How To Tile A Shower Niche

**How to Tile a Shower Niche: A Step-by-Step Guide**

In today’s video, Shannon from Host Improvements demonstrates how to tile a shower niche using ceramic tiles and glass accent tiles. The process is detailed and involves several key steps, from preparing materials to setting the final pieces in place. Below is the full transcription of the video, organized into sections for clarity.

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### Introduction

Shannon begins by introducing herself and explaining the purpose of the video: to show how to tile a shower niche. She mentions that she has pre-cut some tiles but will explain the process using 12x24 ceramic tiles for the main walls and glass accent tiles for the back. The goal is to create a functional and visually appealing shower niche.

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### Starting with the Bottom Piece

The first step in tiling the shower niche, as Shannon explains, is to start with the bottom piece. This is because, like waterproofing, it’s essential to begin from the bottom and work your way up. The bottom tile should be cut almost the full depth of the shower. She emphasizes that this tile will act as a base, allowing water to drain properly.

Shannon also mentions that she slightly tilts the bottom tiles to ensure proper drainage. This slight tilt is exaggerated in her explanation but serves an important purpose: directing water towards the drain.

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### Preparing the Mortar and Setting Tiles

Next, Shannon mixes mortar and applies it to the substrate. She explains the importance of “burning in” the mortar, which involves pressing it into the substrate to create a strong bond. She uses a quarter-inch trowel for this step.

After applying the mortar, she back-butters the tiles to ensure a good bond. This process involves applying a small amount of mortar to the back of each tile. For the bottom piece, she adds a little extra mortar on the back edge to create some slope, ensuring water will drain effectively.

Shannon lines up the front edge of the tile flush with the surface and uses a torpedo level to check for any slope issues. She ensures the tile is slightly tilted but flush with the front edge.

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### Installing Glass Accent Tiles

Once the bottom piece is set, Shannon moves on to the back glass tiles. These are pre-cut to fit the niche, but she notes that they don’t have to be perfect since the top tiles will cover any gaps.

Working in a tight area, Shannon uses a smaller trowel for better maneuverability. She explains that these tiles have narrow pieces and emphasizes the importance of good coverage with mortar to ensure each piece is securely attached.

She also mentions using a rubber float to press the mosaic tiles into place, ensuring they are flat and well-embedded in the mortar. If any mortar gets on the surface of the tiles, she advises cleaning it up as you go to avoid issues later.

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### Installing the Top Piece

After setting the bottom and back pieces, Shannon moves on to the top piece. She explains that this tile is cut narrower because it will butt into the front of the mosaic in the back. She applies mortar to the top piece, back-buttering it as she did with the bottom piece.

Shannon ensures the top tile is level and flush with the front edge. She also mentions cutting a small piece of material to support the tile and prevent it from falling out during setting.

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### Adding Side Tiles

Next, Shannon addresses the side tiles. These are cut to fit the remaining space on either side of the niche. She uses a snap cutter for straight cuts and ensures each tile is properly aligned and level.

She explains that the bottom edge of these side tiles will align with the slight slope created earlier, ensuring proper drainage.

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### Finishing Touches

After setting all the main tiles, Shannon discusses finishing touches. She mentions that grout joints will be visible around the back edges and front edges of the tiles. For the front edges, she notes that some people opt for a butt joint or use decorative trim, such as metal trim or pencil tiles.

Shannon concludes by reminding viewers to allow the tiles to set overnight before grouting. She also encourages viewers to check out her forum for additional tips and resources.

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### Final Thoughts

Throughout the video, Shannon emphasizes the importance of patience and attention to detail when tiling a shower niche. She provides practical advice on using tools like torpedo levels, smaller trowels, and rubber floats to ensure success.

Shannon ends the video by thanking viewers and encouraging them to subscribe, leave comments, or visit their social media pages for more content. She also mentions a Patreon campaign for those who want to support her channel and help continue producing high-quality videos.

