DIY'er loft ensuite advise saught

[laldie]

Hi TF,

I've found this forum thankfully before my loft bath n loo goes into full production,
I've attached what it looks like now:



I'm working on a slim budget as i've got a new arrival due in April,
however lucked out and got 20sqm of Natural Stone Effect Travertine Tiles (400 x 600 mm /10mm thick) pretty cheap.

Work starts this weekend with the partitions, cistern wall and bath frame going up, I've got another fortnight before the plumber and electrician are on site to do the gubbins.

I would be obliged if anyone could advise on the sloping walls on either side of the loft, is it better to leave these as they are or tile?
my old man is going to do the tiling and i would hate for one of them to fall out on a loved one, he has tiled a fair bit and his work does look pretty good but I've just carried these packs up the stairs and realised just how heavy they are...

many thanks

Laldie

 

[laldie]

seems to have attached one of my inspiration scrapbook photos too... id really like to do some light boxes

 

[charlie1]

If i was going to tile the slopping wall, id insist on re lining the tiled area with cement backer boards. Your right to concerned,travertine is very heavy!

 

[beanz]

The sloping walls are generally considered as ceilings, and i wouldn't tile those to be honest.. When you say "Natural Stone Effect Travertine", what are they? Porcelain? I'm not sure i'd want heavy tiles hanging over me like that, without some sort of mechanical fixings..

 

[peteablard]

Personally I wouldn't do it, way too much weight involved. There's also velux there which is going to cause vibrations when opened and closed. You could get a pro in and go down the route of mechanically fixing them but there would be a huge amount of work involved and to be honest I think the weight would still be an issue. I'd stick to tiling just the walls, make sure the paint is removed first though.

 

[afright]

Tiling a sloping ceiling brings a lot of problems the worst one is that sometimes these type of ceilings do not run parallel with the walls which in turn can throw your grout lines out,even experienced tilers have problems with this,and the added weight is not a good idea bring it in with the ceiling and paint it.

 

[laldie]

thank you very much to all that replied,
#Beanz they are porcelain with a random light travertine pattern about 6kg each, it was a bin end and really cheap.


I'm glad the consensus is don't tile the sloping bits,
I spoke to my da and he was going to reinforce the bottom and top with a gripper kind of thing,
with a kind of mesh net but tbh I had nightmares since i lifted the tiles up the stairs.


I think the climbing gear saftey regs are to withstand a 5kg object dropped from 2m,
and I wouldn't like to explain to the missus why she needs to wear a bath helmet just so i can get some sleep.


If i could be so bold as to ask one more question, the loft flooring is thick chipboard, the floor space is 2.5m x 1.9m, joists are quite close together and have little movement, there's a really good recycling place close bye with loads of different ply - I have been instructed to find decent some 10mm+ stuff,
is there any i should avoid or seek out for tiling on to? i'm not too worried about increasing floor height just want to make it last as long as my tiny budget will allow.


many thanks,


Laldie

 

[afright]

I would use 6mm hardibacker cement board,if the ply is recycled you might not know what you are getting.

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[peteablard]

If there is any movement I would lift the boards and put extra noggins in to eliminate it. 10mm ply on top as it is won't be sufficient enough. If you can get it deflection free then cement board could be glued and screwed down instead and is a much better substrate to tile on to.

 

[beanz]

12mm exterior ply, screws every 150mm.. Or if you're 100% confident that there's no deflection in the floor, you could go for the 6mm hardie backer option.