Can someone give me a rough estimate??

[helpme!laura]

Hi, just looking for a bit of advice...
Im a young girl living in my own house with my partner, the bathroom was wood cladded around the bath when we moved in and has now gone rotten and mouldy.
I want to rip it off and get it tiled.
Scenario:
I have bought the tiles,
I have the adhesive/grout
I have already ripped off the wood ready to tile
There are only 2 walls to be done, both flat to the ceiling. One has the electric shower box to fit around but no other major tricky cutting.
I have an electric tile cutter borrowed from a friend that they could use
There overall is 5.5m2 of tiling.
What sort of price should I be expecting to pay for this sort of work??
I don't want to get ripped off by a cowboy builder, and I need to know if I can afford to get it done.
Thanks
Laura
((Could I do it myself!?))

 

[Dan]

You probably could do it yourself yes.

We can't price publicly though you can register and ask for sometime to come a give you an estimate. We'd always recommend getting the tiler to look at the job first.

What are the walls now you've ripped off the cladding? Are they plastered?

And what adhesive and grout make have you bought?

 

[helpme!Laura]

tiles from B&Q, bigish rectangular ones...?
walls underneath are ok, plastered.
adhesive is unibond? 2 in 1 grout/plaster stuff?

 

[Mike Mike]

Hi, just looking for a bit of advice...
Im a young girl living in my own house with my partner, the bathroom was wood cladded around the bath when we moved in and has now gone rotten and mouldy.
I want to rip it off and get it tiled.
Scenario:
I have bought the tiles,
I have the adhesive/grout
I have already ripped off the wood ready to tile
There are only 2 walls to be done, both flat to the ceiling. One has the electric shower box to fit around but no other major tricky cutting.
I have an electric tile cutter borrowed from a friend that they could use
There overall is 5.5m2 of tiling.
What sort of price should I be expecting to pay for this sort of work??
I don't want to get ripped off by a cowboy builder, and I need to know if I can afford to get it done.
Thanks
Laura
((Could I do it myself!?))

Laura,
1. Yes you could do it yourself
2. No tiler would need to borrow your friend's electric tile cutter, lol.
3. For that small area most tilers will quote you time and materials rather than m2 rate.

As Dan said, anyone who might be interested would need to see it, or at least photos, and know where you are.

To be honest, most (if not all?) professional tilers are going to recommend that you tank the walls around the bath, especially if you have, or are planning to install a shower. That is around £50 - £70 for a kit, and you could do that yourself if you follow the manufacturer's instructions, it's not difficult.

I would say give it a go, tile it yourself. What's the worst that can happen? And if you have any doubts, or need any advice, members here will be more than willing to talk them through with you.

Good luck!

 

[Mike Mike]

tiles from B&Q, bigish rectangular ones...?
walls underneath are ok, plastered.
adhesive is unibond? 2 in 1 grout/plaster stuff?

Oops, I was typing as you posted this. Definitely tank the walls and definitely take that Unibond stuff back to B&Q and buy some cementious adhesive and cementious grout instead.

 

[helpme!Laura]

Laura,
To be honest, most (if not all?) professional tilers are going to recommend that you tank the walls around the bath, especially if you have, or are planning to install a shower. That is around £50 - £70 for a kit, and you could do that yourself if you follow the manufacturer's instructions, it's not difficult.

tank the walls?? S

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Laura

I've approved your post in the I'm Looking For.... section. Please nip over there and read the link I have suggested.

If any of our members are interested in doing the job for you Laura, they will contact you directly to discuss the job in more detail and to talk about prices with you.

GRR

 

[Deleted member 9966]

tank the walls?? S

It's a form of waterproofing. Tanking prevents water seeping through into adjoining walls, particularly if your bathroom joins to other room via a plasterboard/stud partition.

 

[helpme!Laura]

This all sound like its going to be too expensive for me and my little house...
Will have to reseal the bath and hope that the rot doesnt worsen and the leak through to my kitchen clears up!!

