C
cornish_crofter
These issues have come up with this wetroom.
With all the problems I've had with delays and other issues etc, my mind hasn't been fully on the job and I have basically made some mistakes.
I could really kick myself. Having now got the opportunity to stand back over the Christmas period and consider my options, rather than be under pressure to get it finished in an unacceptable time frame, I thought I would start this thread and share these with you.
One is with the prep for the final tiling. I used Ditra matting on the floor with Kerdi tape on the walls. When I was planning this I knew that to get the walls level I would have to perhaps remove a small amount of plaster to accomodate the kerdi tape and adhesive. However in my rush to get on with that stage, I basically overlooked this detail. Hence I've now introduced a 'kick' at the bottom of the wall. This has not been helped in one area with 2 layers of kerdi tape overlapping. This brings out the wall by about 6mm at the bottom. A level tells me that otherwise the wall would be pretty plumb most of its length, with maybe a few hollows to fill in near the bottom.
The floor is now laid, and looking good so removing and reapplying the kerdi tape is not really an option, though pulling it away from the wall if the adhesive will stay on the wall has occurred to me, but I suspect that the bond is too strong for that. If that worked I would then have the option of doing what I should have done, remove the top coat of plaster and then re apply adhesive to fix the vertical section of kerdi tape. Then use SPF to bring the bottom of the wall level.
If I can't do that the only other option is to try and take this problem out of the wall, by levelling it out, though this will cause the wall not to be 100% plumb, and it is a long wall. app 2.7m. I would have to bring the whole wall out by about 6mm to accomodate the error if I were to make the whole area plumb. and much of it is not being tiled.
The only other idea I had was to have the wall plumb at the shower end (which it is) then somehow gradually take the surface out of plumb at the other end to accomodate this problem at the other end
Along this area of the wall the tiles will be up to 1m high. I'm using 200 x 250 ceramics.
The 2nd problem I've got is the back wall, which is pretty much fully tiled.
Now, I set out to line the centreline of the floor out with that for the wall. The floor tiles are 300 wide, the wall tiles are 200 wide, and the back wall is at an angle, ie not perpendicular to the side walls. Thus only one line will ever line up. I chose the centre lines. Great idea, but that has left me with 1 inch tile slithers going up each side. Having read Kate's thread about slithers I'm worried about the eventual look now. The wall is symmetrical though.
I'm wondering if I should have centred a tile up the centre rather than a grout line.
The tiles are 'bumpy white' The grout will also be white.
The third problem is with the towel rail. I don't think this is a major one. I have fitted loads of towel rails onto tiled walls, or walls that are to be tiled. There was confusion over whether the wall that the towel rail is fitted to was or was not to be tiled. I fitted the towel rail and ran the plumbing up to it from the floor with it fixed directly to the wall. Unfortunately this wall is now to be tiled.
I have given this a lot of thought and the only way I can see me correcting this is to trim the brackets for the towel rail. They are the telescopic brackets where the insert (fixed to the towel rail) locates into the sleeve - all ladder towel rails of this type use them. I have considered carefully trimming back the outer sleeve to shorten it and allowing the inner sleeve to sit back further. The holes for the locating screws could be redrilled. Again we're talking about 7mm or so.
If you've got to the end of this post, thank you for taking the time to read it.
Knowing what a helpful bunch you all are in lending a hand to people who are honest and want to get it right I hope that you may be able to help here.
Thanks
With all the problems I've had with delays and other issues etc, my mind hasn't been fully on the job and I have basically made some mistakes.
I could really kick myself. Having now got the opportunity to stand back over the Christmas period and consider my options, rather than be under pressure to get it finished in an unacceptable time frame, I thought I would start this thread and share these with you.
One is with the prep for the final tiling. I used Ditra matting on the floor with Kerdi tape on the walls. When I was planning this I knew that to get the walls level I would have to perhaps remove a small amount of plaster to accomodate the kerdi tape and adhesive. However in my rush to get on with that stage, I basically overlooked this detail. Hence I've now introduced a 'kick' at the bottom of the wall. This has not been helped in one area with 2 layers of kerdi tape overlapping. This brings out the wall by about 6mm at the bottom. A level tells me that otherwise the wall would be pretty plumb most of its length, with maybe a few hollows to fill in near the bottom.
The floor is now laid, and looking good so removing and reapplying the kerdi tape is not really an option, though pulling it away from the wall if the adhesive will stay on the wall has occurred to me, but I suspect that the bond is too strong for that. If that worked I would then have the option of doing what I should have done, remove the top coat of plaster and then re apply adhesive to fix the vertical section of kerdi tape. Then use SPF to bring the bottom of the wall level.
If I can't do that the only other option is to try and take this problem out of the wall, by levelling it out, though this will cause the wall not to be 100% plumb, and it is a long wall. app 2.7m. I would have to bring the whole wall out by about 6mm to accomodate the error if I were to make the whole area plumb. and much of it is not being tiled.
The only other idea I had was to have the wall plumb at the shower end (which it is) then somehow gradually take the surface out of plumb at the other end to accomodate this problem at the other end
Along this area of the wall the tiles will be up to 1m high. I'm using 200 x 250 ceramics.
The 2nd problem I've got is the back wall, which is pretty much fully tiled.
Now, I set out to line the centreline of the floor out with that for the wall. The floor tiles are 300 wide, the wall tiles are 200 wide, and the back wall is at an angle, ie not perpendicular to the side walls. Thus only one line will ever line up. I chose the centre lines. Great idea, but that has left me with 1 inch tile slithers going up each side. Having read Kate's thread about slithers I'm worried about the eventual look now. The wall is symmetrical though.
I'm wondering if I should have centred a tile up the centre rather than a grout line.
The tiles are 'bumpy white' The grout will also be white.
The third problem is with the towel rail. I don't think this is a major one. I have fitted loads of towel rails onto tiled walls, or walls that are to be tiled. There was confusion over whether the wall that the towel rail is fitted to was or was not to be tiled. I fitted the towel rail and ran the plumbing up to it from the floor with it fixed directly to the wall. Unfortunately this wall is now to be tiled.
I have given this a lot of thought and the only way I can see me correcting this is to trim the brackets for the towel rail. They are the telescopic brackets where the insert (fixed to the towel rail) locates into the sleeve - all ladder towel rails of this type use them. I have considered carefully trimming back the outer sleeve to shorten it and allowing the inner sleeve to sit back further. The holes for the locating screws could be redrilled. Again we're talking about 7mm or so.
If you've got to the end of this post, thank you for taking the time to read it.
Knowing what a helpful bunch you all are in lending a hand to people who are honest and want to get it right I hope that you may be able to help here.
Thanks
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