How To Install Glass Block Shower Wall

How to Install a Glass Block Shower

Updated: Jun. 24, 2022

A curved wall creates a unique bathroom expanse

Woman in a robe dries her hair after walking out of a glass block shower Family Handyman

A glass block wall installation can turn an ordinary bathroom into a dramatic showpiece. Step-by-footstep photos and clear instructions show how to do it.

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About glass block

Molten glass was get-go injected into glass block molds in 1937, and drinking glass block has been a staple of contemporary compages e'er since. Although other edifice fads come and go, glass cake continues to capture the imagination of designers, builders and homeowners.

The smooth, impervious nature of glass block makes it a fantastic substitute for ceramic tile in a shower. With its patterns and sparkle, the block itself is cute, and it allows natural light to flood through the walls into the shower.

Before you lot begin, stock your tool belt with plenty of patience. Glass cake work is a skill that's very aggravating to main. Blocks tin can't be cutting or trimmed, and their nonabsorbent nature makes mortar piece of work peculiarly tough. But if you don't endeavor to rush the job, your work tin look every bit adept equally whatsoever professional person'southward.

A annotation on installing new bathrooms: Earlier you run out to purchase a truckload of drinking glass block, exist aware that converting a bedroom into a bathroom requires extensive piece of work beyond the plumbing. You may accept to reroute heating ducts, eliminate existing windows, shift electrical outlets and remove peradventure load-bearing interior walls. Run the design by a building inspector to get the necessary permits and inspection schedule. Ane other warning: If you lot plan on taking long showers using 2 shower heads, you might need another 40-gal. water heater.

Editor's Notation: For information on building the shower base and tiled wall shown in this article, see How to Build a Shower Pan.

Glass Block Bathroom Before and Later

A shower the size of this i won't fit in an average-sized bath. Ours was fabricated possible by stealing the bedroom of a higher-bound lad. His loss became his parents' luxury!

Glass block nuts

This shower uses the most common, widely available fashion of glass block: the 8 x viii-in. "Decora" pattern manufactured past Pittsburgh Corning. We used two types of specialty blocks for the ends and the outside corners of walls. Cease blocks have rounded profiles on one edge; end curve blocks have two rounded edges and one rounded corner (see Photo10). The blocks have a nominal dimension of viii 10 eight-in., which means that the actual block is a bit smaller. When 1/iv in. of mortar is added, the dimension of the block plus mortar is eight full inches. Because blocks can't exist cutting, you need to advisedly consider the length and width of new and existing walls well before pursuing the project. Planning the height and width of your shower is absolutely disquisitional, particularly if you're going to exist filling the infinite betwixt two walls or between the floor and ceiling. Because our shower didn't reach the ceiling and wasn't contained by walls, our pattern was very forgiving.

Bank check online or at local home centers for the hardware, mortar and block for this project. Yous can also call a brickyard. It'll either sell glass block or know who does. Your retailer volition aid calculate the amounts of mortar, block and hardware you'll need for your project as well as stock the pro-quality tools required.

The job will become much smoother if you purchase a few of the tools used by the pros. You'll want a brick trowel, a mortar joint hitting tool and a small plastic mortar-mixing box with a hoe. Good ii-ft. and four-ft. levels are essential to keep the blocks level and plumb as yous set them.

Lay out the glass block grid on the floor

Drinking glass Brick Wall Photograph i: Check the layout

Dry out-fit glass cake to check the layout using temporary 1/four-in. spacers. Note that the 1/4-in. spacing is used on the inside of the curve. That leaves a minimal grout line in the shower and 5/eight-in. grout lines on the outside of the wall.

Glass Brick Wall Photo 2: Level the blocks

Employ mortar nearly 1/two in. thick along a three- or four-block length, and then jerk and drag the point of your trowel down the eye of the bed to spread information technology out a bit. Butter the finish of each block (see Photo 3) and lay iii blocks on the mud bed. Tap on a level (setting it on a directly, flat board) across all three blocks to level and evenly set the tops.

Glass Brick Wall Photograph 3: Buttering the blocks

Butter blocks by filling the middle of the previous block with mortar. Fill up the middle of the next block, and then build up the edges by dragging the partially filled trowel over the outside of the block lip.

To get a feel for the size and pattern of the finished walls, we used a chalk line to snap a total-scale grid of the eight-in. block wall on the floor. It helped the states establish the stair-stride design on the curved wall and fabricated it easy to count each blazon of cake needed for the project. Counting the rows as well told u.s. the quantity of console anchors, spacers and panel reinforcing we needed. When you're planning the overall size of the drinking glass cake walls, go on in mind that the 8-in. dimension only allows for 1 mortar joint per block. Yous have to add another 1/iv in. for each wall and ceiling joint. Make 8-in. marks on the wall to establish the height for each row (Photo two). Plastic spacers don't work on curved walls (for alternatives, see "Glass Block Hardware," below). Special, but spendy, curved glass blocks or iv x viii-in. blocks are bachelor for tighter curves, if y'all need them.

