Shower service
Custom Tile Showers
Tile layouts drawn to the room, with niches, benches and edges detailed before the first sheet goes up.
Short answer
A custom tile shower is one where the tile layout is planned around the room's real dimensions rather than started in a corner and cut wherever it lands. That means the course heights, the niche position, the bench height and the edge treatment are all decided on paper first, so the finished shower has full tiles where the eye goes and cuts where it does not.
The layout is the design decision
Two showers can use the identical tile and look nothing alike. The difference is where the layout starts. We dry-lay the pattern, set the course heights against the niche and the bench, and center the field so awkward slivers end in the corners where they read as shadow lines rather than mistakes.
- 1Measure the finished substrate, not the framing, so the plan reflects the real wall.
- 2Set the horizontal datum from the most visible line — usually the niche shelf or the bench top.
- 3Balance the field so the cuts at both ends of a wall match each other.
- 4Decide every edge treatment up front: mitered tile, metal profile, or a bullnose piece.
- 5Confirm the grout joint width against the tile's actual variation before setting anything.
Niches and benches are waterproofing details
A niche is a hole cut into the wet wall and a bench is a horizontal surface inside the spray zone. Both are the places showers leak first when they are treated as carpentry rather than as part of the waterproofing envelope.
- Niche shelves get a slight forward pitch so water drains out rather than pooling on the ledge.
- The niche is waterproofed as a continuous tray, with the membrane lapping out onto the wall plane.
- Benches are sloped, fully waterproofed on all faces, and supported so they do not flex when someone sits down.
- Blocking goes in behind anything you will lean on, before the wall is closed up.
Grout, sealing and Treasure Valley water
Much of the Treasure Valley is on hard water, and that shows on shower surfaces as mineral film long before anything is actually wrong. Material choices can reduce how visible that is and how much scrubbing the shower asks of you.
- Larger tile with fewer joints leaves less texture for mineral deposits to sit in.
- Mid-tone grout hides film better than bright white or very dark grout.
- Higher-performance grouts resist staining and do not require the annual resealing that cement grout does.
- Matte and honed surfaces show spotting less than high-gloss glaze on the same wall.
No tile or grout is maintenance-free. What good selection buys you is a shower that still looks clean between cleanings, not one that never needs cleaning.
Where we build this
We install custom tile showers across Idaho’s Treasure Valley. These city pages explain what we typically find in each area’s housing stock.
Frequently asked questions
Related shower reading
Thinking about custom tile showers?
Tell us about the shower you have and the one you want. We will come back with questions, then arrange to see the room before anything is quoted.