Watch our YouTube video where we react to Tile Tik Toks!
Everybody talks about shower floor templates.
So the question is: do you actually need one?
Short answer: sometimes it’s a good idea to use one. Especially for mosaic tiles.
But that might not be the only solution…
Let’s break it down.
What a Shower Floor Template Actually Is
A shower floor template is a full-size outline of your shower base. It captures the real-world conditions of the space so you can plan your installation accurately.
A proper template usually accounts for things such as drain location, wall positions and angles, curbs, benches, and niches that will affect your layout as well as any framing irregularities.
Templates can be made using cardboard strips or luan (traditional method), physical templating systems and laser measurement tools and digital layouts.
The goal is simple: remove guesswork before installation begins.
Why Shower Floors Can Benefit From Templating
Shower floors are one of the most detail-sensitive parts of any tile job. Even small errors become obvious once everything is grouted and sealed.
1. Real-world showers are never perfectly square
Even when framing looks good, it almost never is perfect.
Common issues include slightly bowed walls, corners that aren’t 90 degrees, drains that are off center by a fraction of an inch.
A template reveals all of this before a single tile is cut!
2. It prevents expensive layout mistakes
Mistakes on a shower floor aren’t just cosmetic—they can be expensive!
If you don’t use a template, you risk ending up with tiny “sliver cuts” at the edges, uneven grout lines around the perimeter, drain alignment issues, etc.
Once materials like marble or porcelain slabs are cut wrong, there’s usually no fixing it.
3. It helps you visualize slope and drainage
Shower floors aren’t flat—they’re engineered to slope toward the drain.
A template helps you plan how the tile will visually “flow” into the drain, whether the layout feels centered or intentionally offset and how cuts will land at the perimeter.
This is especially important for mosaic shower floors, linear drains, curbless showers.
4. It makes installation day faster and cleaner
It might sound counterintuitive, but spending time on a template actually speeds things up later.
With a good template, you will reduce on-the-fly cutting and avoid layout guesswork while thinset is curing. You will improve accuracy before materials are permanently set
In other words, you shift the problem-solving off the clock.
What we do instead of templating (most of the time)
We “dry-set” the mosaic tile on shower floors.
What is dry-setting you may ask?
When installing a mosaic tile shower floor, “dry-setting” refers to laying out and cutting the tile directly on the shower pan before any thinset is applied. Instead of relying on a manufactured shower floor template, the installer builds the layout in place by hand, trimming sheets and individual pieces as needed to fit the exact shape and slope of the shower.
We prefer this method because it gives more control over the final appearance and fit of the floor — especially when working with mosaics, natural stone, or custom shower layouts.
How does dry-setting compare to using a shower template?
No shower is perfectly identical in real life.
Even in a well-built bathroom, there can be uneven walls, minor framing inconsistencies, drains that are not perfectly centered, and other imperfections.
Dry-setting allows you to adjust everything in real time.
Because when you do it, you can shift grout joints, resize cuts, rework spacing, blend mosaics naturally, fine tune the drain layout.
It gives you complete control over the final appearance. AND you base it off the ACTUAL space with all of its custom “imperfections” and not on a “standard” that sometimes won’t fit your current space.
Templates Rely on Predictability
Templates work best when the shower dimensions are very accurate, the layout is straightforward, the tile is uniform, the drain placement is exact
They’re designed around consistency and efficiency.
In simple showers, this can work perfectly fine.
But in more custom installations, templates sometimes struggle because real-world conditions rarely match the exact plan perfectly.
In Conclusion
Templates help create speed and consistency.
Dry-setting creates flexibility and precision.
In many custom shower installations, dry-setting allows the installer to adapt to the real-world conditions of the shower while refining the layout piece by piece.
It takes more time, more patience, and more craftsmanship — but that extra effort is often what creates the difference between a shower floor that simply works and one that truly looks professionally built.
Wanna keep learning?
Thank you for reading!
If you found this article interesting, you might want to check out this one!