 

[Dan]

As said above, get rid of that adhesive and grout in one. It isn't good as an adhesive or a grout.

You want a cement-based adhesive (powder in a bag) and cement-based grout too. Both separate stuff.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

This all sound like its going to be too expensive for me and my little house...
Will have to reseal the bath and hope that the rot doesnt worsen and the leak through to my kitchen clears up!!

Laura

In my experience, leaks only disappear when you've figured out where the water is coming from. Resealing the bath and hoping for the best won't solve your problem.

Having a bathroom tiled can be seen as expensive, but if you have it done properly, it could last for 10 years or more. Have it done poorly and you could be replacing the lot within 2 years. Pay cheap, get cheap.

If money is an issue, you might want to consider doing some short term fixes and saving up until you can afford for your bathroom to be re-tiled correctly.

 

[Mike Mike]

tank the walls?? S

Sorry, make it watertight using a paint on rubberised two part kit, such as this:

BAL WP1 Waterproofing Kit (Coating, Primer, Tape, Matting)

You paint on primer with a roller, wait for it to dry, then paint on the tanking membrane, again with a roller. Apply glass fibre tape in corners and joins between floor and walls, then paint over it with more of the membrane.

When it's dry (3 hours for this manufacturer), you tile onto that, using a cementious adhesive.

Gypsum plaster is water sensitive and over time will collapse if exposed to moisture. People think that tiling a wall makes it waterproof. It doesn't. Water goes through grout and onto the substrate behind the tiles. Tanking it prevents that and reduces the risk that the tiles will fall off the wall due to the plaster behind failing.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Laura

In my experience, leaks only disappear when you've figured out where the water is coming from. Resealing the bath and hoping for the best won't solve your problem.

Having a bathroom tiled can be seen as expensive, but if you have it done properly, it could last for 10 years or more. Have it done poorly and you could be replacing the lot within 2 years. Pay cheap, get cheap.

If money is an issue, you might want to consider doing some short term fixes and saving up until you can afford for your bathroom to be re-tiled correctly.

Laura

I'm just re-reading my post and I don't want you to think I'm being horrible and rude. I'm not a professional tiler, so I have no vested interest in guiding you towards using a pro tiler for your job other than for me to say that all the members of this forum who run their own tiling businesses know what they're talking about and use their experience and knowledge to guide customers through a project like this from start to finish.

Tiling is not an easy job. I've tried, I have no patience for it. I can mark and cut tiles, mix adhesive but I can't fix them and get them flat. My husband and I, with the help and support of the tilers on here, re-tiled 2 bathrooms including removing all the baths/showers/toilets/sinks, tiled the floor in my kitchen, utility room, downstairs loo and hallway. But I can assure you, I won't be DIYing it again. Next time I want nicer tiles and a better finish, and I will be paying a professional to do it for me, especially as they are mostly a lot quicker than my DIY attempt which has been known to take weeks if not a couple of months.

Please don't disregard any advice you receive from here. It is the best advice you will find. As I said before, tiling is expensive, but done properly will last a long long time.

GRR

 

[Mike Mike]

Laura, you didn't mention in your first post that you had a leak from your bathroom evident in your kitchen! This is not just a simple tiling job.

Have you considered contacting your insurance company to get this looked at properly, and resolved? You could have some serious water damage that requires attention. Never ignore leaks and signs of water damage as they only ever get worse...

 

[Stef]

Hi Laura, I took on a job about 5 years ago, full bathroom supply & fit with my plumber for a very nice woman that contacted me.

I ripped out her old shower only to find that water had been leaking into her kitchen for years & years.

There was that much damage to a bridle that was carrying the weight of her whole bathroom that i had to stop & phone the client & phone my friend whos a joiner to come to look at the damage i had found.

Frantic calls to insurance company etc & insurance talking thousands of pounds to rectify the problem. it wasnt looking good as insurance wouldnt cover her.

My 2 joiners ended up doing the job for her for less than £700.

The moral of this story is you cant just cover up damage & rot. You need to find out exactly what damage has been caused.

It might not be too bad but you never know.