Pictured here is a photo of a soap dish that is fast becoming scarce. This photo is from http://www.johnbridge.com. I generally shoot all my own shots but it matters not regarding this story.
What you see here is a "soap dish". That porcelain protrusion that looks and feels like the perfect hand hold, is a "wash rag holder". Lately, these units are getting harder and harder to find as they are considered "vintage" and by greasy ambulance chasers downright dangerous. In reality however, you need to be careful with these.
Recently, I was tasked to tile a bath floor and fix some loose tile in a customer master shower. This resulted in a complete rebuild of her shower and walls. Sitting stately as it had for about 40 years this soap dish in her shower met my hammer and it was gone. I didn't think twice about it until I was preparing to install the new soap dish "sans wash rag holder". The customer asked if I could replace her old one with an exact match and I dutifully said "yes ma'am" headed to Home Depot. No soap dish with wash rag holder there so on to Lowes. Nothing. Just the same flat bland new and improved soap dish with no hand hold, I mean wash rag holder.
The home owner was a brisk single widow in her 80's and confessed she used that soap dish to "steady herself" in the shower. I had to give her the bad news that I could not quickly locate her requested soap dish and I started the honest conversation about a grab bar or some appliance that was actually designed as a hand hold. I also informed her I would install it at no charge since I destroyed her old one. She said no thanks.
You see, folks are getting older in general and are using these as grab bars which are not to be confused with a wash rag holder. These are not to be used to pull yourself up out of the tub. Not to be used to lower yourself into a tub. After many years of service these things are weakened by water invasion behind these appliances and fail which can be very painful and possibly dangerous.
In order to understand why these should not be used as a hand hold you should know how they are installed. Generally they are the last ceramic item placed in a tile shower project. You remove or leave out 1 and 1/2 tiles laterally. You use a float or margin trowel and slather on a big dollop of grout onto the backside of the soap dish like you are laying a brick. You make sure grout goes into the holes in the back of the soap dish then you shove it into the slot provided.
So the soap dish is generally held in place with grout as the adhesive.
Why grout for an adhesive? Because, many showers are tiled with Mastic and not Thinset. Thinset or Mastic would be very difficult to clean off with the amount of material used to adhere it in place. Further, if it were an actual hand hold I would have placed 2x4 or 2x6 backing behind the Hardie Backer to drive 3 inch fasteners into.
As I was preparing to leave the job the Mrs. stopped me and asked if I would install a white PVC Hand Hold she'd found at Home Depot. I did.
Another reason these venerable old soap dishes are vanishing is because of what you see in this photo (click to enlarge).
Niches. Yep. Been installing a lot of them. I installed this shower last year and used a couple pieces of Silestone for the shelves that matched the checkerboard mosaic placed around the shower that also enhanced the oil rubbed bronze fixtures.
You can expect to pay anywhere from $75 to $175 for a niche. We are also installing a lot of corner shelving for soap and such. Corner shelves are a typically a piece of Natural Stone or even 12x12 tile sliced on a 45 and installed at one or a couple levels in a corner. Expect to pay at least $35 and up for a shelf install.
Niches cost more because the installation starts before the Hardie Backer or whatever tile backing is used under the tile. The niche needs to be framed in and cannot be placed just anywhere because of plumbing lines, vents, electrical lines, boxes, switches, vents, and yea I said vents twice because they are a real pain in the ass.
Bottom line, we will be seeing fewer and fewer of these ceramic soap dishes with a wash rag holder as remodels take them out and new appliances and techniques make them obsolete. I will however, from now on ask the customer if they want to keep the old soap dish with the wash rag holder. I can't guarantee I can get it out without breaking it but they need to know they are on the endangered list.
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