DIY Sealing the Tile

Alriiight. Now that we’ve got our shower and floors tiled, we just needed to seal them. That is not a job for the faint of heart, let me tell you. Luckily, it’s fast.

 

The stuff is stanky. Rubber gloves and goggles mandatory. This tile and stone sealer irritates the skin. Keep the windows open at all times, and keep an exhaust vent or box fan on.

 

A little bit goes a long way; two coats is perfect. Take a dry, white rag and apply a layer to the clean floor. After 5 minutes, wipe it completely off with a clean white towel.

Respirator face mask optional, but recommended.

 

We were thoroughly impressed with how the floor turned out!

And that brings us to the shower floor slope.

 

DIY Shower Slope

We had debated between the shower curb and the slope and we are pleased to report that the winner was… the slope! It worked out better than expected.

 

I pried the board off before painting the wall and here’s what she looked like. The shower membrane created a barrier between the first and second layer of the shower slope. I trimmed this part off.

 

After tiling the shower floor, here’s what we were left to work with.

From there, we packed a gradual slope the same way we did our shower pan with shower floor mix. We made the ramp extend almost to the doorway.

 

We packed everything in and let it dry for a couple days.

 

We made sure it felt natural and comfortable to walk up, without any chance of toe stubbing.

 

Once we had it in place, we tiled this part too. Seamless!

 

DIY Toilet Wax Ring

This is not pretty, but it needs to be discussed – wax seal on the toilet. When you’re putting a toilet in place, it needs a wax seal. Really any time you move it, you should redo the wax seal. There are new plastic seals that are less messy, but the wax ring works just fine and is your cheapest option.

 

It’s basically to keep it watertight. Here’s a little instruction guide if you need it.

 

Turn the water valve located on your toilet off beforehand. Put the wax ring in place and line up the little holes on the sides of your toilet base.

 

Then put the cover cap things back on either side.

 

Turn the valve back on. Now you at least have a usable bathroom! We’ve been limping by with one toilet for a couple months, so this is a nice change of pace.

 

We still need to get our baseboard trim up.

 

Next Week: We grout the tile and put the finishing touches on.

 

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