Alameda Shower, May, 2026

his shower was the third feature we built in the Alameda home with the DITRA-HEAT large format tile floor and the downstairs shower with the mosaic band. This one about killed me. It’s probably the most complex thing I’ve ever done with tile, a combination of very complicated tile, materials, and conditions.

It’s a large shower built on a pre-sloped pan with a trench drain, and it has horizontal body-spray nozzles, a double niche, and a glass enclosure. The tile is Italian marble throughout: a marble floor, marble backers in the niches, a marble band around the walls, and a marble crown at the top.

There was no Schluter trim and no bullnose tile anywhere. Every exposed edge and bevel, including the niches, the band, and the crown, is finished in pencil tile. Pencil tile looks beautiful, but each piece has to be cut, fitted, and aligned by hand. The niches, the crown, and the pencil framing all take a great deal of time for very little function. They’re worth it only when the client wants that level of detail, and this client did.

Marble adds its own challenges. Natural stone has to be sealed and treated, and it’s harder to cut and set cleanly than porcelain, so every one of those details took longer than it would in another material.

The setting materials weren’t my first choice either. The client chose a Schluter mortar rather than the VersaBond I normally use, and a specialty grout I wouldn’t have picked. Unfamiliar materials behave differently in the bucket and on the wall, and on a job with this many cuts and edges, that adds up.

Anyway, we got through it, and I think the results are good. The marble, the band, and the crown all read as one finished piece, and the pencil detailing gives the whole shower a custom, crafted look you don’t get from metal trim.