I have to replace a tile shower floor 10x10. Is there anything special I should use as far as the mastic or grout? Anyone have recommendations for tile and grout. It is for a shower floor in a swim club. Has to be durable and can handle the extreme cold. No heat in the winter. NJ. Need something that will stay clean and will not be that slippery.
Are you removing the old tile? If so you will most likely need to install a shower pan liner. Based upon your questions it doesn't appear that you have enough basic knowledge to tackle the project yourself. There's a lot more to it than just choosing a tile and setting agent.
No offense intended.
But to answer your question specifically. Don't use mastic. Use thinset, porcelain tile or an unglazed quarry, and epoxy grout. I advise you to check with a local pro as well.
Yes I'm removing the old tile. I forgot to mention that it popped up during the winter. Cleanly, the thinset holding the tile down is firmly set onto the concrete. I can kind of see the mesh that was holding the tiles but it is set in the thinset.
No offense taken. I just forgot the term thinset and was too lazy to go down in the garage and read the bucket. If I knew exactly what to do I wouldn't be writing this post but I'm an above average jack of all trades master of some. I thought mastic was a general term for the stuff holding the tile. I have basic knowledge. I've set cut stone tile around the fire place, regular porcelain tile behind the counter, around the sink, and stove. I have a wet saw.
Local pro wants about 2600 bucks for 180 sq ft, they rounded up to 200 sq ft which is about 13 to 14 bucks a sq ft. Some time down the road we are going to redo the bathrooms so we were hoping to get a year or two out of it, you know how that works it will be like 5 years.
The current tile is set on a contoured concrete base to a drain. I was hoping that someone would recommend XX brand for wet conditions and will hold through a cold winter if the building isn't heated. The floor is about 40 years old and the center part of both showers the tile just let go.
As far as tile, glazed might be too slick for a shower with kids horse playing. But we don't want any thing hard to clean. Again I was hoping someone would even recommend a certain brand and a type of tile. I was going to go with epoxy grout. I also didn't go to a tile place yet. I wanted to collect info before going so that I don't waste my time. This way I go there with something in mind and know what to look for. Thanks.
Oh, one other thing. Speaking about basic knowledge, would a shower pan liner be used on a 10 foot by 9 foot shower? None of the tile people said anything about a shower pan liner. Should I worry about them or did you think it was a residential shower.
It's hard to say or know what you have now without seeing what's under the tile and your "contoured concrete base to a drain" but there needs to be a liner or membrane of some sort, whether it be a hot-mopped pan or vinyl, or metal, it's necessary to keep water from finding it's way through the grout and substrate and into and under adjacent walls, etc. Look up mortar bed shower pan on google and you'll find pics of what I'm referring to.
As for the type of tile, if you don't want a glazed tile but you have temperature to deal with I recommend an unpolished porcelain. For a 2 year "fix" I would also consider using a product like Hydroment's Ultraset isolation membrane to coat the existing tile floor and then tile over the top of the whole works using thinset. But again, without seeing what you have there I'm speculating some.
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