Shower Glass Block Wall

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Stat Man

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Looking to build two glass block walls for a tiled shower. Both walls would be anchored only on the bottom and one side. Has anyone used any of the mortarless glass block installation systems?
 

Jadnashua

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My personal opinion is that's not a great idea. I'd discuss this at www.johnbridge.com Tile Your World website...there are a number of people that have done showers with glass block and you'll get some helpful opinions from tiling pros.
 

JohnfrWhipple

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8-hme.gif


Love this cartoon.
 
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Stat Man

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I followed the link and looked at some of the shower projects. When I click on "View Easy-To-Use Installation Guide" it brings up the ProVantage II info. Isn't ProVantage II a mortarless system?
 

Jadnashua

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If your glass block walls are going floor to ceiling, then they'll have decent support...but, if they are free-standing, and terminate below the ceiling, then I think you'll have problems...fall against it once, and it might just come down.
 

Jadnashua

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You will find most of the helpful posters have none and most of these men will suggest you download an EBook. $10.00 for "Beer Drinking Advice" & "Kerdi Know How" which for the record are both online for free everyday.

If you are talking about John's COPYRIGHTED book, then if it is available free, it is illegal. He, rightfully, charges a nominal fee for it. If you feel comfortable stealing it, then that's up to you.
 

Basement_Lurker

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If you are talking about John's COPYRIGHTED book, then if it is available free, it is illegal. He, rightfully, charges a nominal fee for it. If you feel comfortable stealing it, then that's up to you.

... uhh I believe he was referring to the fact that that there is plenty of free kerdi and tile setting info available on the net, like on youtube! And I do own a copy of John's tilesetting book, as well as a copy of his kerdi book. Both are excellent and worth more than he charges for them, I just wish his books included more pictures and examples.

happy chrismahanukwanzakah
 

Dunbar Plumbing

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I've been called out to homes with water leaks originating from bathrooms that reveal glass block installations, and 100% of the time the installer incorrectly performed the work.

I'm 3 for 3 on diagnosing these on the ones that people thought it was instantly a plumbing leak, which in essence it was a block-meets-floor leak or block-intersects-wall.

Setting that wall on just subfloor instead of 1" of solid wood was to blame, most times. No expansion joints (siliconed instead of mortared) was another fault in the design.


The last one I diagnosed, they ended up tearing the whole shower down and doing it over. How's that for doing it twice.
 

Stat Man

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Thanks for all the info so far!!!

I'm planning on these glass block walls (maybe 1/2 walls is a better descriptor) sitting on top of 30" or 36" high stub walls (correct terminology?). I was hoping to also have 1x6 granite slabs on top of those stud walls to act as the base for the glass block. Any issues with doing this?
 

Stat Man

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Here's a rough floorplan. The "S" is the showerhead, "C" is the curb, "=" are the glass block walls on the pony walls. It will be roughly 50" wide (left to right), 48" from the top to the first glass block wall, and 80" overall length (top to bottom).
 
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Jadnashua

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For the record, I (as indicated in my tag line) am a retired, defense industry systems engineer. Spent a lot of time with highly complex systems and have a good idea how things work and how they go together. I get nothing from either Terry or John Bridge for my posts on either forum. I found both of these websites years ago when I was beginning some remodeling projects, and read a huge amount of info to try to learn how to do things the right way. In the process, I did take a class at the TCNA facility that was sponsered by Schluter. I was exposed to various methods, but found Kerdi to be both available and it just met my criteria as a good, reliable, robust system. I push people to John Bridge's site when a tiling question comes up because it is populated with a great amount of professional tilemen, and you'll get a huge background in opinion and a fairly quick turnaround including more than one opinion. If you take the time to read my posts, I never profess myself as a plumbing, etc., pro, but most of the time, I'm pretty accurate (and, I hope, well intentioned). I get nothing from Schluter if I promote their products, either...I just believe they do make a good one, but offer other choices in most cases. Many of the pros on the Tile Your World website have been in the business for decades, and many of them have come to believe in surface membranes, with Schluter being the most popular. They will help you build a conventional shower as well as any other approved method, and include an extensive amount of info in the 'Liberry' on that. There are people here that feel they got bad advice there - but, my feeling is that either they took the advice the wrong way, or they didn't stick around long enough to let the alternatives be presented to them. Just like here, and any forum, sometimes the first answer may not be the greatest, and if you don't stick around, you may get a bad impression or even totally incorrect info.
 

Stat Man

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Will you have an open entry (ie no curtain or door)?

With the pony walls design and the direction of the water I would not be installing your 1"x6" granite on top of the pony wall but instead installing it flush with the top of the pony wall and pitched into the room in all directions. These glass blocks will need to anchor to the ceiling in my opinion or you will have a weak structure.

This Pony wall as well should be a tank to begin with. What size glass block will you be using?

Do you have access from below? Who will be doing the framing or wood work?

What size tile have you chossen? For this layout I would be looking at 4"x4" or 2"x2" tile for a standard drain or Kerdi Drain. If you prefer larger format tile a channel drain or some extra tile cuts will be needed to make the pitch work.

Are you building a bench in that back corner? Any Shampoo niches?

JW

Open entry
I know what flush means, but not sure I get the distinction your talking about.
6x6 for walls, 1x1 or 2x2 for floor.
The glass block is 8x8x4. One wall will have 24 blocks, the other 18. Wanted to stop these walls about a foot short of the ceiling, any way to do that?
Yes, a bench in the corner. Two niches.
No access from below, and I'm doing the framing.
 

Stat Man

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So it's time to build my pony walls. One will be 25" wide and 35" tall, the other will be 33" wide and 35" tall. Both will be perpendicular to the floor joists and each will attach to full height walls on one end. Is there a way to make these walls rigid without opening up the floor to attached studs to the floor joists?
 
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