How to Tile a Shower Floor and Walls – Which Comes First?

Answer: – R.H., Glad to hear your doing your homework first before tiling your shower. In regards to how to tile a shower floor and walls, first and foremost it is imperative that tiling a shower needs to be done right the first time to prevent leaks and to achieve a professional look.

Too often I hear from site visitors about leaky tile shower pans, or wide grout lines, or unsightly seams.

To answer your question, yes I always tile shower walls first, and the shower floor last. I do this for two main reasons. See my video on how to tile a shower floor and curb.

First, if you tile the shower floor first you’re bound to spill mortar and possibly even drop a tile on it, which could result in a broken shower floor tile.

I set the ledger board at the start of the second row of shower wall tiles.

I do this because the shower floor may not always be perfectly straight and level near the wall edges. As a result, often you may end up with some cut tiles near the bottom edge, next to the shower floor.

Once I have tiled the shower walls, less the bottom row, I then remove the ledger board. After removing the ledger board I tile the bottom row of shower wall tiles, trimming their lower sides as necessary to conform to the contour of the shower pan. Once the shower walls are installed I move on to tiling the shower floor.

By installing shower walls tiles first and the shower floor tiles last I bury the bottom row of cut tiles and possible wall tile seam imperfections.