Marble Shower Remodel in Blue Island
About This Project
This walk-in shower in a Blue Island bungalow had the original 1950s tile — pink ceramic squares with cracked grout and a substrate that had absorbed moisture for years. We demoed everything down to the studs, replaced the wall framing where needed, installed cement board, and applied a sheet-applied waterproof membrane before a single new tile went up.
The wall tile is a large-format Calacatta marble-look porcelain set in a vertical stack bond pattern. The floor uses a 2-inch hexagon mosaic with a slightly warmer white to create a subtle contrast. The built-in bench seat is a mud-bed construction — a mortar bed shaped and sloped to drain, then tiled to match the floor. That slope detail keeps water from pooling on the bench surface.
The Blue Island bungalow's joisted floor structure required careful attention at the shower threshold — we used a Schluter Kerdi-Shower-ST prefabricated shower tray to ensure the floor-level transition was waterproof and stable despite the slight flex in the surrounding floor system.
What We Did
- Demo of existing tile, substrate inspection and framing repair
- Cement board installation and sheet-applied waterproof membrane
- Large-format wall tile setting in vertical stack bond with back-buttering
- Mud-bed bench construction with sloped surface, hexagon mosaic floor tile
Project Details
| Service | Bathroom & Shower Tile |
|---|---|
| Area | Blue Island |
| Materials | Calacatta marble-look large-format porcelain, 2" hexagon mosaic floor tile |
| Scope | Residential — full shower demo and rebuild |
| Timeline | Multi-day install |
