For the past few years, pebble mosaic tiles have been littering Houzz and Pinterest with clever quotations like “spa feel in your bathroom”… They’re wildly popular and rampantly pinned. So why, in my humble opinion, should you never install pebble shower floors? Allow me to explain…
First let me say, I love the look of the pebble shower floors. And I’m not claiming that they can never, ever look good. However, I have pulled them from several homebuilder’s product offerings because of the problems that they can cause. If you’re considering a bathroom renovation and a pebble shower floor is on your wishlist, here are some things you should know before you take the pebble plunge.
When laid next to each other, pebble mosaics can look like a grid. These pebbles are considered a mosaic, which means they are essentially glued onto a mesh backing and, because they are priced by the square foot, they are cut into roughly 12″x12″ sheets. Because of the organic nature of the pebble shapes, the mosaic pieces are never exactly square and the edges of each sheet are wavy.
This makes installation very difficult, particularly on a shower floor, which is where they are most often used. The edges of the mosaic are all different shapes, so when they are laid next to each other on a shower floor, they do not fit perfectly together. This creates a larger space between the edges of the sheets than between the pebbles themselves, which makes the final installation look like a grid. In order to get a seamless installation, the mechanic would literally have to take individual pebbles off of the sheets and space them by hand. Not likely.
This is not even close to the worst I’ve seen, however you can still clearly see the grid. It becomes even more apparent when it’s wet.
They use a ton of grout. One of the biggest issues that new homebuyers have with tile in general is the grout. They don’t like it, don’t want it, don’t want to clean it. I could go into the plethora of reasons that grout is absolutely necessary for a proper tile installation, but for now I will just say that it’s required. And with pebble shower floors, a TON of it is required.
When we have a pebble tile shower floor installation we use about 2.5 times the amount of grout as a typical 2″x2″ or 3″x3″ mosaic shower floor. So why is this bad? Grout is a cementious product. Cement = porous. Porous = water gets in it. As long as your shower pan (the cement part that’s under the tile) is sloped properly to the drain, this is not a huge deal. But aesthetically it’s not so cute. The grout in the areas where water goes when you shower will stay darker than areas that stay dry. It looks splotchy, and can look dirty. And no one wants to bathe in a shower that looks all funkdified.
They often hold water. The true river rock / raised pebble style does not properly drain. Because the pebbles are raised, water can easily sit between them and not make it all the way to the drain. This means wet grout (see #2) and that grody pink mildew. EW. Realizing this was a big problem, many tile manufacturers have come out with “flat” or “sliced” pebble styles, which are better, buuuuuut… see #1.
So what do you do if you just can’t live one more moment without pebble shower floors? Go with a sliced or flat style pebble for sure. Get an installer who will take the time to place pieces by hand to avoid the grid look. And choose a style with multiple colors of stones. This will help give a more cohesive look in the finished product and avoid color variations from sheet to sheet, which is common with a natural stone product.
Multi-color pebbles help the finished product look more consistent
Did I talk you out of it, or are you still a pebble people? Whatever you choose, I hope these little pebbles of wisdom (sorry, I had to) help make your decision and get the results you want!
As always, thank you for coming along on our Jones Sweet Homes journey and for stopping by the blog today! Be sure to follow us and all of the crazy on Facebook and Instagram so we can be social media BFFs!
Interesting! I’ve never been tempted by the fruit of a pebble floor, and after reading this, I’m definitely never going to go down the pebble brick road. 🙂
I’m a tile setter and I love the look of the pebbles so I did it in my own house and like you said they can look amazing if you take the time to do them right which is what I did and it looks amazing . I can’t stress enough if your going to put pebbles make sure your shower floor has kerdi on it do not use the rubber membrane and drypack method
Nice! How did they turn out? I love the look, just need the extra time to do it right!
Hello Brian, why you don’t recommend the rubber membrane and drypack method, you means mud bead? thanks
Brian
Why do you discourage using a membrane/pack method?
RegRds
I have one of these pebble floors in the master bath shower. It was here when we bought the house. The very first chance I get, I am replacing it. It’s a nightmare to keep clean. Water doesn’t drain well, so there are hard water deposits around each of those freakin’ little pebbles. You can’t use an acidic cleaner to cut the deposits because it eats through the sealant. It takes serious elbow grease and a brush and well over and hour of time to clean around each pebble. Stupid, stupid, stupid idea to install a shower floor like this.
Renee I tend to agree my friend! Sorry it bit ya in the butt!!
Im still doing it, but im installing nn it myself. I had already thought about manually placing rocks at the seams to avoid the fried pattern.
I wish I would’ve found your blog before I tried it! I put pebble flooring in my half bath to give it a rustic look. Our friend laid the floor and grout. It was horrible! It had waves of grout, stones were pulling away from the grout, and he didn’t use a coating on the pebbles before he grouted, so some of the stones were covered with grout. Needless to say, he did a very poor job. So I thought it was the guy who laid the floor. We had him pull it all up, and we started over. This time I used a professional tile guy with over 30 years experience. He laid it beautifully, put a cover over the stones before he laid the grout so the stones would have a light sheen to them. It looked wonderful! Now, not even six months later, however, stones are pulling away from the grout. It always looks dirty, even though we keep it clean. Even with a professional laying the floor, it just didn’t come out very well. VERY disappointed. We found yet a third flooring option, and will be installing that soon. Learned my lesson the hard way!
