Tanking and other advice needed?

[jonbabbz]

Hello, Im looking for a bit of advice regarding a bathroom i'm DIYing in my own house. I am installing an 1800mm double ended bath into a sort of alcove that is 1860mm wide.

I'm tiling around the bath and have stripped the entire thing down to brick and boarded out with green plasterboard. Firstly, do I need to tank this area? There will be a mixer shower going in at one end of the bath.

Also, because of the width of the alcove, I cant tile 'onto' the bath at either end and so im going to be left with a gap of around 15cm at each end after tiling- what would you guys do about this? I was thinking about just filling it with silicone. I know I could move the bath upto one side but would prefer it be centered.

Any recommendations on suitable waterproof adhesive would be appreciated too as Ive read that much conflicting info on bagged and ready mixed my heads in a right spin. I used ready mixed last time on the old plastered walls that held well enough for the last 5 years but have since read bagged is better - but which kind?

My wife is currently ready for dropping our first born in 4 weeks so time and money are also a slight concern. Thankyou in advance.

 

[High Peak Tiling]

Hello & welcome to TF.

I mostly use a professional materials company called Weber, i shall use them as an example to try and answer your Q's.

Prime your boards with Weber Pr 360
Apply Weber SYS Protect tanking to the primed boards
Tile the prepared boards with Weber Fix WR.

Weber is a reasonably priced professional company to use. Bal, Ardex, Mapeii are also other professional companies to bear in mind.
I hope this answers some of your questions.

I personally use the appropriate tubbed ready mixed adhesive for tiles upto 250x250mm Tiles on walls. Anything larger then I go for Powder adhesive.

 

[bugs183]

Hiya Jon.
Firstly find out what height the bath will sit at and screw batons on each of the three sides so that the underneath of the bath is fully supported. This will stop the bath from moving around whilst full of water, people etc. Not many plumbers do this then us tilers get moaned at for our 'tiles leaking'!

Are you going to have a shower fitting in the alcove going into the bath? If you are and it is at one end of the bath butt that end directly against the wall, the last thing you want are daft little gaps at the end of a bath under a shower.
If you are going to centre the bath then you will need to tile this piece a 15cm strip of silicon is gonna look cack and will fill with mould etc, bluuurggh! These are going to be a weak spot in the waterproofing or the bath area so these must be well fitted.
So make sure that these gaps are blocked underneath with something solid and is securely screwed to the frame as fitted above. Fill in the gaps with a water resistant board such as Marmox or wedi board, put a slight fall running to the bath to shed the water.

Many folk don't waterproof plasterboard and don't have problems, but many folk do have problems so i'd certainly recommend tanking.
Screwfix are selling Mapei tanking kit for a good price at the mo. There is plenty of tape and mapegum there to do your project nicely.
You haven't said what tiles you are using, but virtually all the guys would recommend you use powdered adhesive as even the duff stuff will be much better than ready mix, especially if you've tanked the walls. Tubbed won't dry properly on a waterproof background.
Stick to MApei, Bal Ardex etc and you won't go wrong. I use standard set usually, this dries slower than 'fast set' so it give s you time to work under no time pressure.
Lots of info on this site regarding anything you need for your bathroom.
Enjoy.

 

[Andy Tiler]

Hello & welcome to TF.

I mostly use a professional materials company called Weber, i shall use them as an example to try and answer your Q's.

Prime your boards with Weber Pr 360
Apply Weber SYS Protect tanking to the primed boards
Tile the prepared boards with Weber Fix WR.

Weber is a reasonably priced professional company to use. Bal, Ardex, Mapeii are also other professional companies to bear in mind.
I hope this answers some of your questions.

I personally use the appropriate tubbed ready mixed adhesive for tiles upto 250x250mm Tiles on walls. Anything larger then I go for Powder adhesive.

You use tubbed adhesive on top of a waterproof membrane?!!!!! :/
That's not good advice!!! You are better off using powdered....

 

[Gazzer]

Hello & welcome to TF.

I mostly use a professional materials company called Weber, i shall use them as an example to try and answer your Q's.

Prime your boards with Weber Pr 360
Apply Weber SYS Protect tanking to the primed boards
Tile the prepared boards with Weber Fix WR.

