Alameda Shower, June, 2026

This elevated shower was in the same Alameda home as the DITRA-HEAT large format tile floor and the Italian marble shower surround. The client was a contractor himself and played more of a role in the job than I’d have liked, and a lot of it had to be figured out on the fly.

The room was part of an addition built on pylons in the months before. As I understand it, one of the supports shifted during construction, which threw parts of the structure slightly out of square. By the time I got to the shower, the walls weren’t flat, the corners weren’t right angles, and some of the studs weren’t quite vertical.

Small mosaic tile is what you see is what you get: it reflects exactly what’s underneath it. On a pristine, flat surface, mosaics are fine. On walls that aren’t, they become very problematic, because every dip and bow shows up in the grout lines. This shower had a mosaic strip running around it, and even after floating the walls out ahead of time to bring them as close to flat as I could, getting that band to sit straight and even was a real challenge.

Partway through, the client decided on a double niche. Niches take a lot of time and add little function, and a double niche doubles the problem. With the studs out of plumb, the separator between the two niches ended up with a slight slant that the tile had to be worked around to keep the lines reading straight.

A room like this doesn’t let you fix the framing from the tile side. You float what you can, adjust each piece as you go, and make the best of what the structure gives you. I spent extra time trying to make it right, and it was another job I lost money on.

It’s a good lesson for anyone planning tile in new construction: the tile can only be as square as the room. If the framing is out, fix it before the tile goes up, not after.