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This step-by-step guide provides a detailed look at tiling a shower niche, from start to finish. By following Shannon’s instructions, anyone can successfully tile a shower niche using ceramic and glass tiles.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi I'm Shannon from host improvements comm and in today's video I want to show you how to tile a shower in eesh I've kind of got a few a few of the things pre-cut that we're going to be using but basically we're using ceramic tile these the main tile on the walls are going to be 12 by 24 s so I'm using that product for the border inside here on the top bottom and sides just cut to the appropriate size as I need and then I'm going to be using a a glass accent tile in the back of the knees itself okay so hopefully I've got most of what I need cut and ready to go kind of the main thing to start out with is you want to start with your bottom piece and the reason for that it's kind of like you know whenever you're waterproofing something you want to kind of start from the bottom and work your way up as much as you can so we're gonna install this piece here which is cut almost the full depth of the shower in each then we're gonna install the back glass pieces so that they overlap onto here that way any water that sprays or shoots up into the air kind of runs down that glass and can come out we're also gonna slightly tilt I'm exaggerating here but slightly tilt the the bottom tiles so that the water will drain out obviously the niche has all been installed it's a premade unit you can see that on one of our other videos for installing purity board and that's all ready to go it's been installed level and that's key so that you don't have to mess around too much tile wise to straighten anything out so so that's the gist of it let's let's get right into it okay so I've pre-cut these pieces for the layout that I want it I'm just gonna kind of get them out of the way and we'll we can do the bottom I've mixed my mortar already give it a nice because it's been sitting here for a minute so like all tiling first thing you want to do is kind of basically what they call burn in so you want to apply your mortar to whatever substrate you have and you want to press it in so it's making a good bond most most people will call that burning it in burning it in okay so we've got that I'm just gonna add a little bit more here and all trowel it I'm using a quarter by quarter trowel okay so I've got that done now I want to back butter my pieces as well I'll just get a little bit on here this just helps make sure you have a good bond just try not to get too much on the front edge okay so I've got that now because we want to get a little bit of slope on the back I'm just gonna add a little bit in this back edge so we have some extra to play with and we'll set it into place and I've got things pre marked out to where I wanted you can see these marker lines so that's what I'm doing I'm putting the front edge of my tile flush to the surface here okay so I just want to set it in line it up with my marks and I get my little torpedo level on here I'm just settling it down into the substrate and you don't need much slope you know I'm looking at about a sixteenth or something like that just double-check my level there that's good so that's kind of what I want for this one make sure it's out front to my front edge or flush to the front edge like so I've got my little wheat pieces here I think the cameraman is having a little trouble doing what I'm doing keep getting my fat head in the way okay same thing with the little guys get them in there sell them into place get them flush to the piece you just set and the appropriate growth space that you're looking for so like I said these bottom ones you do first they basically can be the full width of the depth of the niche so they sit back underneath the back now the back decorative glass tile in this case okay so we're pretty good there like so and like I said I've got my glass tiles pre-cut to fit get myself mixed up this is this end so I've got it cut to fit for height and it doesn't have to be perfect fit for height you probably can't see because the camera is a little high it doesn't have to be right up tight here because remember you're gonna have tile on the top here that's gonna stick down it's gonna cover three-eighths of an inch or so so it'll give you a little bit of room to maneuver this in here but basically the same idea so we want to get some order on that back wall burnt in it's a little hard when you're working in such a tight area that's why I like to use this a little bit smaller trowel I can't afford this helps me be able to maneuver a little bit better you might not be using kerdi-board or kurti fabric or anything you might have rubber membrane maybe just so ordered whatever whatever your setup is but okay so once you got that all burnt in you need to get our notch trowel again and get some mortar in there okay now these tiles have really narrow pieces of glass you want to make sure you have good coverage there so that you're making some contact with every one of them I think we should be all right there I'm just gonna get things kind of in there and then I can move them around if I need to I turn that upside down and actually were pretty good for end-to-end just kind of getting lined up great I've got one loose one do I deal is it for this spot okay and I just use a rubber float when you're working with a mosaic like this just to kind of push it in it just helps get them flatter and make sure that you've got some every piece embedded in there if you get a little bit of mortar on the surface of anything just try to clean it up if you can't as you go it'll just save you some time down the road okay and a lot of mosaics are mounted on a mesh backing or something like that but sometimes the odd one of them is a little crooked so I usually just have a little look make sure that everything's gonna sit there all right and look pretty square you can sure these bottom ones are pushed in there should be good for that okay so now we can I like to do my top piece and then fit my sides in between so we've got my top pre-cut get out here so again I'm gonna burn this in