Broken Soap Dish and Tile Removal and Replacement

The shower head fell and hit the porcelain soap dish and broke it. Am I screwed or what! Are soap dishes attached to the face of the tile or set behind the tile. In either case what's the general sequence of removal and replacement?

Thanks

Reply to
Bryan
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Nah, just annoyed, and in from some repair work or expense.

Ceramic dish, I assume? Does the well go into the wall, or stick out? If it goes into wall, there may be a spring clip thingy behind it to hold it in place, but those are rare in ceramic soap dishes. Usually they just go in the field in place of a 4" tile or two. Some rare ones are surface mounted on anchors through a tile or grout joint.

Sharp knife to dig away the grout surrounding the broken piece, until you can get a screwdriver behind to gently pry against an adjoining tile and pop it out. You will quickly find out if you have a mushy wall behind- if other tiles start moving or the wall starts flexing- well, hope you have a second bathroom, because even if you patch it up, it will fail soon, and you need a gut job on enclosure. If it pops out cleanly- scrape out as much crud as you can, and use a tube of the 'glue anything' silicone adhesive to glue the replacement in place. Make sure you have some wide tape, towels for padding, and a precut jam stick to put between the new soap dish and far side of tub (or something) to hold pressure till it sets up. (I keep a telescoping leg off a broken camera tripod around for stuff like this) Tape alone usually won't do on old tile, like it does on new work, since it almost always pulls off, no matter how clean the tiles seem. Several hours minimum, 24 hours preferable. Once it sets up, use a tube of bathtup caulk, cut to a narrow tip, to fake the missing grout.

(Yeah, thinset and grout are the proper repair, but nobody messes with that for just one soap dish.)

aem sends...

Reply to
ameijers

the soapdish is probably set behind the tile. glued on just like the tile is. you should be able to find a new one depending on your location and use tile adhesive to put the new one on once the old soap dish has been completely removed and wall surface has been cleaned up and prepared for the new dish or tile replacement if you choose a different soap dish and soap dish location.

your local handyman,handyperson or hardware store should be able to help get it repaired.

Bryan wrote:

Reply to
JillAdams

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