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The kit was missing several things: the panel strengthening strips, the foam expansion strips, and whatever they expected you to finish the top course with. Reinforcing strips were improvised out of leftover stainless steel flashing from my roof, and the foam expansion strips we skipped, since this SIP house is very rigid and hardly moves; also that way the block edges will be mortared directly to the cement board without a foam strip between them. To finish off the top row, I'm using glass block caps ("stylecaps"). These should have been provided! I had neglected to include studs in the walls for the glass block supports to screw to. Oops! So, they're screwed directly to the cement board with #12 × 2" SS screws. With a properly sized pilot hole, the screws grip well in the ½" cement board. The kit only provided cheap zinc-plated hardware; I used SS equivalents instead. |
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| Here's some more of Monica's work | |||
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The fiberglass shower pan is all over the place. The curbs which the
glass block rests on are not level, and not even consistently off-level.
Sometimes they slope in, sometimes out. Since the spacers sit right
on the curb, and the blocks sit right on the spacer, this is a problem.
So, much shimming of the first course was needed. Aside from that, the
straight wall went pretty well. We decided to stop at nine courses
(the plan called for ten), and step the top outside corner since it was
getting tall and crowding the light fixture. Also, with steps you'll
be able to look out the window from inside the shower.
The second wall section, which was half straight and half curved, was a complete nightmare. Aside from the pan being even wonkier on this section and needing yet more fussy shimming, the plastic block spacers for the curved part do not fit! They are meant for some other curve: if you bang the blocks together until they're tight to the spacer, it forms the wrong curve! So, there have to be gaps around the spacers. Also, it turns out the curved glass blocks don't have flat tops and bottoms! They're sloped, as if the blocks could be turned sideways and used for a gentle curve. So, they don't even sit on the spacers in back. The spacers for the curved section were next to useless, very frustrating. On both walls, the end blocks were a real pain: since they're only mortared on one side, they want to fall away and get out of plumb. They need to be checked and fixed and checked and fixed over and over. What was planned to be a two-day job turned into a three-day job, and we gave up at 2:30am on the third (fourth!) day. Monica needed to get back to her real job, and we will finish the final two courses later. This gives me time to supply the glass caps. This was definitely a high-skill, difficult job, not for the beginner or the easily frustrated. I'm so grateful for the help, thank you Monica! If you seek a mosaic artist in Northern California, do consider Monica. |
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| Reading Instructions | Work Area Prepped | SS Reinforcements | Mixing Mortar |
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| First Block! | Three Blocks Done | Reinforcing Strips | Five Courses Done |
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| First Wall Done | 2nd Wall/1st Block | Two Courses Done | Four Courses Done |
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Time passes, and Monica is back to finish the glass block. We just had the top two rows on the curved wall left, plus the stylecaps that finished the tops. It's now down, except for cleanup-- and I love the results, thank you so much Monica! The original kit called for 10 rows, but we left off the top since it was crowding the ceiling. We also stepped back the two walls to make it more open inside, and to keep from crowding the light fixture. Now, from the shower, you can see out the window. View's not that terrific yet (just rocky bank and some buck brush), but I'm going to improve it, dig a ledge there and put something to look at. |
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| Walls Finished | stylecaps | Installing stylecaps | End Block stylecap |