Home » House Interior » Basement » How to Finish a Basement Bathroom – Tile the Shower and Floor

How to Finish a Basement Bathroom – Tile the Shower and Floor

Bob Jackson
Last Updated on
by Bob Jackson

How to Finish a Basement Bathroom: Laying porcelain tile in the shower stall and floor.

This project is continued from How to Finish a Basement Bathroom – Part 4.

Basement Bathroom: Tile the Shower and Floor

I set the tile in the basement bathroom shower stall first, beginning with the walls so there was no worry about dropping thinset mortar on the shower stall floor. The white dots are plastic tile spacers. The Latitcrete 255 Multimax thinset does an incredible job of holding the tiles in place even with no sag. Pulling off a newly set tile to check the mortar bond is a challenge.

I won’t cover the basics of laying tile here because there are many tutorials and books on the subject.

The tile was laid from the top of the stall, working my way down to the floor such that the most visible rows were whole tiles.

Finish a Basement Bathroom: Tiling the Shower Walls
Finish a Basement Bathroom: Tiling the Shower Walls

The basement bathroom shower stall after laying the tiles:

How to Finish a Basement Bathroom: Shower Stall Tile
How to Finish a Basement Bathroom: Shower Stall Tile

The basement bathroom tile floor pattern uses three different tile sizes. I marked a center line the length for alignment and trial fitted the floor pattern:

Basement Bathroom: Dry Fitting the Floor Tile Pattern
Basement Bathroom: Dry Fitting the Floor Tile Pattern

The field tile was walked the length of the room to the doorway following the center line I marked on the floor. The tiles lined up perfectly with no cuts!

Finish a Basement Bathroom: Lay out the Floor Tile Pattern
Finish a Basement Bathroom: Lay out the Floor Tile Pattern

The porcelain floor tile has been laid with thinset and is almost finished. I have a final row of 2 inch x 2 inch row to set along the right wall, a couple of cuts to make around the soil pipe for the toilet. Notice the bathroom door is removed for an unobstructed work space.

Basement Bathroom Floor Tile before Grouting
Basement Bathroom Floor Tile before Grouting

The porcelain tile is grouted and the bathroom door is reinstalled:

Basement Bathroom Floor Tile after Grouting
Basement Bathroom Floor Tile after Grouting

The basement bathroom shower stall and floor tile after grouting:

Finish a Basement Bathroom: Shower and Floor after Grouting
Finish a Basement Bathroom: Shower and Floor after Grouting

Up Next

Having built the shower stall and laid the tile, the hard part of the finishing the basement bathroom is done. My remaining tasks for this project are to install the:

  1. Shower valve and shower head.
  2. Sewage ejector pump and sewage line connections.
  3. Hot and cold water plumbing connections.
  4. Set the vanity, sink and toilet.
  5. Vanity lights and switch.

This project is continued in How to Finish a Basement Bathroom – Part 6.

Enjoy!
Bob Jackson

basement bathroom tile installationcement backer board for tilehow to build a shower stallhow to lay wall tile for bathroomlaticrete
Bob Jackson
Bob Jackson
Technology product manager by day and a prolific handyman in the evenings and over the weekends. Bob was the founder of the original Handyman How To website and that tradition continues on this site with excellent new handyman content into the future.
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *