Bathroom advice

[Maggi]

Hello

Please bear with me and my multiple questions! Thanks in advance to anybody who offers advice.

We've bought 600 x 300 porcelain tiles for our bathroom. They are for the floor and walls. They are 9mm thick and weigh around 22kg per square metre. From this excellent forum I've learnt that they can't be used on skimmed plastered walls so we're going to use something else.

On the left hand wall (which has the bathroom door in it) we have no space to fit 12.5mm plasterboard on the wall and use dot and dab or battens due to the door frame being shallow. We wondered about fitting the plasterboard direct to the wall using plugs and screws and have found some information on using these fixings (PlasticInsulationFixings) but I'm dubious about the weight of the tiles being held!

I would also like advice on tanking the area inside the shower and around the bath. The shower tray we have bought is Koralle and it has a fixing system that pulls the tray to the wall (you tile to the floor first) and then creates a seal. I've seen posts recommending using tileboard but haven't found any that can be attached to the wall directly, all advise using battens of some sort, so have been put off. Luckily the left hand wall is self contained as it will have the shower, then a small gap and then it's the doorway with a small piece of wall over. I've looked at the Bal WP1 information but other people are recommending membrane but it seems to be four times the price for what we need (shower is a 900 pentangle, wall is 2280 metres high plus 700 for each end of the bath and 1700 width for the bath itself at around 0.5 metres high which I calculate as being around 5.7 square metres).

Finally, I promise, can I have advice on removal panels to put in the bath panel, below the wall hung basin and near the toilet. As the tiles are so large I'm worrying about using the magnets but other methods appear to be far more visible. Any thoughts?

 

[doug boardley]

Hi Maggi, tanking isn't my speciality but someone will soon get to you on that! You mentioned not having room for 12.5 mm p/board on the door wall,is it a stud wall, ie not masonry? if so can you not fix p/board with longer gyproc drywall screws? good luck
Doug

 

[Maggi]

Thanks for the swift reply Doug. All our internal walls are some sort of blockwork (built in the 1970s). I suppose one of my main worries is that the screws will go straight through and blow the board; I've seen other people suggest washers?

We put up acres of plasterboard in our old house including a cathedral ceiling but that was all fastened to wood of some sort.

 

[doug boardley]

Maggi, the 20kg weight limit applies to plasterboard that has been skimmed, as yours is a masonry wall with a plaster base (is it sand and cement) and skim coat, I'm sure that you're safe upto 28kg, that includes the adhesive at, say, 4kg/m2, so it looks as though it'll be ok to take the weight of your tiles after all!:santa_cheesy:

 

[White Room]

If it was a plaster base, float and set would go for 20kg and the same if a finish on a render personally but if the finish can be removed a good render will take 40kg

 

[White Room]

Check this Tiles and Adhesive Weight Per Square Metre - THE TILE SOURCE may help you decide

 

[doug boardley]

built in '70's? what's it gonna be, browning or sand and cement? could be either! any chance of scraping a bit of the skim coat off and letting us know Maggi?

 

[Maggi]

Apologies for the delay in replying. We had the electricians here doing first fix yesterday and since then have had no lights (they're coming back Monday to sort it out) so thank goodness I bought a laptop with a backlit keyboard. The headtorch has been coming in handy too as has the wind up torch.
I've looked at where the previous tiles and adhesive brought off the skim and the wall is a mid brown, rough texture. Having seen sand and cement before and it was grey then perhaps this is browning. However, it's a very very thin layer onto the cinder block; I'd say the render and the skim combined is no more than a few mm and it comes off quite easily under not much pressure.
Back to the plasterboard idea I think so I'm still stuck on how to fix it without battens! Can you attach plasterboard to a wall with screws and plugs and if so, how do you stop the screws going straight through the surface? We already have a plasterboard screw bit for the drill driver but I wasn't sure we could use plasterboard screws into plugs.
Still need advice on tanking and concealed access if anybody has any ideas. Thanks to everybody who has taken the time to reply so far

 

[White Room]

I would remove the plaster backing as it's seems very weak. The plasterboard can be dot and dabbed, Here's link for you broken link removed

 

[doug boardley]

it also sounds as though door casing is to shallow to accomodate a decent depth of plaster, have you thought about fitting a deeper door casing?

 

[pt44]

no expert here - so just sounding out some thoughts.

If you were to use something like Wedi board/Dukka board against a solid wall. Then you fix it with dabs of tile adhesive - which they tell me doesn't do much to hold it. What does hold it is you then drill through the board and these dabs and fix with dowels (metal or plastic) which go deep into the wall. I've used this system plenty and it works very well. As you can then waterproof tape all of the joints and screw heads/dowels etc. You have solved the tanking problem at the same time.

Paul

 

[cornish_crofter]

You can also get a product called pink grip that is designed for this sort of job. I've never used it but I understand it's quite good.

Essentially you use a foam gun with this stuff, apply it onto the back of the board once you have it cut to size then offer the board up to a flat surface and press it home. This means that the board will be almost touching the wall, as opposed to dot and dabbing that may require more depth.

 

[White Room]

The foam is good on new walls but would'nt use on old existing walls

 

[cornish_crofter]

It's not foam.

It's specially designed for plasterboard adhesion. IIRC it's called pink grip or similar, but it is dispensed from a foam gun.

 

[Alberta Stone]

Your electricians actually left you for a day off when you had no lights and they were responsible????????????
WOW!!
I am assuming that the lights were working before they arrived.

 

[Maggi]

Thanks for all the advice. In the end because of the condition of the walls we decided to go for battens after all! We've put up aquapanel but are three screws short and they only seem to sell them in packs of 100. Typical

The lights were all working before the electricians came. They were fishing around in the ceiling to put the first fix wire in for the bathroom cabinet and managed to pull another wire in the process. They didn't check all of the lights were working before they left, only the one in the bathroom they were working on, so didn't realise that none of the others worked. They came back first thing Monday morning and sorted it out and apologised. Now that we only have a toilet pan in the bathroom (not even a cistern) and wet plaster we're used to living in a hovel. We have no hot water at the moment either. The plaster is drying (slowly) but the freezing cold weather isn't helping.

Off to search the forum for advice on floor tile adhesive. Seem to remember single part powder suitable for porcelain was the thing to go for but am going to check.

Thanks again for all the advice.

 

[DHTiling]

Thanks for letting us know how you got on....

 

[doug boardley]

and don't forget the pics Maggi when you've done!