up top here just like I did on the bottom I've got these tiles just cut a little bit narrower because they're gonna butt into the front of this mosaic in the back kind of tedious but just take your time I'm gonna actually put more on this tile so I'll back butter it and then all place some more and notch it just because it's easier I'm working over my head excess on there and this one obviously doesn't need to be sloped or anything so it's just gonna it's just gonna sit up top there water is you're gonna sit on it or anything about that double check which is my front edge just get stuck up there almost times that will stay there but you usually just cut a little piece of something to go in just to give it a little bit of support so it doesn't fall out just got to make sure I'm not crushing that bottom that we set so the mean slope just making sure which piece is which put these little guys in clean up a little bit splitter sticking out so and then I've just got to cut some pieces to fit in this side there's on the two sides now remember that your bottom edge is gonna have a slight slope on it for this I can simply use a snap card we do have a video on using this snap cutter too if you need a little more information on how to use it very good for any kind of just basic straight cut check all right fine tape so same idea all over again bring it in notch it in there nice and square to where you're happy a little bit of a spacer underneath it just lift it up a hair there okay same thing for this one just just push in my little pieces on the top and bottom a little bit so to play with that should be good double check all these ones okay blop off of there so there you basically got your got your nice all tiled obviously it's got to set up a little bit for overnight until you can grout it or anything but then when you go out it you just have to grow it all your joints you're gonna have joints all the way around the back edges there as well and for the front edges here there's a few different options you could some people will this isn't a full tile but some people will just tile you know kind of do a butt joint here on the front edge most most tiles the edges aren't that nice so you may not want those exposed there's metal trim that you can put around there you could use some little pencil decorative tiles kind of whatever you want to do with it in our case we're going to be using a quad ech metal trim around there and you can see that if you watch our video on tiling shower walls okay so that wasn't too bad but we wanted to kind of separate this out of the main video and just deal with the niche itself seeing as you kind of have to do at first anyways before you tile the wall so I think that's all I can really tell you so hopefully this video showed you what you needed to do on your niche project and it's helpful and if it is we'd appreciate if you click the thumbs up below if you have any questions about this video you can go to our forum and post your question up there if you just want to make a comment make a comment below check out our social media and if you want to do that little bit extra for us to help us continue to make these great videos you can check out our patreon campaign as well so appreciate you watching and we'll see you in the next videohi I'm Shannon from host improvements comm and in today's video I want to show you how to tile a shower in eesh I've kind of got a few a few of the things pre-cut that we're going to be using but basically we're using ceramic tile these the main tile on the walls are going to be 12 by 24 s so I'm using that product for the border inside here on the top bottom and sides just cut to the appropriate size as I need and then I'm going to be using a a glass accent tile in the back of the knees itself okay so hopefully I've got most of what I need cut and ready to go kind of the main thing to start out with is you want to start with your bottom piece and the reason for that it's kind of like you know whenever you're waterproofing something you want to kind of start from the bottom and work your way up as much as you can so we're gonna install this piece here which is cut almost the full depth of the shower in each then we're gonna install the back glass pieces so that they overlap onto here that way any water that sprays or shoots up into the air kind of runs down that glass and can come out we're also gonna slightly tilt I'm exaggerating here but slightly tilt the the bottom tiles so that the water will drain out obviously the niche has all been installed it's a premade unit you can see that on one of our other videos for installing purity board and that's all ready to go it's been installed level and that's key so that you don't have to mess around too much tile wise to straighten anything out so so that's the gist of it let's let's get right into it okay so I've pre-cut these pieces for the layout that I want it I'm just gonna kind of get them out of the way and we'll we can do the bottom I've mixed my mortar already give it a nice because it's been sitting here for a minute so like all tiling first thing you want to do is kind of basically what they call burn in so you want to apply your mortar to whatever substrate you have and you want to press it in so it's making a good bond most most people will call that burning it in burning it in okay so we've got that I'm just gonna add a little bit more here and all trowel it I'm using a quarter by quarter trowel okay so I've got that done now I want to back butter my pieces as well I'll just get a little bit on here this just helps make sure you have a good bond just try not to get too much on the front edge okay so I've got that now because we want to get a little bit of slope on the back I'm just gonna add a little bit in this back edge so we have some extra to play with and we'll set it into place and I've got things pre marked out to where I wanted you can see these marker lines so that's what I'm doing I'm putting the front edge of my tile flush to the surface here okay so I just want to set it in line it up with my marks and I get my little torpedo level on here I'm just settling it down into the substrate and you don't need much slope you know I'm looking at about a sixteenth or something like that