# Re-doing a bathroom [PIC Heavy] Advice needed, see end of post.



## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

Hi all!

I recently undertook a project at home of fitting a bath into a very small bathroom... in a basement.

I've done general DIY (plumbing, building, decorating) but never tiling.

MISTAKE!

Two of the walls are plasterboard with wood battens, the others are concrete. Not only does this mean they're not very strong, they're also not very straight (not that I expect walls to be straight)

The waste is pumped out using a macerator pump (saniflo) which I despise.

For some reason, there was a window pointing into the hallway from the bathroom (no natural light) which I've now boarded up using plasterboard and plywood.

The bath I ordered (approx 1400mm long) is now on back order, and the earliest delivery date is 20th(!) of March - I ordered this back in January for delivery in Feb.

I've removed the old tiles and the old shower fixtures to find that the old shower mixer has been WELDED in (WHO DOES THAT!)

The old sink and pedestal have had tiles cut around them which means unless I can find the same floor tiles, I'm going to have to re-do the floor - thankfully this is quite straightforward it seems.

Ranting aside, pictures below!

Before :




























Pre-sanding/filling :



















Uhoh! Found some rotten plasterboard and... interesting batten placement.










Replaced! With some battens behind to support it. Chances are the new sink will go here.









Making space for plywood to go into this space










Done! Gaps filled with silicone sealant









Shower out :










Going to start tiling this weekend - least TRY anyway!

I've watched a whole bunch of youtube videos and how-to tile walls but I'm still concerned I'm going to botch it witch some tiles not quite sitting flat.

Does anyone have any tips or hints, things to avoid when tiling a wall?
I'm also a bit cautious of tiling straight onto the plywood and I'm wondering if I need to apply some bonding plaster to provide a better surface for the adhesive.

I've bought some super-flexible tile adhesive and I've already treated all the walls for mould. I've also filled a majority of the holes that were left with hardiebacker plasterboard.


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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

This is only my own thoughts having tiled in the house. I have no formal training etc. but as I said I've tiled a few bathrooms on a diy basis in both my own house (built in 1960 so needed a lot of work) plus helped out family with tiling.

I did floor to ceiling tiles in my downstairs bathroom all onto brick walls but I've also tiled upstairs onto plasterboard and didn't find much difference.

I don't know about plywood and I'd take some advice on that. I've laid floor tiles before which gets laid onto plywood to protect the floorboards when you finally replace them and didn't seal or anything and had no problems but that was obviously a horizontal surface not a vertical wall.

For walls if you're mixing up adhesive just make sure it's a good consistency which will help the tile remain in place as opposed to the adhesive being too thin or runny and less likely to hold it in place as it's a vertical surface.

What I do is attach a baton to the wall perfectly level one tile (plus your grout gap) height from the floor and tile from there upwards. That ensures if your floor or walls are off you should still have a horizontal grout line rather than possibly running at an angle. The wooden baton also allows the bottom tile to rest on it which should prevent any slippage of the tiles down the wall. When the tile adhesive is fully set you can remove the Baton and tile the last part.

I just used spirit levels as I went along to make sure the tiles were all flat.

You look as if you're doing a good job and I wish you the best of luck there's nothing more satisfying coming to the end of a job knowing it's all your own work. :thumb:


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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

Thanks Macca for the advice! From what I read, it sounds like cream-cheese is the best consistency. 

Hit a bit of a speedbump as I've done something to my ankle - my physiobrain tells me it's bursitis but I don't quite want to accept that!

I found out there's a plywood treatment i've got to use to make it ready for accepting the adhesive so I'll be doing that this week. 

One of the tips I've had is draw a line in the centre of the wall - if less than half a tile fits at the end, move the line by half a tile so that you get half a tile at the end at least. Makes it look far neater.

I'll be starting the full tiling tomorrow!


One of the thing I was wondering on - rather than re-tiling the floor, what about placing a patterned/different colour tile where the new sink would go? Would this look awkward?

I'm thinking either a beige hexagon or a black tile of matching design.


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## wee man (Sep 29, 2016)

I used PVA on marine ply in my shower area before tiling they are still there 4 years later.

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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

armufti said:


> I'll be starting the full tiling tomorrow!
> 
> One of the thing I was wondering on - rather than re-tiling the floor, what about placing a patterned/different colour tile where the new sink would go? Would this look awkward?
> 
> I'm thinking either a beige hexagon or a black tile of matching design.


It might look all right if you replaced the three tiles where the sink is I'm assuming it's going in the same place?