Weber is a reasonably priced professional company to use. Bal, Ardex, Mapeii are also other professional companies to bear in mind.
I hope this answers some of your questions.

I personally use the appropriate tubbed ready mixed adhesive for tiles upto 250x250mm Tiles on walls. Anything larger then I go for Powder adhesive.

You use tubbed adhesive on top of a waterproof membrane?!!!!! :/
That's not good advice!!! You are better off using powdered....

Weber Quote
"Allow to dry for at least 12 hours, or until the weber.sys protec is no longer tacky, before fixing the tiles with weber.set SPF or weber.set rapid SPF. When the adhesive has fully set, grout the joints with an appropriate grout. Fill the joints around the perimeters with weber SL450 or stoneset flexible NC sealant."

 

[High Peak Tiling]

Tiling showers, bathrooms and wet rooms - Weber, world?s leading manufacturer of industrial mortars for the facade, tile fixing and construction markets

Not wrong Andy. Read the above under solution medium shower.
specifies, Fix WR or Fix Plus for WALLS, Set spf for floors!

 

[Gazzer]

But how do you know its a medium use shower....? It may be today but not if they sell the house. Surely the benefits are in the favour for cement based adhesive ?

 

[bugs183]

Here's Bal's spec on WP1, they recommend White Star on the walls, tubbed on tanking tut tut.
The very thing that the walls are being protected from using a tanking system (ie water) is what will cause waterlogging of the adhesives! good work Ball and Weber!!

 

[cam_low]

I don't understand why people use ready mixed its so overpriced for the amount you get!!

 

[High Peak Tiling]

Cement based are defiantly the best for the job. but for a Diy'er using easy application materials to Companies product sheet specification the ready mixed is more appealing I would of thought.

I am going off their definition of a 'Medium' - a domestic shower which is used heavily &/Or has a high pressured water supply.

Today it is medium, and being over a bath it wont be classified as a 'High usage' (definition- Pubic shower room)

 

[bugs183]

Mind you here is Mapei tech sheet on Mapegum, check out the tub of D2!

 

[AliGage]

Mixers are usually used in conjunction with a pump, high pressure cylinder or a combination boiler. None i would advise using tubbed adhesive with for your tiling.
Even if you use the shower once a week. Its a lot of water consumption in the wet area. Cement based powder for sure.

 

[Gazzer]

Well whether or not the manufacturer of the adhesive says its ok, I know what I will be using.

 

[Martyn Leeds]

Have we had any quotes from any local pro's in your area???????????????????????????????????? and when you say a 15cm gap to be filled with silicone, do we mean 15mm?? 'cos 15cm would be a bit tricky!

 

[jonbabbz]

All great advice, thank you. The shower will be used maybe a few times a week, no real heavy usage at all. I think I've decided to butt the bath up to the wall at one side(nearest shower) and have a bigger gap at the other end and maybe tile the small infill(yes I meant 15mm not 15cm...doh). The reason I wanted it centered is because the taps are in the middle as opposed to the 'end' and im having a mosaic type pattern straight up the middle. My problem is I'm really indecisive and read far too much on the interweb regarding different peoples views on the adhesive side of things. As I said I've used the tubbed stuff before without any problems in years and no tanking - but that was on a regular old plastered wall. Oh - the shower is just a mixer fed from a combi-boiler with good pressure and the tiles are 9mm thick and 300 x 400mm. Thanks for all your help guys. Really appreciate it.

 

[AliGage]

You say the bath is going into an alcove? How deep is it? Is it possible to overboard or build out one side to make the bath a snug fit?
Your tile size is generally too large for tubbed adhesive. And you say you're running off a combination boiler so you'll have 1.5 bar pressure on both got and main supply (depending on what you set on the boiler but 1.5 is the normal mains pressure) so in my opinion although you may only use it once a week your shower will use a lot of water. Id say its a heavy wet area. You really should use a powder rather than ready mix in my opinion.

 

[Martyn Leeds]

Can you just overboard the 2 end walls with a 12mm board + tile = nice and snug

 

[mattle40]

Can you just overboard the 2 end walls with a 12mm board + tile = nice and snug

My thoughts exactly. What he said ^