My first bathroom project

[Supercoley1]

Hello, I am just setting about doing my first full bathroom DIY job (not pro at all) and have managed to do most things through internet research etc.
The project in question is a bathroom that currently has a shower over bath, W/C, sink and a wall hung radiator. The room is approx 280cm across the breadth (window wall) and 270cm from the door to the window wall. There a dog leg to the room as the airing cupboard is set within this room into a seperate area on the left of the door.
I will be keeping these apart from the wall hung radiator which I want to remove and then put a towel radiator in another place. I don't have a problem with the plumbing and radiator aspect.
We have had the bathroom like this since we moved in 30 months ago and all we did was to change the bath taps for a shower mixer type, tile the shower area on the window and half the bath side wall (It only had a 420mm high splashback around the bath previous to this), put up a shower curtain rail and laminate the floor. Pretty basic 'quick' but ready to use. The picture below shows what this was like:

After planning to redo the bathroom we decided to do it early July and it would take a few months to complete due to the budget (Each month we can afford the 'next step')
So on 10th July we started to plan the bathroom. The W/C and sink will remain in the same place. The Bath will still be on the wall but will be moved so that each end is an equal distance from the wall. A frame will then be built around the bath so that I can tile under the rim and make it look like the bath has been 'sunken'.
The radiator which is currently on the right as you enter the bathroom will be removed and then the plumbing redone to put a towel radiator behind the door as you enter the bathroom.
The area where the bath is will be tiled in black, white and lime green inspired by a picture on Toppstiles here:
Fusion Kiwi Wall Tile | Topps Tiles
however we don't have anywhere near the budget to use those tiles and get the exact design. I have sourced some lime green, black and white tiles that are all a lot cheaper and are 150mm x 150mm. The design of this area is here (These plans are rough guides as they don't allow for grout joints. I will line them up properly when I get the tiles to gauge the number across etc when the tiles come.)
This is the 'fold out' design and what you will see facing the bath. The lime is bit bright in these pictures where the tile I have bought is more subtler more like the ones in the Toppstiles picture:

And this is the plan from above:

The green/black/white combo will only go as far as the bath surround and the rest will be plain white.
This is the lime tile I have bought. 2 boxes:
Tiles, Ceramic Tiles, Wall Tiles, Gloss Lime Green Tile
The floor will also be tiled with white 330x330 tiles. Very crisp very clean, very bright with the single 'feature' area of the bath drawing the focus.
I will update tomorrow on what I have done already.
Regards
AC

 

[macten]

The addies and grouts are fine mate

 

[lk1d]

Great job so far Supercoley! This thread has just prompted me to sign up cause it's exactly what I'm on with (only less well planned); hope it's ok to chip in with an eejut question?

Do you need to use tanking tape with a plaster / gypsum wall (no board). Thinking it would go into the corners and around of the top of the bath. In the spirit of this thread I've drawn a pic...

Is this crazy talk? I've never tiled before and want to do a proper job cause I've just spent the last 3 days resurfacing the water damaged wall. Figured once the tiles were on then cut away the protruding tape on the bath then grout and seal with Silicon. Thanks. L.

 

[faithhealer]

Great job so far Supercoley! This thread has just prompted me to sign up cause it's exactly what I'm on with (only less well planned); hope it's ok to chip in with an eejut question?

Do you need to use tanking tape with a plaster / gypsum wall (no board). Thinking it would go into the corners and around of the top of the bath. In the spirit of this thread I've drawn a pic...

Is this crazy talk? I've never tiled before and want to do a proper job cause I've just spent the last 3 days resurfacing the water damaged wall. Figured once the tiles were on then cut away the protruding tape on the bath then grout and seal with Silicon. Thanks. L.

Always found id difficult to get the tape to stick to the bath when you only have the thickness of a tile to work with. I would fill the gap between bath and wall with silicon, tile then finishing bead on top of that
ps welcome to the forum

 

[lk1d]

Thanks Faithhealer, thought the tape would be a pain to stick down across the top of the bath. Silicon it is then. Can I ask -is it ok to use the tanking primer on top of old paint or is it best to strip everything back to plaster?

 

[jay]

best to remove paint so as to get a better bond the mastic or Silicon behind waterproofing tape is a bond breaker stops tape from being stressed in a sharp corner causing it to tear

:welcome: to the forum

 

[lk1d]

Cheers Jay -figured that would be the case. Dust masks from B&Q then next time I'm there! Final question I promise (apologies for the de-rail). On the subject of B&Q, I bought a big tub of "Adhesive & Grout" last time I was there, but now I'm thinking I should have gone for separate products. What are folks thoughts on this -is Adhesive & Grout rubbish?

 

[macten]

Cheers Jay -figured that would be the case. Dust masks from B&Q then next time I'm there! Final question I promise (apologies for the de-rail). On the subject of B&Q, I bought a big tub of "Adhesive& Grout" last time I was there, but now I'm thinking I should have gone for separate products. What are folks thoughts on this -is Adhesive & Grout rubbish?

YES

Get yourself single part flexible bagged cement adhesive and a flexible grout.
Adhesive is adhesive and grout is grout. They both do different things so adhesive and grout in one does neither very well.

 

[lk1d]

Again thanks Macten. Figure that answer must be all over this forum! Right then back to B&Q with the reciepts...

Good luck with the build Supercoley.

 

[Supercoley1]

I tanked over the edge of the bath as per your picture. Seemed to stick OK.

I've done my bath like yours. chipped out the plaster and pushed it 5mm - 1cm under the paster with a large silicon bead along it. Then I've siliconed again where the bath joins the wall and then tanked the tape over the silicon and 5-8mm onto the bath. Corners were tricky with it having a round edge but it seemed to work OK.

Will update with some pictures as and when but busy tiling at mo (just having some lunch.) Once I've finished for the day I'll upload the pics onto my website and the I can stick them in here too.

AC

 

[Supercoley1]

On with the build. you'll hate me after this. lol

My spreader is a credit card with square notches on it. My tile cutter is actually a glass cutter and the L's/curves are cut with a ceramic blade in my jigsaw.

6th August 2010

The lime tiles arrived and I compared them to the left over Wickes ones I had from a previous job and even though the Wickes ones said on the box 148 x 148 compared to the lime ones which say 150 x 150 they were a perfect match for size so I guess this is just a 'round up'.

Wirh the tiles now in my hands I lined them up with the wall and bath to measure how many I would need using the spacers inbetwen. It worked out almost virtually 13 across.

At this point when I was lining the tiles up on the ends I immediately didn't think the move from colours around the bath to white where the bath stops would look as I wanted it too. The bath are is about a third of the room and therefore I decided that only the back wall and bath panel would have green and black on them. The rest of the walls will be white only. This also means I can go for bolder lines of colour on these feature walls.

The fram for the bath shelf surround completed at this point the next step will now wait until pay day, when we can buy the black and white tiles for this area and the tanking, adhesive and grout. That will be enough to complete the first month of the project.

AC