Question about mixing tile sizes in a small shower

I did a 2x2 inch hexagon tile on the floor and 4x12 subway tile on the walls of my 3x4 foot shower in Portland. The grout lines don't line up at all and it looks awkward where they meet. Anyone deal with this mismatch before and found a clean transition fix?

3 comments

3 Comments

felixhenderson12d ago

Haven't you heard that the floor tile should always be set before the wall tile goes in, not the other way around? If you did the walls first, that might be part of why the mismatch is so bad. A Schluter strip is a decent idea but it needs to be installed between the wall and floor before either one is fully set, or you risk water wicking up behind it. Another fix is to use a matching colored caulk at that joint and run a straight line with tape. But honestly, if the gap is less than a quarter inch, a bead of silicone in a color that matches either tile can make it almost invisible.

danielm8012d ago

32 year old me in my first house would have lost sleep over this. But now I look at that transition and I just see where water is supposed to drain. If your grout lines really are that far off, like half an inch or more, you could put a thin Schluter metal strip right at the bottom edge of the wall tile. That creates a clean line and hides the chaos underneath. The floor hexagons are doing their own thing anyway, nobody's staring at the corner where they meet unless you point it out. You might be the only person who ever notices.

nancy_king2912d ago

Oh man, I've been there! Listen, I've tiled three bathrooms in my own house and a buddy's kitchen and let me tell you, that corner where the wall meets the floor is a nightmare every single time. I don't care how perfect your layout is on paper, once you get the tile down it never lines up like you planned. The Schluter strip is a solid fix but you gotta make sure you get the kind that's meant for floor to wall transitions, not just the one for wall corners. I learned that the hard way when water seeped behind it and bubbled the paint. If you dont wanna mess with metal, a good color matched silicone is your best friend. Just tape off a straight line, run a bead, and smooth it with your finger dipped in soapy water. It'll look like a planned reveal instead of a mistake. The hexagon floor hides a lot of sins anyway so dont beat yourself up too much.