How to Install a Ceramic Soap Dish in a Shower
No shower should be without a ceramic soap holder. The convenience of having a permanent ledge installed in your shower to place the wet bar of soap is never underestimated. These baked clay devices are readily available wherever you choose to purchase the tile for your shower walls. By far the best time to install a soap holder is when you are placing the tiles on the wall. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Select the tiles and soap holder for your bathroom installation. Soap holders come in various sizes, but often they are square shaped, so that they can fit in a standard sized wall. Because these devices are much larger than a single piece of tile, most holders are designed to go with a certain sized tile and they usually come with some decorative border tiles. Most likely the tile salesman will supply you with a holder and a border that fits precisely inside the pattern of tile that you are using in your bathroom.
For example, if you are using tile that is 4 ¼ inches square, then you might want to purchase a border that is 1 inch wide and a soap dish that is 6 inches square. -
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Make sure the wall surface is secure and ready to take an application of tile adhesive. The most common surfaces are plywood and water-resistant sheetrock. If you are using sheetrock it has to be taped, finished and dried before the tiles can be installed. In either case, applying a coat of sealer paint is also a good idea before you begin the tile installation.
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Apply the tile adhesive to one wall section at a time. Use a serrated trowel to apply the adhesive. Apply the adhesive with short curved strokes until the whole wall is covered.
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Start placing the tiles in rows, working from the bottom to the top. Each tile should be set about an eighth inch apart to allow for some grout. In a shower the soap dish height will be at something around four feet in height and in will located on the side wall towards the rear of the shower enclosure. Sometimes the soap holder is actually placed on the rear wall of the shower, so in this case place the soap dish about dead center.
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Set the dish in place, as you work your way up the wall. Start placing tiles into the layer of adhesive one at a time, beginning at the bottom and working your way up. Do this in a neat and orderly way and when you arrive to the placement position of your dish, put it in place like it was just another tile. Be sure to start the border first, then place the holder and then finish the border. Sometimes you may have to cut one of the border pieces.
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Tips & Warnings
Be sure the adhesive is dry and the tiles are set before you apply the grout.
Make sure the walls that surround the tub or shower are sound and waterproof. This may require some extra blocking before the wall sheathing is applied.