The local tile display store most definitely does not recommend pebble tiles for shower flooring..unless the customer insists.. One fellow said that you can count on the grout cracking…some where along the line. I love the look and am torn..I do know in my searching you better find tile setter who has done it many times.
Recently, we just purchased a home. But the shower stall floor is dirty, but remodeling is not in enough budget right now. I’d like to do this method on the floor of my shower. By the way, I’ve seen many tutorials, but no one discusses the issue of the drain. I’d be interested in others advice on that. Thanks!
I agree! Installed the pebbles on shower floor four years ago. Same problems as described above. Impossible to keep clean. Having a tile guy look at it next week to replace!
Thanks for sharing your insight… even though a little piece of my heart just broke! We are building and the pebbled floor was a MAJOR asset I wanted in my master (with the creek running behind the house and the country setting, it seemed perfect! Until I read this, of course..)
SOOOO glad I came across this post!! We are in the “planning/designing” part of our remodel and honestly LOVED and was leaning towards the pebbles look in the shower…BUT DEFINITELY NOT after reading this!! lol I really hate grout and trying to find a tile design for shower/bathroom that will be pretty but also functional as far as easy to clean and maintain! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!
Really wanted one of these til I read this. Now I think I’ll keep looking. Thanks for sparing me a bad experience.
I was considering pebbles because I need slip resistance in my shower floor. I’m planning a shower room with zero entry shower. What type of flooring would be safest from slipping? (Not vinyl)
I was considering one for the same reason, but once I saw a sample of the one I liked with the grout in it – ugh, too much grout, it ruined the look. I ended up going with a bee-hive hexagonal-patterned tile. Very happy with it. It gives some traction, without being uncomfortable to walk on. Visually it doesn’t stand out much, which I now feel is good – I would rather have my accent tiles higher up, not on the floor.
Late comment but we bought a house with one and we HATE it. Not only is it a pain to clean, but they did not install the flat rock and it hurts my feet to step in there in the morning!! The rest of the tiling in the shower is wonderful – is there any way to just cover it up or are we stuck with it till we reno?
You can tile over a shower floor once fairly simply with no issues, just need a drain extender!
DO NOT USE PEBBLE SHOWER FLOORS!! I hired a licensed professional contractor in 2017 totally redo both my master shower and guest bath shower. I picked out the river rock aka pebble rocks for both shower floors, looks great, just dont ever use it because the grout will crack and break. my master shower cracked in half, 10 months after he installed it, they had to come and rip out the complete shower pan and redo it. Well that lasted maybe 8 months because that too, cracked, which caused the tile around the shower to crack as water was getting in and under the shower floor… so this time I am NOT using those river rocks and using regular floor shower tiles.
The home we purchased has it in the master shower. I would like to add that it is horribly uncomfortable to stand on…
I just stayed at an airbnb that had a pebble shower floor and found that it hurt my feet. It might be fine for people who are used to going barefoot but if you are not, it will probably be very uncomfortable to stand on. Just another thing to think about if you are considering this type of flooring.
I installed flat honed river rock on my bath floor myself and it came out great. My grout is sand colored to give the feel of a sandy beach with washed up stones from the ocean. I used primarily MSI River Rock along with a few other companies flat honed rocks. I prefer the hone rock as it’s soft on the feet and I find the sheen of a polished stoned actually deters from the depth and textures of the stones. I pulled all of the stones off the mesh webbing and then placed each one individually into the mortar totaling just shy of 1000 stones to create art on my floor that rivals Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer 1. I get complements from anyone who sees it. It was a job and a half but the end results speak volumes.
Oh no! We just purchased rock tile and the receipt says no exchange or returns! I am thinking of alternatives so it doesn’t go to waist but I can’t find any 🥺
I had a few pebbles come out of the grout as well, does anyone know how I would correct this problem? It’s been installed about a year now, I am so annoyed!! I was thinking Gorilla Glue lol
I too was told by a contractor to go with the pebbles. I haven’t ordered them yet. What type of shower flooring do you recommend for a curbless shower? I wanted to put the same tile on the floors as the walls and he didn’t recommend doing that in the shower area. He said it would be too slippery. I definitely don’t want to be cleaning them all the time as i live on the beach.
Nice Post
How about the pebbles on a bathroom wall, but not directly in the shower part? Is there anyone with thoughts on this?
We bought a new build home and the shower floor has the pebble floor as first picture. I do not like it as it holds water even though it’s slanted towards the drain. So how is the best way to clean it as after a few days of cleaning with Ajax the grout turns an orange where the dry parts are a creamy white.
After already disliking the raised pebble floor I installed in my master shower… I was a complete Idiot and installed the same horrible pebble rock in my kids’ shower to save a few dollars when I needed to replace their cracked shower tile floor. So now I get the joy of demoing Both of these showers so I can install a nice, clean prefab shower pan. If you love a clean shower, Do NOT install the raised Pebble Rock on a shower floor. It is Disgusting! The cleaning supplies eat away the grout, and there is So Much Grout! Ugh, one of the worst mistakes ever! Never will I use grout/tile on any floor Ever, Ever again.