Bathroom tiling Page: 2

[Unregistered]

I have a two fold question:
Is it stipulated in building regs that you have to use water resistant plasterboard in a bathroom?
If ordinary plasterboard is used, sealed correctly and tiled over with waterproof adhesive and grout, what is the proabability of water getting behind the tiles and damaging the plasterboard inside a shower enclosure? What time period would you expect this to happen over?
Thanks for your help.

 

[sibs]

Hi SirRamic ....
Not sure what you're dissagreeing with.... I didn't say those were the rules more trying to point him in the direction of best practice. I really don't know what building regs state with regard to materials and weather or not wet areas "must" be tanked but I was taught that it is ok to use plasterboard in wet areas as long as you tank it... especially with power showers.Again best practice not regs.... so we seem to be agreeing as far as I can tell.

 

[Gazzer]

What i disagree with is a comment you made
"Ordinary plasterboards can be used in a shower area as long as it is tanked before being tiled onto"
Which is not true as ordinary plasterboard can be used and generally it is.
Your comment seems to implies that you can only use plasterboard if its tanked.

Also if you read my posts i do agree with the practice of tanking its just that in a real world the public dont as it costs them money. Bring it on i say.

 

[sibs]

Well technically I am not wrong so I stand by my post I could've worded it in such a way so as not to imply that showers "have" to be tanked but you don't always think of these things mid- post - as I said I was just trying to guide towards best practice after all it wasn't aparent in the origional post what sort of shower system was going to be in place and the nature of the post implied that maybe this post was made by someone who isn't a tiler - although I may be wrong- so I was playing safe....I take your point about GP not wanting the expense - I have had this too and agree that all showers should be tanked!

 

[Gazzer]

Well technically I am not wrong so I stand by my post I could've worded it in such a way so as not to imply that showers "have" to be tanked but you don't always think of these things mid- post - as I said I was just trying to guide towards best practice after all it wasn't aparent in the origional post what sort of shower system was going to be in place and the nature of the post implied that maybe this post was made by someone who isn't a tiler - although I may be wrong- so I was playing safe....I take your point about GP not wanting the expense - I have had this too and agree that all showers should be tanked!

Then we agree and we dont need to get divorced?

 

[Fekin]

I have a two fold question:
Is it stipulated in building regs that you have to use water resistant plasterboard in a bathroom?
If ordinary plasterboard is used, sealed correctly and tiled over with waterproof adhesive and grout, what is the proabability of water getting behind the tiles and damaging the plasterboard inside a shower enclosure? What time period would you expect this to happen over?
Thanks for your help.

Not stipulated in building regs, only stipulation is having to use fireboard which is pink if there is a room above the room your boarding or something like that, but that may only apply to new builds.

Standard plasterboard, tiled and grouted propperly with good adhesive and grout in a standard domestic bathroom with normal use even with a power shower will be fine for as lond as is needed, unless the family tend to have showers through out the day and will end up having a wet areas "wet" for hours and hours on end everyday, which isn't the normal case.
Though if I was looking at a job where the family was man, wife and 4 kid and grandmother and every body used the shower everyday then I would really push for the shower area to be tanked as it all comes down to the amount of time each day the walls are going to be subject to wetting.

No grout is waterproof, grout simply slows down the absorbtion rate of water, so the idea is after the shower has been used generally the area has pleanty of time to fully dry out before it's going to be used again with normal use, but with a large family it's quite possible that the showers going to be used over and over again within a long period of time and the grout won't have time to dry out before the next bout of water hits them.

If something did fail, like a groutline and it was letting water pass through to the board behind, the timescale of failure would all depend on the amount of water passing through to the board before tiles started to fall away from the walls.

 

[Gazzer]

A very good statement of the real world Fekin. Well done.

 

[MICK the Tiler]

Very interesting debate on waterproofing issues my fellow members and for what it is worth down here waterproofing in wet areas is mandatory and you need a seperate license obtained through the B.S.A (Building Services Authority) to preform this task. Our code stats that a minimum of water penatration protection should include internal corners to a ht of 1.8m and joins extending into the recess the floor of shower cubicles that are to receive tiling and the perimeter walls on slab on ground. The entire floor if dwelling has habitable living space under. Also areas around wall perforations for vanities and toilets etc.

Once this has been done a certificate must be lodged to the BSA and council as well as the home owner. Failing to issue such certificate can negate the on selling of a property until the waterproofing criteria are met.

Waterproofing insurance claims are still one of the greatest causes wet area failures in the state of queensland and cost 100s of millions to rectify each year due to inadequate materials unsatisfactory installation unlicensed aplicators and corrupted council officials.

Waterproofing in the Uk should become mandatory IMHO even though the systems in place are not perfect down here. It still gives the home owner and contractor reasonable amounts of protection should things not go according to plan.

 

[sibs]

Thats a very interesting post there Mick....Fekin I agree with you 100%. Thats the reason why I didn't give a timescale for water ingress and just said "over a period of time" because there are all sorts of variables like that. SirRamic I could never divorce you! :winkiss:
Bloody hell poor guy only wanted to know what plasterboard to use :lol:

 

[Unregistered]

Thanks very much for all your input. The reason that I am posing this question is that after tiling onto sealed foil backed plasterboard in a bathroom, a building surveyor has informed me that I have used the incorrect plasterboard (that i should have used mositure resistant plasterboard) and that it all needs to come off and be replaced with the whole bathroom being re-tiled at my expense. I have found nothing to agree with his opinion as to mandatory use of moisture resistant plasterboard and a property developer informs me that he does not use any specialist plasterboard on any of his developments. Who is right? And where can I find a definitive answer?

 

[grumpygrouter]

Maybe the best thing you can do is ask the surveyor to point you in the direction of the regulations backing up his assertion. It is possible that regulations local to your area stipulate the type of materials to be used. Only a guess mind!

Maybe you could go to your local library and see if they have a copy of the building regs. This may give you an idea.

Grumpy