How to plan and tile a shower (Australia 2026)

Most shower renovations go wrong long before the first tile is laid. They go wrong at the planning stage, when a homeowner walks into a showroom with a Pinterest board and walks out having ordered tile that turns out to be the wrong finish, the wrong size, or the wrong format for the way their shower has actually been built. What this guide does is help you arrive at your tiler, your waterproofer and your bathroom designer knowing what you want to specify, why, and what the trade-offs are.

Waterproofing first — don't skip this

The single most important square metre of any bathroom is the membrane that sits underneath the tile. Tile is not waterproof. Grout is not waterproof. The membrane is what stops water reaching the substrate, the framing, and ultimately the room below. AS 3740 sets the minimum requirements for waterproofing wet areas in Australia, and in most states the membrane must be installed by a licensed waterproofer who issues a compliance certificate at the end of the job. Keep that certificate — you will need it if you ever sell the property.

There are two broad membrane families. Liquid-applied membranes are painted on in two or three coats, with reinforcing fabric at corners and junctions. They are flexible, conform to detail, and are the most common choice in Australian residential bathrooms. Sheet membranes are pre-formed waterproof sheets bonded to the substrate, more often seen in commercial work.

A flood test — the membrane is plugged at the waste and the floor flooded for 24 hours — is cheap insurance and is standard practice on any project worth doing properly. The cost of redoing a leaking shower is the cost of demolishing the bathroom, the wall behind it, and frequently the ceiling below.

Floor falls and drains

Water needs to leave the shower. The minimum fall to the waste under AS 3740 is 1:100 — 10mm of fall over a metre. In practice most tilers aim for 1:80, because a fall that is technically compliant can read as flat once tile is laid and grout takes up some of the height. A flat-looking shower floor pools water, and pooled water finds the one weak point in the membrane.

There are two drainage strategies. A centre waste is the traditional approach, with the floor falling from four edges into a single point in the middle. It works, it is cheap, and it constrains your tile choice. To fall from four directions into one point you need either small mosaics or four-way cuts on every floor tile. Large-format tile and centre wastes do not coexist.

The contemporary alternative is the linear drain, a long slot that runs along one wall. Because the floor only needs to fall in one direction, you can use a single uncut piece of large-format tile across the entire shower floor. The visual effect is calm, continuous and high-end. Linear drains cost more than centre wastes, but on any shower where you intend to use 600×600 or larger floor tile they are effectively mandatory.

Wall tile selection

The sweet spot for contemporary Australian showers is 600×1200mm porcelain in a marble look, stone look or concrete look. At that scale the wall reads as a continuous surface rather than a grid, the grout lines recede, and the bathroom feels larger than it is.

Slip rating matters on the floor and not on the wall. R10 is the minimum slip rating for residential shower floors in Australia. Wall tile has no slip rating requirement — which is why many homeowners run a 600×1200 marble-look porcelain on the walls and a smaller 300×300 or mosaic version of the same tile on the floor — same aesthetic, correct slip rating.

Niches are where homeowners most often overcomplicate. A standard shower niche is around 300×600mm, set roughly 1100mm above the finished floor — high enough to reach comfortably, low enough to be inside the wet zone for waterproofing. One well-placed niche reads as architecture. Four reads as indecision. The back of the niche is the natural place for a feature tile or contrasting finish.

Grout and silicone at junctions

Grout is rigid. Silicone is flexible. Anywhere two planes meet, the joint moves slightly with thermal expansion and building movement, and a rigid grout in that joint will eventually crack. The rule: every change of plane gets silicone, not grout. That means the floor-to-wall junction in all four corners of the shower, the wall-to-wall internal corners, the junction where the shower screen frame meets tile, and the junction where the wall meets the ceiling.

Specify a colour-matched silicone at the time you choose your grout. Most reputable grout manufacturers produce silicone in every grout colour they sell, and matched silicone reads as a continuation of the grout line. This is one of the small details that separates a premium-feeling bathroom from a builder-spec one.

Frameless shower screen or hob

The two dominant configurations are the frameless glass screen and the walk-in shower with no screen. A frameless screen sits on the tiled floor, often with a small hob or with the floor flush. A walk-in shower relies entirely on the fall of the floor and the geometry of the room to contain water — no screen, often no hob, the shower reads as part of the room.

A hob is the most reliable water containment, costs the least, and reads as the most traditional. A flush floor with frameless screen is more contemporary, requires more skilled setting-out, and is easier to clean because there is no hob to wipe around. A walk-in with no screen demands the most precise fall, the longest linear drain, and a bathroom big enough that shower splash does not reach the vanity.

Common mistakes to avoid

• —Skimping on waterproofing. A few hundred dollars saved at the membrane stage is a five-figure repair bill three years later.
• —Wrong adhesive for large-format tile. 600×1200 and larger needs a specific large-format adhesive applied with the correct trowel and back-buttered onto the tile. Standard adhesive on a large-format wall tile produces lippage and eventual debonding.
• —Grouting too early. Adhesive needs to cure before grout goes in, typically 24 hours minimum. Grouting onto green adhesive traps moisture and weakens the bond.
• —No movement joints. Long runs of tile and changes of plane need silicone joints. Tilers who skip them do so to save time.
• —Ignoring the falls. A floor that looks flat is a floor that pools water.
• —No spare tiles from the same batch. Order at least one extra box and keep it labelled. If you ever need a repair, you will be grateful — and the batch will no longer be available from the supplier.

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