the grout was done it was time to caulk. When tiling you want to grout the flat surfaces and caulk the corners and edges with caulk meant for showers. Mapei is the grout brand I use from Floor&Decor and they have matching caulk in all the same colors, so that’s what I used.

You can see below the difference in the niches that the caulk made! They were super rough looking before on the left and then so much more finished on the right! I love finishing work like this that brings a project together!

I also caulked around the shower hardware. For this I used painters tape to get a crisp caulk line.

You want to immediately take the tape off, if you let the caulk dry it will take the caulk off with it. Look how nice that line is! I also caulked the ceiling light in the shower.

Now to address the wall outside of the shower. When I was away on a trip Tyler helped with the waterproofing membrane by wrapping it around the arch after I had already spray textured it and took the membrane a little too far. So I trimmed the excess off, coated it in joint compound, let that dry and then retextured it, primed it and painted it in Alabaster by SW, the same color as the rest of the walls in the bathroom.

While we waited on our glass shower door to come in we were using our old shower curtain because we were over having to share the guest bath shower with our daughter and we were super excited to be able to use this one!!

I had to remove the closet door trim in order to tape and mud the drywall so I was adding it back on here.

Then my neighbor came through for us with a shower door! He installs these for a living and was able to come over and take custom measurements and have the glass cut perfect for our shower! Him and Tyler installed the new door. The way this is installed is you add pilot holes through the tile and the studs where the hinges will go, then you add anchors and then screw the door in place using wooden spacers under it while attaching it.

And just like that our shower was transformed from a boring builder grade shower to a beautiful spa like oasis that Tyler could actually fit in without having to duck under the shower head! It’s a full foot above his head! I measured the guest bathroom shower head and it sits 6’2 above the bathtub floor and he’s 6’4, so he is super excited about this new shower!

I’m just so in love with this space now! This is the handle I got for the shower door in more of a victorian style.

I linked the shower system we used earlier, but here it is again, we really love it! As you can see in the photo below, the shower head has an extra piece on it, that’s our water filter because our water is pretty bad without a filter.

What do you think? Would a shower remodel be something you’d attempt on your own? Or would you rather hire it out? It was SO much work but I know we saved A LOT of money DIYing it and I learned a lot in the process!

Next up, my thoughts on tiling and how to make it easier on yourself.