D
DavidFrancis
Hello
I'm a DIYer that's never done any tiling. The Silicon at the bottom of our shower was looking a bit ropey so I thought I'd cut it out and replace it. When doing that I noticed the grout in the bottom tiles was also looking a bit iffy so I decided to rake that out too. After I'd done that the tiles just came away from the wall! I think a fair bit of water had got behind the tiles as when I vacuumed out the debris there were a lot of craters left in the wall surface around the level of the top of the shower tray. I don't know if the wall is sand & cement or plaster. It's grey, which makes me think sand & cement, but it's quite soft and (now) cratered so perhaps it's plaster.
Our house has stone walls. The bathroom was gutted within the last 13 years by the previous owner. The corner in which the shower sits is not square and the surface is now very uneven. The tiles are 400 x 250 x 9, but the tiles in the bottom row are only about 60 mm high. See pictures.
I'm wondering what to do now.
I was thinking of cutting away a few mm of the wall and adding a 6mm moisture-resistant tile backer board so that I would have a square, flat surface to tile to, something decent to apply a sealant to (to seal between the wall and the shower tray) and something that wouldn't turn to mush if water did get behind the tiles. Then I was thinking of Silicon-ing some plastic angle to the edge of the shower tray to act as something of an upstand. I'd push the back of the angle against the backer board but not seal the angle to it - if I'm going to have an upstand I'd like to stay attached to the shower tray if we have a 20 stone guest using the shower. I was then thinking of packing out the back of the angle (with some cut-up angle) so it's about 2 mm thick. Then using 2mm of waterproof tile adhesive to fix the tiles to the backer board. Finally, grouting with a flexible wall grout (suitable for power showers) and sealing all the edges with a neutral cure Silicon.
Is this a reasonable way forward? Is there a better way? Anything I need to take into account?
PS I believe 6mm is too thin for a wall backer board but the tiles that will be adhered to it are only 60mm high and will mostly rest on the shower tray. I will be packing out the back of backer board so it sits square in relation to the shower tray. Also one full-sized tile came off when I raked out the grout round that (there were miniscule cracks in the grout).
Thanks in advance.
I'm a DIYer that's never done any tiling. The Silicon at the bottom of our shower was looking a bit ropey so I thought I'd cut it out and replace it. When doing that I noticed the grout in the bottom tiles was also looking a bit iffy so I decided to rake that out too. After I'd done that the tiles just came away from the wall! I think a fair bit of water had got behind the tiles as when I vacuumed out the debris there were a lot of craters left in the wall surface around the level of the top of the shower tray. I don't know if the wall is sand & cement or plaster. It's grey, which makes me think sand & cement, but it's quite soft and (now) cratered so perhaps it's plaster.
Our house has stone walls. The bathroom was gutted within the last 13 years by the previous owner. The corner in which the shower sits is not square and the surface is now very uneven. The tiles are 400 x 250 x 9, but the tiles in the bottom row are only about 60 mm high. See pictures.
I'm wondering what to do now.
I was thinking of cutting away a few mm of the wall and adding a 6mm moisture-resistant tile backer board so that I would have a square, flat surface to tile to, something decent to apply a sealant to (to seal between the wall and the shower tray) and something that wouldn't turn to mush if water did get behind the tiles. Then I was thinking of Silicon-ing some plastic angle to the edge of the shower tray to act as something of an upstand. I'd push the back of the angle against the backer board but not seal the angle to it - if I'm going to have an upstand I'd like to stay attached to the shower tray if we have a 20 stone guest using the shower. I was then thinking of packing out the back of the angle (with some cut-up angle) so it's about 2 mm thick. Then using 2mm of waterproof tile adhesive to fix the tiles to the backer board. Finally, grouting with a flexible wall grout (suitable for power showers) and sealing all the edges with a neutral cure Silicon.
Is this a reasonable way forward? Is there a better way? Anything I need to take into account?
PS I believe 6mm is too thin for a wall backer board but the tiles that will be adhered to it are only 60mm high and will mostly rest on the shower tray. I will be packing out the back of backer board so it sits square in relation to the shower tray. Also one full-sized tile came off when I raked out the grout round that (there were miniscule cracks in the grout).
Thanks in advance.