Otherwise if you only replaced the two tiles at the current pedestal IMO it wouldn't look right.


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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

Finally had a chance to start the tiling, far too busy at work and settling the little one at nursery.

Doesn't look too bad I think! Only one wall so far but planning on doing two tomorrow and then another on Saturday



















Probably going to hold off on the floor until I know whether it's needed for certain - that will be when the bath arrives.

Also going to wait to do the grout until later to avoid having mixing it up time and time again.

Bought a few parts from screw fix - the push fit fittings are so much easier and cheaper than copper! It's a wonder we haven't all switched to them!

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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

I forgot to add, the different colour patch would only go under the sink and any removed tiles from there would go to filling the patch left by the old pedestal.

Also, that pillar in picture 2 is also going to get a tile covering with a silver bezel.


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## macca666 (Mar 30, 2010)

Looks a good job so far mate :thumb:


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## Estoril-5 (Mar 8, 2007)

remember your tiles shouldn't sit flush with the corners of walls (internal corners), you should leave a minimum of a 2mm gap for expansion and then fill that gap with a good quality silicone sealant like Dow Corning 785 or CT1.

also get hold of a silicone profile tool like the Fugi silicone kit to finish off your sealant - it will look a lot better than the old fairy liquid on a finger trick!


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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

Another wall but made a mistake with too large a gap on the left side of the tiles  hopefully this would be covered up OK with the silicone!

Thanks for the tip esotril! I'll give it a go with the kit once I get there. I'm hoping to be done by Saturday at this rate seems possible


















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## Estoril-5 (Mar 8, 2007)

It does look a little on the large side, what I would do is grout as normal (run a line of tape on the architrave to stop it from getting grouted) and then remove tape and sealant If there is still a gap.

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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

Estoril-5 said:


> It does look a little on the large side, what I would do is grout as normal (run a line of tape on the architrave to stop it from getting grouted) and then remove tape and sealant If there is still a gap.
> 
> Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk


Thanks Estoril! Will give that a go.

Didn't to much today as have an interview tomorrow, but picked up a wet/dry nilfisk vac to remove the water from the macerator, cistern and pot so that I can move and tile behind them.

I placed the batten down on the wall next to the one I just did and realised that the mosaic I will run in the centre of the wall is 30.2cm H and 33.3cm W. The large tiles are 30x60(w).

Possible issues I see : 
1. might screw up the groutline. though dry-tiling doesn't make it look like it should be an issue. 
2. As the bath is approx 59cm from the floor, i'll need to account for this - this also means I'm 2 mosaic tiles short 

Solution 1 - adjust as tiling.

Solution 2- offset the tile so that it is just about 5-10 cm below the bath tub rather than a whole tile. I'm assuming I'll need to plot all this out on the day with another batten to support the mosaics.


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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

So a little progress. I decided solution 2 was best for me.










One more wall left to do and it's the one I'm dreading most! Macerator, shower mixer and extractor fan all to be fitted on this wall and it has a history of developing damp and mould. Should be starting this tomorrow.

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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

Completed the tiling for the most part, need to finish grouting and add the two mosaic tiles


















fixtures now starting to go in. Need to put the toilet and cistern back in some speedfit connections (absolute fan of these!)

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## cossack (Mar 9, 2008)

Hi bud, I'm just after finishing a wetroom myself! It was hard and im very handy, all I'll say to you is, if you haven't treated the surface you tiled to in any way ( I'm talking about waterproofing) just make sure and get a very good quality waterproof grout and ensure your mastic is applied well.

Great tip for mastic is using masking tape! It really does work well and DONT lick your finger to wet it to smooth the mastic, use soapy water! Licking your finger introduced bacteria and it goes black fast if not taken care of!

Job looks well


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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

Grout and last two tiles done!






























Got to put some sealant into the corners and around the shower fixing. Still to screw in the fan fuse.

Waiting on the bath and sink now but all depends when this will get delivered.

Not used mastic before so need to read up about it

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## armufti (Oct 11, 2016)

So a big update.

The bath ordered from homebase, due to arrive on the 28th March was cancelled due to lack of stock 2 days before delivery. No explanation or anything given otherwise. I'm ****ed off about that.

Have now taken delivery of a new bath from b&q, arrived within 3 days of order.

In the meantime found out that the toilet pot has cracked and due to the new bath the layout will need to be changed..
Haven't had a chance to do much else due to car accident and the delays with the bath but floor has been retiled.

Sink will now go to the right hand side where the door is and the door will open outwards or towards the bath. Obviously this will mean replumbing everything. 





































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