Tile Installation and Repair

[Charlie S.]

I am looking for suggestions on how to repair the tiles in our bathroom.

The bottom half of our bathroom walls have ceramic tiles. In two different sections, where the pipes meet the wall, there are gaping holes or missing tiles. I would like to fill in the gaps around the holes as the best I can and replace the missing tiles. I don't have any experience with working with tiles, but it seems from the looks of it I could learn the mechanics by reading books or talking to someone at Home Depot. The carpentry part of this job is what I need help with.

I posted pictures of the bathroom. See

The first picture gives an overview on what the bathroom looks like. The last two pictures give the best close up views of the two sides. There is wall board behind the tiling.

I don't know how to attack this problem. Your suggestions are appreciated. Specifically, how would I fit in new wall board around the pipes? Where would I attach it to? There isn't anything behind wall and as you can see there is no wall where the pipes go through. I plan to check the local tile dealer for best possible color matches.

This is my first time posting here. If this type of post would be better posted somewhere else please let me know of an alternate newsgroup. Thanks!

[SQLit]

I am just finishing my bathroom tile.

I found all sorts of growing things in the walls because of 20 years of neglect. I ended up ripping down the drywall, rebuilding the walls then setting tile. I did not want to do this but I did not want to cover up anything that was going to be saying " feed me" in the future.

There are several methods of cutting tile. You can even get a carbide bit at HD that will cut holes if your patient. Setting a tile with a hole in it can be a lot of fun.. not

Matching tile I believe is like looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Unless the tile is new and still in production. Even then there are going to be dye lot differences.

[Pat]

I am not sure its possible to tile around those pipes. You probably need to open up the walls and replumb the pipes inside the walls. Then restore the wall surface.

[G Henslee]

You picked a winner of a repair job to learn on LOL. Sorry, your pics are shaded and don't really show the extent of the damage to the substrate or wood members. Holes can be filled with plaster or thinset. Not really sure what carpentry you're referring to.

[Charlie S.]

Sorry, can't enlarge pictures on this free website. Will try to take brighter pictures and upload to the site.

There is sheetrock type of wallboard. No water or moisture problems. Seems this project will be a bigger problem than I anticipated. Really want to fill the hole making the bathroom look half way decent. Had masking tape covering the holes previously. So, I really don't need to tile this area. Even if I could fill this space with plaster or thinset(?) and paint the surface it fills I'd be happy.

[G Henslee]

Then what 'damage' is there really? Screw some backing (wood) in the larger holes best you can and follow with drywall and tile. if it's voids that need filling the t/s will suffice, followed by tile.

If you're not going to replace the whole deal, it's called making the best of a bad situation...

[dadiOH]

The easiest thing to do around the horizontal pipes would be to use some sort of finishing ring. You can get chromed metal ones in various diameters that are hinged on one side...open them up, slip over the pipe and push back to the wall, close ring. Some plumbers putty between wall and ring will hold it in place.

Before doing that, get a pair of tile nippers. They are sort of like pliers with a cutting edge and are used to nipple away at tiles to get a rough opening or shape. In your case, you would nibble away a "U" shaped portion so you could slip the tile up close to the pipe and have the tile bottom edge and sides align with neighboring tiles. The roughness of the nibbled away area would be covered by the finishing ring..

-- dadiOH ____________________________

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