24 x 48 into a small shower - thoughts?

Folks,

Bathroom Remodel. We have a small shower area. 40 x 40 x 40 inches with an 8ft height on 3 sides. We’ve seen some 24 x 48 inch tile that we like. Thoughts, experiences on installing large tiles into a small shower area? One contractor we are in contact with does not recommend it into a small shower area and says labor cost will be more to install. Surfing the net I see the opposite, less grout lines, looks cleaner. I know there will be pro’s and con’s with response but I’m always up for gathering info before deciding anything. Our fall back is a 12 x 24 but the design is not as sexy.
Thanks

 

It can look great or it can look---not so great. Just depends on the details. You may have a lot more waste. I suggest you make a scaled drawing and see how the layout goes and how much waste there will be. Tile jobs with large format tiles usually look best when there aren't a lot of smaller pieces. With 40" wide walls and 48" tiles, you won't have any vertical joints at all if you lay them horizontally (except for the corners of course.

 

The largest tiles I have every installed were 18" square, honestly I can not imagine struggling with a piece of tile that large and imagine the cost would have to be greater just because of the complexity of having to cut every piece to fit exactly!

 

To expand on your large tile with few grout joints idea one thing to consider is quartz sheets. It will be expensive because it's closer to granite countertops than tile. Usually for walls the slabs are thinner which helps a little to lower cost but it's still a premium finish. But, it would save the concern of small tile slivers and would offer the minimum grout joints (only the corners). Your floor may still have to be tile to accommodate the slope and might need to be small tile depending on the shape of the floor. This is probably more an issue if you your shower has a mortar bed.

 

Thank you folks. I'll reflect further on this. The fact the space is overall small to work in may play into the maneuverability for the tiler. I have two more contractors quoting so I'll see what they say and go from there.

 

Large tile does not usually look good in a small area.