just double-check my level there that's good so that's kind of what I want for this one make sure it's out front to my front edge or flush to the front edge like so I've got my little wheat pieces here I think the cameraman is having a little trouble doing what I'm doing keep getting my fat head in the way okay same thing with the little guys get them in there sell them into place get them flush to the piece you just set and the appropriate growth space that you're looking for so like I said these bottom ones you do first they basically can be the full width of the depth of the niche so they sit back underneath the back now the back decorative glass tile in this case okay so we're pretty good there like so and like I said I've got my glass tiles pre-cut to fit get myself mixed up this is this end so I've got it cut to fit for height and it doesn't have to be perfect fit for height you probably can't see because the camera is a little high it doesn't have to be right up tight here because remember you're gonna have tile on the top here that's gonna stick down it's gonna cover three-eighths of an inch or so so it'll give you a little bit of room to maneuver this in here but basically the same idea so we want to get some order on that back wall burnt in it's a little hard when you're working in such a tight area that's why I like to use this a little bit smaller trowel I can't afford this helps me be able to maneuver a little bit better you might not be using kerdi-board or kurti fabric or anything you might have rubber membrane maybe just so ordered whatever whatever your setup is but okay so once you got that all burnt in you need to get our notch trowel again and get some mortar in there okay now these tiles have really narrow pieces of glass you want to make sure you have good coverage there so that you're making some contact with every one of them I think we should be all right there I'm just gonna get things kind of in there and then I can move them around if I need to I turn that upside down and actually were pretty good for end-to-end just kind of getting lined up great I've got one loose one do I deal is it for this spot okay and I just use a rubber float when you're working with a mosaic like this just to kind of push it in it just helps get them flatter and make sure that you've got some every piece embedded in there if you get a little bit of mortar on the surface of anything just try to clean it up if you can't as you go it'll just save you some time down the road okay and a lot of mosaics are mounted on a mesh backing or something like that but sometimes the odd one of them is a little crooked so I usually just have a little look make sure that everything's gonna sit there all right and look pretty square you can sure these bottom ones are pushed in there should be good for that okay so now we can I like to do my top piece and then fit my sides in between so we've got my top pre-cut get out here so again I'm gonna burn this in up top here just like I did on the bottom I've got these tiles just cut a little bit narrower because they're gonna butt into the front of this mosaic in the back kind of tedious but just take your time I'm gonna actually put more on this tile so I'll back butter it and then all place some more and notch it just because it's easier I'm working over my head excess on there and this one obviously doesn't need to be sloped or anything so it's just gonna it's just gonna sit up top there water is you're gonna sit on it or anything about that double check which is my front edge just get stuck up there almost times that will stay there but you usually just cut a little piece of something to go in just to give it a little bit of support so it doesn't fall out just got to make sure I'm not crushing that bottom that we set so the mean slope just making sure which piece is which put these little guys in clean up a little bit splitter sticking out so and then I've just got to cut some pieces to fit in this side there's on the two sides now remember that your bottom edge is gonna have a slight slope on it for this I can simply use a snap card we do have a video on using this snap cutter too if you need a little more information on how to use it very good for any kind of just basic straight cut check all right fine tape so same idea all over again bring it in notch it in there nice and square to where you're happy a little bit of a spacer underneath it just lift it up a hair there okay same thing for this one just just push in my little pieces on the top and bottom a little bit so to play with that should be good double check all these ones okay blop off of there so there you basically got your got your nice all tiled obviously it's got to set up a little bit for overnight until you can grout it or anything but then when you go out it you just have to grow it all your joints you're gonna have joints all the way around the back edges there as well and for the front edges here there's a few different options you could some people will this isn't a full tile but some people will just tile you know kind of do a butt joint here on the front edge most most tiles the edges aren't that nice so you may not want those exposed there's metal trim that you can put around there you could use some little pencil decorative tiles kind of whatever you want to do with it in our case we're going to be using a quad ech metal trim around there and you can see that if you watch our video on tiling shower walls okay so that wasn't too bad but we wanted to kind of separate this out of the main video and just deal with the niche itself seeing as you kind of have to do at first anyways before you tile the wall so I think that's all I can really tell you so hopefully this video showed you what you needed to do on your niche project and it's helpful and if it is we'd appreciate if you click the thumbs up below if you have any questions about this video you can go to our forum and post your question up there if you just want to make a comment make a comment below check out our social media and if you want to do that little bit extra for us to help us continue to make these great videos you can check out our patreon campaign as well so appreciate you watching and we'll see you in the next video\n"