Build and tile the shower base of operations

Photograph iv: Plumb and level equally you lot work

Plumb each block and keep the sides straight by checking with a 2-ft. level. Make adjustments to your drinking glass block installation past lightly tapping on the block with the cease of the trowel. Tap the blocks downward slowly. If they go too low, you have to pull them out and start over.

Photo 5: Make full joints with mortar

Fill joints and spacer holes by dropping a dollop of mortar into the joint and smoothing over the elevation.

Photograph 6: Strike the joints

Strike joints past dragging a hitting tool over the joints about a half hour after setting. Use a soft brush to dislodge loose grout.

Find details for the construction of this shower base in How to Build a Shower Pan.

Nosotros decided to tile the unabridged shower base and walls before starting on the glass cake. That way, tile on the walls that would meet the glass block could be rough-cut to width, because nosotros ended the tile behind the block (Photo 9). The block butts into the tile and eventually the seam volition be sealed with a bead of clear silicone caulk. On the flooring, in the dry out-off area, nosotros could likewise rough-cutting tile that would run partially under the glass block wall. The advantage of this method is that tiling goes quicker and easier if in that location aren't any walls to walk around. Withal, doing the tile first means having to protect it while yous practice the block work. Utilise masking tape to hold cardboard together and to cover whatsoever nearby tile.

Glass Cake Hardware

All the hardware you need to build drinking glass block walls will exist available wherever y'all buy your drinking glass cake.

Console Reinforcing: Information technology looks like a galvanized wire ladder, and yous'll need to lay it on summit of every other row of cake earlier applying the mortar. Panel reinforcing ties the rows of block together and strengthens the whole wall.

Spacers: Edifice straight walls is much easier because you tin use plastic spacers made specifically for glass block. Use the T-shaped spacers for spacing drinking glass blocks from adjoining floors and walls. Cut one leg from T-shaped spacers to brand L-spacers for spacing corner blocks from walls, ceilings and floors. Use regular spacers for block-to-cake intersections. Manufactured block spacers won't work for curved walls. Employ carpenter's pencils or ane/iv-in. plywood spacers as temporary guides. Remove them before striking joints, then tuck mortar into the voids.

Panel Anchors: These metal straps tie the block walls to existing walls and are installed every second row.

Mix a half-hour'south worth of mortar at a fourth dimension

Photograph 7: Add together reinforcing

Lay reinforcing wire in every other horizontal row. Cut out pocket-size lengths of the side leg of the panel bracing to make bends for curved walls.

Photograph 8: For directly walls, utilise plastic spacers

Skid plastic spacers into the moisture mortar before laying the side by side bed of mortar.

Photo 9: Anchor to the wall

Bend sharp ninety-degree corners on panel anchors and fasten them with 2-one/2 in. galvanized drywall screws through the drywall into the backer boards. Tip: Use a glass block vinyl expansion strip, or rake out mortar and caulk cake to wall to preclude cracking.

Photograph ten: Clean the block

Sponge joints and excess mortar from the blocks well-nigh an 60 minutes later setting. Rinse and wring out the sponge frequently. Allow film to dry on the blocks, so smooth them with a soft towel. Caulk tile/block joints with clear silicone afterwards vii days.

When you're learning the ropes, mix just a couple of java cans' worth of mortar at a time. Add enough water to the mortar so that it will slowly slide off the trowel when you lot hold it vertically. The pros will put an accelerator into the mix to speed upward the setting fourth dimension, merely rookies should play it safe and use the extra time to gear up, level, plumb and suit the blocks.

Wear condom gloves when working with mortar, and prophylactic spectacles to avoid adventitious splashes in the eye. Constantly work the mortar mix with the trowel to keep it smooth and consistent. Don't do more than two rows of block at a time, or the weight of the top rows will crusade mortar to squish out of lower joints. (Later an hour or so, the mortar will harden enough to allow another couple of rows.) Permit the mortar sit about a half-hour (or until the mortar starts to stiffen) before hitting the joints with the hit tool. Then go over the whole surface with a soft brush to remove loose chunks. Wait some other one-half-60 minutes before smoothing mortar joints with a sponge. After the mortar dries to a haze on the blocks, polish the cake with a clean, dry towel. You don't take to consummate all these steps before starting to set other rows. While you lot're laying more cake, pause occasionally and go back to perform these tasks on previous blocks. To a higher place all else, continually check all blocks to be sure they're aligned, plumb and level.

When your shower wall is done, wait a week, then apply a loftier-quality silicone grout sealer to the shower side of the wall to foreclose mildew and stains from ruining the appearance of the mortar. Y'all can apply the shower in the meantime—a few showers that calendar week won't harm the grout.

Required Tools for this glass block bathroom projection

Accept the necessary tools for this DIY project lined up before you start—you lot'll relieve time and frustration.

You'll likewise need a mortar articulation striking tool, a mortar mixing box, a hoe, a soft brush and rubber gloves.

Required Materials for this drinking glass block bathroom project

Avert last-minute shopping trips by having all your materials ready ahead of time. Here's a list.

Originally Published: June 24, 2022

Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-install-a-glass-block-shower/

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