How To Hang Large Tile On Shower Walls

The staggering of tiles in thirds helps limit this effect.

How to hang large tile on shower walls.

Set the tile panels on the side walls with thinset the same way as for the back wall using the starter board. If you wait to install the cut pieces use a notched trowel to scrape the thinset from the wall so it doesn t dry before. Determine how much tile you ll need. Use a small amount of the excess mortar and spread it onto the back of a tile with the notched side of the trowel.

You ll need a design plan before you start attaching the tile. Install full piece tiles first and fill in with cut pieces as you go or install them at the end. Turn over the trowel to the notched side and comb over in one direction. Large tiles tend to cup or bow upward in the middle of the tile.

Dry lay the panels and measure them to see where you need to make cuts. This in turn creates a slight lip between two adjacent tiles. In our project one wall is 31 and the other is 36. Measure the width of the shower walls on either side of the door.

Spread thin set along the first section of your tile row. Run a damp sponge over the backer board in the area you intend to tile. One way to limit tile lippage is to stagger large format tiles into thirds. For our shower we chose a running bond pattern.

Stagger large format tiles in thirds.