Wet room with concrete floor. Who is right??

[rachelk]

Can anyone help? I desperately need advice! We have had an extension built with a wetroom planned, 1.4 x 2.1metres. It has had a concrete floor on the advice of the plumber. He advised us that the builder could create a fall in concrete and that this could be tiled. We would not have had it built if we thought it would be expensive but he reassured us that without the need for a shower tray or cubicle it should be no more expensive than a conventional shower. Currently the concrete floor is 40mm below the finished floor of the adjoining room. The plan is to use a screen 800 long with a 200 return and have only one slope towards the short wall. I have bought a 1200ml linear drain which would go close to the wall.

Since we began, the plumber has said that he does not believe his tiling is his best skill and would recommend a tiler does the floor so that we do not end up with any pooling. He would then complete the remainder of the plumbing.

I have had 4 people round to quote. One was a tiler who said it would need tanking by someone experienced and then he would be happy to tile. Two of them (plumbers specialising in wetrooms) have drawn breath and said it has been approached completely wrong. Ideally they would like to start again, get rid of the concrete floor and fit a former (costly!!) The other one, who is a tiler not a plumber and is the contact of our builder, has said he sees no problem and would just tile straight onto concrete. No need for tanking.

Ideally I would like to procede without costly changes.

Who is right?
Is it sensible to get our builder to construct a slope and a tiler to tile straight on?
Do we need tanking? If so; as nobody seems to want to just tank and tile; is tanking something I could do myself??
Lastly, we wanted underfloor heating which our electrician says he could do for about £***. Should this be a straightforward addition or am I asking for further complications.

 

[White Room]

Hi and welcome...the floor could be screeded with falls to your drain, a good floor screeder should have no problem.

Surprised the tiler would need someone to tank for him.

Don't decide on the ufh after it has been screeded, that should be sorted before hand to allow hight restictions and you would need some thermal boards to be laid which need to be fixed the falls of the screed, the cement screed would reduce the heat from the ufh, which I take it is the electric type. Contact these guys for an exact specs Underfloor Heating | Electric | Floor Insulation | Frost Protection | Uheat

They would supply and give advise to your requirments.

 

[Mike]

a decent and experienced tiler should be able to do the whole job for you including insulation boards, ufh, tanking and tiling. if you're not confident in the tilers you've had round you could always advertise on here for some other tilers to quote you

 

[kilty55]

honest opinion,you have too many people who are not connected involved here,something will go wrong

i would also suggest advertising here and get a good tiler who does full fits to orgainse the whole job and over see it

 

[Bubblecraft]

There seems to be too many cooks spoiling the broth! It is a straight forward job. Decide first if you wish UFH. You have the option to put in an inscreed heater. If you decide after the screed is done, you still have the option of loose wire of matting. A good builder can put in the UFH, do the screed, tank & tile. £*** is a reasonable price to instal UFH. If the concrete base is in, work with it. There is no need to take it away!


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[DHTiling]

It does need waterproofing .... this will prevent ingression through screed to walls etc and prevent mould growth in the substrates.

 

[Ajax123]

As kilty55 said you have too many people trying to tell you too many things.....something will go wrong. Use a contractor who can do the lot and who can demonstrate to you that he has experience with wet rooms.

If you don't tank you could end up with mould and efflorescence issues which would both be horrid. Tanking is easy to do so a tiler who can't or wont do it as part of the job should immediately ring alarm bells. there are plenty of good quality tilers on here who would be able to do the job.

Purely personal opinion but I don't see the point of and would not use underfloor heating in the shower area.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

You could use Wedi board up to your finished floor level and also to form your slopes to the outlet. Properly tanked/sealed at all joins and walls and then your UFH can be laid ontop and covered with a flexible fast set screed.
Then the best part - Tiling - and what's going on the walls?
You can PM any member of the Forum for further advice and get a costing from either a local member or one who travels:smilewinkgrin:.

Good luck.