Reviewing Schluter's Dilex BWA Expansion Strip: Skylight to Tile Transition

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JohnfrWhipple

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I'm not a huge fan of Schluter's products but on occasion there is a time and a place to use them. My most current build features a large master bathroom renovation equipped with a steam shower. Inside the steam shower is both a skylight and a window. I purchased some of the Schluter Dilex BWA strips in various sizes to help me provide some movement at the critical tile to wall and tile to glass intersections.

What I found was that the strips did not work well at all at the tile to window tie in point. The reason why was because I had a slight ease to the membrane and not a hard 90 degree corner. You can see the profile shape below requires a 90 degree connection.

I thought about cutting the lower section away but this weakened the rubber part of the Dilex BWA profile so for the windows I did it the old fashion way with just some silicone.

For the skylight however these profiles rocked and I loved using them.


The Dilex BWA profiles cut like butter. They are only made from plastic and rubber and I used my box cutter to do all the work. The one feature I like most with these Dilex transition pieces is the slight dovetail on the left hand side. Where the Dilex meets the tile or glass. I found that I could run a bead of silicone here and set the profile quite well against the glass. This same sharp ninety is what I did not like at the wall to window tie in point.

I would like to see the profile designed or redesigned so it can hand a slight easement of the waterproofing membrane and wish the expansion strips did not collect dirt as easily as they seem to do. But with care they can be used very effectively I think.

I will be careful not to scratch these when installing the tile or grout. and I think they will do a great job of reducing any thermal expansion issues in the steam shower build of mine at the tile to glass intersection point.

Using some scrap tile and some fishing line I made plumb lines with the profiles. I designed the installs so the white cap slide into the skylight channel and this made it strong enough to stay put and hold up the two plumb lines on each side.

The plumb lines made it easy to measure the ceiling tile cuts.




In the end I used two of the Dilex BWA per side of the skylight. One for sealing the top cap and giving me a back rest for the silcone. and the second to tile up against. I used 1/4" and 3/8" versions because the skylight's well was framed less than ideally.

I would rate this product a 8 out of 10. With a better design at the bottom and higher quality rubber maybe a ten out of ten. I image getting flexibility and durability is a hard thing to find.

Not to shabby.
 
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JohnfrWhipple

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I'm struggling with this ceiling tile layout. I want to land the steam shower light location within a full tile. But when I do that and avoid a grout joint hitting the light I get a little mis aligned with the South Wall.

I can line up the East Wall grout joints wall to ceiling no problem and the South, same. This looks awesome but gives me a 2" sliver cut across the exit of the shower ceiling (looking West) and a grout joint across the light. If I line up the tile so the main section of ceiling gets full tile (working away from West Side) So no sliver cut 2"x24" piece I also avoid a grout joint on the light. The downside. The wall to ceiling grout joints are 2" offset.

Which Evil is less?

I'm thinking providing a better seal for the light is key. But I really want the grout joints to work.

Was so wishy washy I decided to sleep on it.
 

Jadnashua

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FWIW, tiling profiles were the first products Schluter made and what started the company. The founder was a tile man, and wanted to do some things better. They've undergone numerous enhancements as technology and materials available improved and the line as expanded explosively over the years and are available in plastic, aluminum, brass, and stainless steel. Profiles are much more common in Europe since they transitioned to porcelain a lot sooner than the USA, and few of the manufacturers make bullnose, or trim tiles to complement their tiles. The profile portion of the catalog probably takes up over 100-pages and the warehouse area devoted to them in upstate NY (their US headquarters) takes up a lot of area.
 

ShowerDude

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no slivers . i would stop my grout joint shy of my can by a half inch and silicone the end of grout joints tgat run into can with color match and hide under trim kit.........?
 

JohnfrWhipple

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id say ponder it...


over A 3 Day weekend!!!!!!


I lined up the grout joints and embrace the 2" sliver cuts. When I sketched out the layout I realized the first concern was not there. With the grout joints lining up the steam light will be within a full tile.

That was the key issue for me. With that not join the equation I could not justify the out of alignment and went all in. I'm glad I did because it looks great.
 
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