My bathroom use to be a wardrobe, longing for real advice not sales pitches!

[flick]

After some good advice on Tile Adhesive.

The bathroom in our flat had melamine walls, and gaps/holes in the floor boards. The floor is now sorted and new bathroom suite in.

The bath will have a shower above it. The bathwall is solid (brick, plaster), apart from the huge void where a supporting wall was pulled out and then covered with the melamine. This I have filled with a sand and cement mix. The rest of the walls I have plasterboarded and the one at the end of the bath latexed (dunlop kit). Other walls have been plasterboarded.

I went to Topps Tiles....(please don't shoot me), B and Q had nothing I liked. They had a tile I really liked so got them, bought waterproof grout and fix from B and Q, returned it. Then went back to Topps who after 30 mins talked me into buying their Toppfix single part flexible trade adhesive for £30 (normally £40) and Bal waterproof grout.

Tiles 6mm thick, 248 by 398, to cover about 7 meters squared. Can't sleep worrying about this, not happy that product does not mention water resistance. He also managed to flog me a Grout protector, at the end of the day Topps man is not going to refund me if they fall down no matter how good he says this tile adhesive is (he assures me half trade in torbay use it). He was very reluctant to let me look at other products.

Can someone recommend a suitable adhesive I am liking the look of CTF 3 Bal Tile Adhesive for Walls and Floor. I am just so confused! Water seems to be my enemy. I have tiled before and never debated so much. Driving the other half mad with my bathroom obsession.




Picture of bathroom before major stripping out but with one piece of melamine removed.

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

hi there sorry but this dunlop kit is it a tanking/waterproofing kit such as this? if so then for piece of mind you should use this on the whole area around the bath. This will make the bath/shower area waterproof. As to the adhesive dont worry, the adhesive they have sold you although not the best on the market is more than suitable for your bathroom.

hope this helps

chris

 

[flick]

Thanks Chris, thanks for the piece of mind, I have some of the latex left, not much of the primer left so shall use what I have. I really want to take the adhesive back, if I do what would you suggest? Other question is priming the area where I am going to put six tiles straight on to plasterboard down the side of the sink. This is such a great forum site, wish I had used it earlier!

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

if you really want to take back the adhesive then i would speak to topps first to comfirm their refund policy. I tend to use Weber spf or mapei kera flex maxi
the mapei is available from tile giant in regards to priming the area you will need to use a priming agent that corresponds with the adhesive as all manufacturers will only garauntee their products this way with Mapei use primer G.

chris

 

[Martyn Leeds]

I use the topps trade adhesive quite regularly, mainly due to price and i've got used to it & i like it.

But i'm not sure what you're questioning about the adhesive? you've tanked your wet area, primed your other walls, its flexible...

 

[flick]

Main thing is I have it in my head that I must use a water resistant tile adhesive. I have put the latex on the plasterboard areas which are going to get wet.

Shall attach some pictures to help and explain each




This shows the bath area (and my sons feet who was quite annoyed as I stormed in with a camera). The shower will be where the attractive bucket is. That wall is latex nearly to the top but will be tiling to the ceiling. The solid wall (green) which has a sand and cement render now down the middle has had no sort of treatment as yet just carred the latex slightly round the internal corner.



The sink area next to the bath has latex on the back wall and will only be tiled one tile high, I want to put tiles on the plasterboard next to it (untreated) as the boys have a habit of getting toothpaste everywhere.

Thanks for letting me know about topps trade adhesive as I know no one who has used it only had the salesman's word to go by.

Really think I need to prime the solid wall with something before putting cement tile adhesive or am I being over cautious and something on the bare plasterboard. I want nothing more but to get on with the job but want to get it right.

 

[aph257]

Hi Flick, no cement based addy is water proof, but that's not to say it's not up to the job, when in fact a single part flexible is what you do need to use and defo not a ready mixed. Come to that only Epoxy grout is water proof, so thats why i always use a grout sealer, esp' in bathroom, as well as tanking. I persoanlly use Granfix, (nearest supplier) but Mapei keraflex (Tile Giant) Weber set.plus (try Travis Perkins) are great addy's. TBO i avoid Topps like the plague.

 

[flick]

Thanks Paul, does that mean I can go ahead and get tiling without putting anymore base products on. This tiling malarchy is more complicated than putting make-up on and you need far more products to get walls right than faces. Tiles are looking at me from the bathroom, three year old keeps telling me "that bathroom needs walls". Will not be going into topps again, I always end up parting with far more money than I would like!

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

flick sorry to be a bore on this subject but you really need to waterproof the whole of the bath area. Technically the long wall were the bath sits will sustain more water volume than the wall with the bucket sorry shower will sit.

chris

 

[aph257]

the plasterboard does not need priming, the plaster does, but check what it says on the bag, whichever brand you get, for the cement/sand filler. But as CJ says above tank the whole bath area as well.

 

[flick]

Thanks for all the advice, I have made a number of mistakes along the way. My mixing leaves a lot to be desired and should go for instinct rather than instructions off the back of the packets! Tiles all up (and still up) grouting and making pretty to do will post a photo soon.