Travertine tiles in a shower. Help needed.

[lol knowles]

hi kate use a product called seal guard i just finnished my bathroom in travertine i tanked the wall to be safe also make sure the tiles are very clean before you seal them seal guard also protects the grout so go over the grout after as well

 

[doug boardley]

Seal Guard is a topical sealer isn't it??

 

[doug boardley]

Seal Guard is a topical sealer isn't it??

I take that back, just googled it and it says it's an impregnating sealer. For some reason I thought it was topical beause it was aerosol:lol:

 

[lol knowles]

ive been a plumber for 27 years and a tiler for 15 so we are about. every bathroom i did they asked me if i knew a tiler so i thought why not

 

[kilty55]

i knew this would happen,there are many many tilers out there who give totally conflicting advice,,if you want my opinion kate post the jobs on here and you wil get a better standard of quote

 

[kilty55]

wax on wax off? is he a chinese tiler

 

[Alan.P]

Well you have the opinions of a fair few fixers and 2 of your local guys Kate, what to do next ?

 

[Kate the mate]

The latest update. Forgive me if I'm boring you with this.

Plumber number one came back yesterday. He said he would take out the shower, cut out some of the plaster to set the tray back into the wall. He would use undiluted Unibond on the walls behind the tiles. He said the walls were sound and would take the weight of the tiles no problem. He would screw down all the floor boards and use Nomoreply on the floor which is thinner than ply and he would use the two part adhesive which is flexible.

The one questionable part was my bath which is a big thing with a shroud and it was a devil to put in. He thought it would be fine to tile around it as it would be unlikely that it would ever have to come out. I was worried that tiling-in the surround would be a big problem if we can't get underneath the bath in case of emergency although the oulet goes through the outside wall which the bath is against. Is it acceptable to tile in a bath so you can't get under it?

Number two tiler has been discounted because, apart from the information you've given me on here, he's left a big oil patch on my drive!!

Has anyone got any thoughts on whether it's okay to tile the bath in? What about the Nomoreply? No-one has mentioned this on this thread so I'm not sure. Thanks for your help.

 

[RubiUK]

Hi kate Gary from Rubi tools here, I have been a tiler for 28 years know and just to give you a little bit of advise about unibonding a wall. If the wall is sound you dont need to put a neat coat of unibond on the wall just a wash because (a) Unibond is water based and the adhesive is full of water so the unibond just turns back to liquid like in the tub, and (b) if the unibond does stay solid your tiles arnt sticking to the wall there sticking to the unibond and not the substrate and your adhesive to work best needs to grab the substrate so thick unibond does not always mean good adhesion. If the unibond is just for waterproofing you are much better of with a tanking system.The idea of tiling in the bath is sheer folly because say you get a leak the bath panel would have to be wreaked and while you might not get a leak ever you may be unlucky and get two in a month? very exspensive maybe.

 

[Kate the mate]

Exactly what was worrying me, Gary. Sod's law as soon as it was tiled in we'd have a leak. Thanks also for the unibond info.

Out of interest, whereabouts on this site do I post a job? It seems it might be the best way for me to proceed although I did really like the idea of someone being able to do the whole job, plumbing and tiling.

 

[Alan.P]

Here's where you can post up for looking for a tiler, post some details of where you are etc

 

[Alan.P]

And as Gary says, sheer madness to tile in a panel, for obvious reasons, I've never used no more ply so can't comment on that, someone else will though, no doubt.

 

[Kate the mate]

Thanks Alan. I'll hop over there and post something.

 

[RubiUK]

Hi Kate it is aukward putting all your faith in one person to do all trades but there are some very good trades out there so why dont you see if anybody has qualifications in both trades like i have,Although that does not gaurentee a good trade it is a safer way than leaving it to chance.

 

[lol knowles]

hi kate no more ply is the same as hardibacker boards there fine you can make the bath panal so it comes off with mirror screws for access did that on my last job he had decking lights in the panal looked good bit tricky to do though