And you’ll never guess where from!
You’ve seen the barnwood walls and shower enclosure, but I haven’t yet mentioned the pebble shower floor project!
“Oooh, you know what would be really cool for the shower floor in the guest bathroom?” was how that started!
Joe shakes his head.
As much as he just rolls with my ideas most times, there have been times in the many projects we’ve taken on in our home when I’ll get the “Oh Baby, I don’t know about that!” look.
And this was one of them.
Into every building and gardening center I could think of…. “You don’t have pebbles? You know? Small smooth beach pebble – river rock – in bags? No, no, not crushed rock!” While too amused at the image of guests standing on a crushed rock shower floor, I said nothing! I learned long ago that you don’t discuss your ‘out-of-the-box’ project plans with building experts as they too, sometimes give you ‘the look’.
The Stones
I was so sure that I had seen bags of pebble somewhere in my local travels but where was it?
And then the “aha!” moment…
DOLLARAMA!
We have 2 building centers, 2 department stores and 2 Dollaramas in our little town. And lucky for me, both Dollaramas had them in stock.
I purchased all they had – 10 bags in total knowing that I would have to hand-pick the largest and flattest stones. From the size of the small bags, I would be really lucky if I could gather enough of them for the full shower floor.
The stones would have to be stood on comfortably for approximately 10 minutes for starters – that was my guess as to the average length of time for a shower. And if I couldn’t collect enough from these bags (the only pebbles within miles) well then, I would have to move on to Plan B. But when you’re set on Plan A, most times, there is no Plan B!
And so it began – the hand-curating of each stone, one by one, for smoothness and size.
Once I thought I may have enough together, I laid them out on the shower floor liner to be sure that they would adequately cover the entire floor, and then some. Better to know that BEFORE the grout was poured was my thought!
The Grout
Next in the process, we needed to select a grout that wouldn’t crack or risk the stones working their way loose over time.
After having done my research online, we decided upon an epoxy grout.
Epoxy grout is a little trickier to apply than normal tile grout. It’s extremely thick and any excess of it on the stones would need to be avoided as much as possible as it’s also VERY difficult to remove once on a surface, unlike traditional grout when wet. But, epoxy grout is super tough. It’s made of resins combined with a hardener leaving it waterproof, more resistant to stains and highly durable. For exactly those reasons, it’s the ideal grout for floors, backsplashes and high-traffic and that’s why we chose to go with it.
A thick layer of the grout was laid and I set out very carefully positioning the pebbles in the bed of fresh grout. And I do mean carefully. One try is all you get with this stuff or you buy new stones. That was not an option in my case!
One by one, I began positioning the flatter stones from the center of the floor, keeping comfort underfoot in mind as well as the slope of the floor for proper drainage as I worked my way out to each corner.
Once all stones were in place and adequately covered the surface of the floor, we let them set according to the grout manufacturers directions.
72 hours later for curing, and it was ready!
Altho the grout did not call for a sealer, we did apply one once all had set to give the stones and grout a unified sheen.
The Finished Floor
We SO love this floor and our guest bathroom was the perfect spot for it with its barnwood walls, shower surround and sliding barn door.
The total cost of the pebbles was approximately $30. The stones that we had leftover from the selection process were used elsewhere in our landscaping and in candle jars, so nothing went to waste! The epoxy grout was the most expensive part of the whole project but in our opinion, well worth the minor extra expense.
And I got the floor I was so hoping for!
Final Thoughts
A few notes to be taken for this project:
– Once you’ve selected the best stones, they should be washed to remove any trace of foreign coating. With a large bucket of liquid dish soap and hot water, we scrubbed them well with a scrub brush and laid them out on a canvas dropcloth to dry for a few days.
– You need to be sure that your shiny new drain is completely taped off as you’re applying the epoxy grout because once on, there is little chance of simply wiping it off. But we were prepared for that.
– Wiping your hands often while you’re laying the pebbles is a good idea as any grout on your fingers will surely transfer to the stones. It’s best to have rubbing alcohol on hand and a clean cloth to remove any excess from your fingers and the stones before the grout has a chance to dry. That, we weren’t quite prepared for.
Aside from the removal of the excess grout which turned out to be the most painstaking part of the project, it was a super fun, rewarding and budget friendly project and the floor lends itself really well to the overall scheme of the room.
We have yet to build the corner shower bench to finish off that room. And wall art is still needed. Add that to the never-ending list of unfinished projects but we’ll get there…
We will…
One day…
Soon…
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