Shower Bead: ‘A nice, clean, smooth, flat look all the way around’

Not long ago, we visited the tallest residential high-rise in Milwaukee, Wisc., where contractors were putting the finishing touches on many of its 322 apartments. In gigantic towers like this one, individual units are going to vary in size and levels of luxury — here, they range from 2,350 square feet down to 576 — but they are all going to share one thing: at least one bathroom with a tub and/or shower.

Shower enclosures can be trickier, and more time-consuming, than one might expect. So, for contractor Common Links, they needed to ensure that they could easily tackle these areas, making them look great with minimal slowdowns. To help them achieve this tall task for their tower’s numerous bathrooms, they discovered Trim-Tex’s Shower Bead.

Read on to found out why the drywall crew for Milwaukee’s tallest tower called Shower Bead "a great product" and "very easy to work with"!

The problem: angled flanges and ‘ramped’ drywall

The two crucial elements required for finishing multi-unit bathroom showers like these are (1) to fully seal off the enclosure so that no water can leak into the drywall, and (2) to create a totally seamless, flat look all the way around the enclosure. Of course, these are easier said than done.

To seal off the enclosure from moisture, normally you’re talking about a multi-step process, involving filling the gap between the tub and the drywall with hot mud, taping it and finishing it with something like a Tear Away L Bead. (This is as messy and time-consuming as it probably sounds.)

To achieve that perfectly flat look, you’re talking about a lot of time and material spent “feathering out” your mud to compensate for the hump caused where the drywall meets the raised shower flange. Even then, a trained eye will probably notice the sloped area.

Shower Bead is the single solution to solving both these problems.

“Shower Bead — this is my first time using it ever,” Common Links Taper Foreman Mitch Groenke told us. “What you have is, they have a fiberglass insert that goes around and it has a lip on it, and normally, when you put drywall over that lip, it pops out the drywall. It's got an angle. Now, they can butt the drywall up to it, and that Shower Bead has such a big flange on it that we just go right over it. It's a nice, clean, smooth, flat look all the way around so [the drywall] doesn't look like it's ramped anymore.”

The solution: Shower Bead — ‘I think it's a great product.’

Shower Bead works so well for multi-unit projects like this Milwaukee high-rise because it’s been specifically designed to make it less messy, less complicated and faster to finish tubs and showers. (Though you can use it to span any gap two inches or smaller.) It does this by bridging the gap between fiberglass enclosures and drywall; its highly durable vinyl flange provides a protective shield that’s far more efficient than filling in the gap with mud.

Shower Bead is installed using half-inch staples and 847 Spray Adhesive. After installing the bead, apply at least two coats of joint compound and, once dried, sand for a smooth finish. Then rip away the bead’s attached tear-off strip, leaving behind a clean, finished edge. Apply a small bead of caulk along the edge to finish sealing off the gap from moisture.

By using vinyl materials from Trim-Tex here, you’re accomplishing a few things. First, a vinyl bead cannot serve as a food source for mold, the way paper tape would in moisture-rich environments like bathrooms. Second, these beads are built to last, looking great for the long haul. And third, fiberglass enclosures are not always perfectly straight or uniform — vinyl beads afford you some measure of flexibility for a flawless finish every time.

“There's a lot of times your fiberglass is a little wavy and you can adjust to it and all that — it's nice,” Mitch says. “It’s very adjustable, very easy to work with … We used to [mud] everything and pack it all and then tape it and then put Tear Away around. This was just one step: put the Shower Bead on and then just coat it from there. I love it. I think it's a great product.”