Bathroom Help

[PaulR]

Hi

Hi, I'm not a DIY person by any stretch, so I'm looking for some guidance and assistance please

I have a bathroom in an upstairs loft conversion. Its probably 6 months old and contains a square shower cubicle - we moved in 3 months ago. Recently we had some water leakage in the ceiling downstairs and after making holes in the celing and using the shower, we established we have a leak from the shower walls. Its not the tray, nor the seals around the tray, nor the trap and I don't believe it to be the seals around the cubicle or in the corner of the wall where the walls join, as we have done some lengthy tests and the Silicon all looks in tact

When we run water at certain points on the shower wall, the leak when looking from below is almost immiedate and comes out of the bottom of the plasterboard as you look up from below.

With some assistance, we have established that the grout in places is no longer solid and the board behind the tiles is plain unskimmed plaster board, with adhisve put straight on to attach some quite large tiles.

I would like some help on what to do next. My insurance company who are only covering the damage, but not the reparation work to sort the shower out, have advised I remove the enclosure, strip the walls back, replace the plasterboard in the shower area with some Aqua panels, simply by cuttting it out and reaffixing with aqua fitments and tape and then re-tiling. Another friend of mine has suggested re-grouting

I am thankfully able to source the same tiles (these are 2 foot by 1 foot) and I wonder if they are too large and heavy. But I also do not have anyone I know who are able to complete all this work. I know a good tiler, but he is not confident of removing the all current tiles cleanly and then replacing the board

Does any one have any advice, any contacts or suggestions of where I could go or who to speak to, to get some

Many thanks - rather depressed by the whole affair

I'm based on the Essex - Herts borders!

 

[SlateR]

I very much doubt that you will exceed the weight limit that the boarding can hold. this varies between types of board you go for. i think your best bet is to try and find a bathroom fitting outfit of some form or a plumber with proof of a good tiling background aswell. The problem is that i doubt the insurers will cover any plumbing work done by a tiler but they will probably accept tiling done by a plumber.

In your shoes i would just eliminate any risk of this happening in the future and use a waterproof boarding ie wedi or aquapanel etc and use a powderbased flexible adhesive of your choice. If your tiles are porcelain then make sure the adhesive states that it can bond to porcelain (in Bal's case their products have a "porcelbond" logo on the bag).

I would recommend the ardex wpc normally like i did above but seeing as your work is being done through insurance, i would eliminate all chances of a re-occurance and just take the safe option of WP boarding and flexible adhesive/grout :smartass2:

 

[PaulR]

just to be clear SlateR - this part is not the insurance job. All out of my pocket!

I have no idea if they are porcelain though - I never knew this was so complicated.

I've been recommended the following, but its not exactly wickes stock is it??

kerakoll or mapei or litokol

 

[SlateR]

not all adhesives will bond to porcelain tiles but there are plenty of options out there from different manufacturers. Without seeing one of your tiles it's hard to say what its made from. Take one with you to a tile shop when you go to buy the adhesive and ask them to tell you what the tile is made from and ask their recommendations based on that.

If your wanting a good price for the job the phone around and get some quotes. Labour can vary massively in different areas so best to get a few quotes first.

Another good thing with getting quotes is that you can ask them to supply all materials aswell then you don't have the hassle.

you should now have enough of a clue of what work is expected.

 

[White Room]

CRIKEY!! How many leaking bathrooms do you have over ther then? :yes:

Went to do a regrout, Touched one tile went straight thru plasterboard/mush took the rest of the tiles off and the stud work was all but gone to one wall on the lower area, So how long had that been leaking beggers belief.:huh2:

 

[PaulR]

Hi

Quick update for all.

I have now completed a rework of my bathroom, aqua boarded, retiled - thanks for all your help

I'm now just looking for any tips or advice please on the following

When I retiled the shower I kept the orginal tray as it was cemented to the floor. Unfortunately I am left with a gap between the tray and the tiles of about 1cm wide by the height of the tray, 3-4cm?

It was originally siliconed completely, so my question is, is there a better or more suitable way?

thanks

 

[faithhealer]

Hi again Paul any chance of a picture,

 

[PaulR]

Sure, try these two
the gap is on both sides of the tray

 

[Dan]

Just bumping some of the older popular (sometimes not so popular) threads. Probably wont be current discussion these days but I just need to do it. So just ignore the thread if it's not current for you.