shower soap tray

Originally Posted by ErrolFlynn

I will be installing a corner positioned ceramic soap dish in the shower. How do you hold it in position while the glue is setting?

Having never done this, I was guessing the dish would tend to fall back off the wall as soon as I had taken my hand away, unless something holds it in position.

I had been planning on letting the adjacent tiles (left, right, and below) set before attempting the soap dish, and then fitting the dish. I was considering using masking tape to keep it in place, maybe even wedging something underneath to take the weight of it while the glue sets. And only when dry would I carry on the tiling higher up the wall.

Masking tape is no good, it is too weak, go for a good quality cloth based gaffa tape, these have high grip.

If you have time fit the surrounding tiles first and let the adhesive go off. Then using your adhesive put the soap dish in place and hold it there with tape for about 24 hours (or until the adhesive holds). The type of tape is not real critical providing it sticks to the surface above.

Originally Posted by Godzilla73

I'm sure he mentioned using glue as well, not just masking tape...

LOL, I have seen one of these just held in by a bit of tape after it fell off and they didn't know how to put it back on, they used a red gaffa tape to match the pink tiles, as they could not find pink gaffa !!!

They did comment they tried duct tape, and masking tape and Gaffa was all that held it up

Just thought of something. Each of the two walls in the shower will be tiled. Each wall will then be grouted, except for the corner. The corner will not be grouted but sealed using silicon because I gather walls may move and it is standard practice to silicone them as it allows some tolerance if the walls move. However, I was planning on gluing the soap dish to both walls with the tile cement and grouting around it. This seems to be at odds with the notion of allowing for walls to move. Perhaps I’m missing something. What is the method of fixing corner shower soap dishes?

Either the soap dish is glued to one wall only, which would seem like a precarious situation. Or I glue it to both walls and risk the soap dish cracking if the walls move. (Catch-22.)

Use sika for the soap dish if its across a corner. They use it on caravans and boats which are subject to constant movement.

Originally Posted by ErrolFlynn

Just thought of something. Each of the two walls in the shower will be tiled. Each wall will then be grouted, except for the corner. The corner will not be grouted but sealed using silicon because I gather walls may move and it is standard practice to silicone them as it allows some tolerance if the walls move. However, I was planning on gluing the soap dish to both walls with the tile cement and grouting around it. This seems to be at odds with the notion of allowing for walls to move. Perhaps I’m missing something. What is the method of fixing corner shower soap dishes?

Either the soap dish is glued to one wall only, which would seem like a precarious situation. Or I glue it to both walls and risk the soap dish cracking if the walls move. (Catch-22.)

It will be fine to glue it on both walls,
I would suggest if you get enough movement in the walls to crack the soap dish then you have a much bigger problem to worry about
Movement of bathroom walls might only be a fraction of a mm, to crack a soap dish you would have to move the walls about 5mm or more.

These soap dishes are pretty dangerous, seen plenty break when fallen against and cause deep lacerations. I personally stick to metal ones

Cheers
Pulse

Originally Posted by Pulse

These soap dishes are pretty dangerous, seen plenty break when fallen against and cause deep lacerations. I personally stick to metal ones

Cheers
Pulse

In the old days they used to come with a single screw hole underneath for fixing

It's on!

And remarkably easy to do so too. The glue does a remarkable job of 'sucking' that my additional support, various props may not have been required, but were used anyway. However, one thing that needs to be checked is drainage from the tray. I knew how much my walls sloped the wrong way in the way I have been cutting my tiles in the corner. So, when the soap tray was on and my tile spacers in place and getting ready to put the kettle on I got myself a glass of water and spoon and carefully spooned in a few tablespoons of water into the tray. With some dissappointment I saw the water accummulate toward the back of the tray. (No one likes soggy soap.) So, I applied some pressure to the lower end of the soap tray until the water began to drain toward the front. Unfortunately the tray now has a slight tilt, but hell, my walls have a slight tilt too. The only other thing I forgot, that an experienced tiler would have considered is the size of the tiles that are surrounding the tray. The corner of this shower has the cut tiles, with whole tiles everywhere else. This means that two tiles have cut outs to accommodate the tray. On one wall the cut out is about 25mm on the other wall the cut out is about 12mm. This worked, and was more of good luck than design or skill on my part. I wouldn't have liked to attempt to cut a tile narrower than 12mm cut out. It may not have looked particularly neat.