J
janjul
Hi all, this is my first post so please be gentle and I am a girl!!!
I have tiled many bathrooms before as a DIYer and have no problems with primers, adhesives, setting out etc but I have a really specific query about my downstairs cloakroom and am hoping you guys can advise.
The cloakroom is quite large and will have a back to wall toilet, wall hanging basin and a large towel rail type radiator. All plumbing is new and all installed and walls have all been plastered over 2 months ago so am now ready to start.
My problem is the room previously suffered from damp on the internal party wall. The house is a large Victorian semi built in 1896. The room has been a downstairs cloaks well before we bought the house but dampness was uncovered on renovating the cloakroom. It appeared that the damproof course had broken down (there was evidence of recently installed bitumen damp course on other 3 walls but not on this wall). There was also some attempt at Bitumen tanking on the wall but this had started to break down and was noticably wet on removal. We had DPC injected when we moved in 3 years ago but this did not improve the wall much. So we bit the bullet and decided to remove all plaster in room and to remove a course of bricks on the damp wall to put in a new DP membrane which seems to have done the trick despite there been only a 1/2 to inch cavity between the two party walls and the bricks are also cross bonded every 5 runs of brick up 2/3 rds of the wall.
Anyway we had all walls replastered with correct cement, waterpoofer and plaster mixes and all seems perfectly dry. The plaster did not plaster down to floor so as not to bridge damp proof course but this is where my problem lies.
I like my wall tiles to flush fit with the floor tiles as I like the cleaner look rather than having skirting boards on. I now have a gap about 3 inch up from the floor and am not sure how to deal with this if I want to keep that look.
Can I just tile down to the floor as I have always done or should I bite the bullet and install skirts. The floor is ashphalt and therefore no damp there and I have sourced and used previously a great adhesive for that type of floor so its just bridging the DPC I'm worried about. I had also thought of putting the bottom tiles on proud of the floor and overfacing them with a tiled skirt just cut from the tiles I'm using (have an electric tile cutter) so it may not hit you in the face looks wise. In this way the bottom tile would still stop short of the dpc but this would be hidden by using the facing tile (say 1/3 height of full tile but don't know if I'm worrying about nothing. The tiles are reasonably large rectangular tiles and will laid lengthways along the wall. I also like to use very wide grout spaces and the floor tiles are matching square tiles so that all grout lines follow from floor line up the wall. I have got quite good at pulling this off now and I love the challenge!!
I would really appreciate any advice you could offer as we intend this house to be our last one so I want to do the correct thing so it doesn't come back and bit me on the bum in years to come.
Sorry post is so long but wanted to give you as much info as poss to ensure you know what I'm up against.
I have tiled many bathrooms before as a DIYer and have no problems with primers, adhesives, setting out etc but I have a really specific query about my downstairs cloakroom and am hoping you guys can advise.
The cloakroom is quite large and will have a back to wall toilet, wall hanging basin and a large towel rail type radiator. All plumbing is new and all installed and walls have all been plastered over 2 months ago so am now ready to start.
My problem is the room previously suffered from damp on the internal party wall. The house is a large Victorian semi built in 1896. The room has been a downstairs cloaks well before we bought the house but dampness was uncovered on renovating the cloakroom. It appeared that the damproof course had broken down (there was evidence of recently installed bitumen damp course on other 3 walls but not on this wall). There was also some attempt at Bitumen tanking on the wall but this had started to break down and was noticably wet on removal. We had DPC injected when we moved in 3 years ago but this did not improve the wall much. So we bit the bullet and decided to remove all plaster in room and to remove a course of bricks on the damp wall to put in a new DP membrane which seems to have done the trick despite there been only a 1/2 to inch cavity between the two party walls and the bricks are also cross bonded every 5 runs of brick up 2/3 rds of the wall.
Anyway we had all walls replastered with correct cement, waterpoofer and plaster mixes and all seems perfectly dry. The plaster did not plaster down to floor so as not to bridge damp proof course but this is where my problem lies.
I like my wall tiles to flush fit with the floor tiles as I like the cleaner look rather than having skirting boards on. I now have a gap about 3 inch up from the floor and am not sure how to deal with this if I want to keep that look.
Can I just tile down to the floor as I have always done or should I bite the bullet and install skirts. The floor is ashphalt and therefore no damp there and I have sourced and used previously a great adhesive for that type of floor so its just bridging the DPC I'm worried about. I had also thought of putting the bottom tiles on proud of the floor and overfacing them with a tiled skirt just cut from the tiles I'm using (have an electric tile cutter) so it may not hit you in the face looks wise. In this way the bottom tile would still stop short of the dpc but this would be hidden by using the facing tile (say 1/3 height of full tile but don't know if I'm worrying about nothing. The tiles are reasonably large rectangular tiles and will laid lengthways along the wall. I also like to use very wide grout spaces and the floor tiles are matching square tiles so that all grout lines follow from floor line up the wall. I have got quite good at pulling this off now and I love the challenge!!
I would really appreciate any advice you could offer as we intend this house to be our last one so I want to do the correct thing so it doesn't come back and bit me on the bum in years to come.
Sorry post is so long but wanted to give you as much info as poss to ensure you know what I'm up against.
