Tiling Question

[Lou Ferrarini]

I am getting ready to tile a bathroom and have a question. The bathroom has a fiberglass tub. My question is when you tile up to the fiberglass, should you leave a gap and grout it or run the tile up to the tub and use calking. If any of you have this type of tub in your house, I would appreciate you seeing how it was done and posting it here. I am just concerned that if I leave a grout line, the fiberglas may flex and break the grout.

Thanks in advance.

[Keith Starosta]

Good morning, Lou. The best suggestion I can give you is to go check out the John Bridge Tiling Forum. I've seen a couple SMC members call it the "Creek of the Tiling World". I'd have to agree. LOTS of pros over there that are more than willing to answer any and all questions you have.

Seriously, check them out. Good luck!

- Keith

[Bob Childress]

Keith is right on. But to answer your question, use caulk, not grout. Needs to be flexible. But you can get silicon caulk the same color as your grout so it will blend in. (Guess where I learned all this?) :)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Lou...."Setting Tile" by Michael Byrne is an excellent book. I used it to construct and tile our down stairs bathroom shower. I bought the grout and contacted the manufacturer of the grout. They were listed in Byrnes book. They made a color matched sanded grout. All the walls are floating panels. I left a 1/4" gap between the wall panels and each other and between the walls and the floor. I filled those gaps with the color matched sanded silicon caulk. 10 years after tiling the shower, when the shower is dry you can not tell where the sanded grout leaves off and the color matched caulk begins. When it's wet, the grout does get darker and the caulk doesnt.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

As Bob suggests, use caulk. As a rule of thumb, whenenver you tile up against an opposing wall, or differing materials, use caulk. This is especially important in wet areas. This applies to joints like tile & tub, tile & shower receptor, joint between adjacent tile walls of a shower, and the joint between adjacent tile countertop and backsplash.

Remember, things always wiggle a little bit whether it's due to added weight or thermal expansion. And, grout is very brittle and unforgiving.

-Jeff :)