I am planning to have a bathroom tiled, wals and floor. I want to remove the skirting and run the floor tiles right up to the bottom of the wall tiles with no trim. Is this OK?
Secondly I plan to replace a tired old bath panel with some marine ply wood which will then be tiled with the wall tiles. Is marine ply the correct choice and if so does it need any preparation or can the adhesive go straight on?
Thanks
Yes
Worked for me with the correct adhesive. If the panel is not removable you need to plan how to get access under the bath in future, or just use mirror mounting screws which doesn't look as nice.
Mechanically it is. The best way is to leave an expansion gap at the bottom of 4-6mm and to fill it with a silicone sealant. THis will take up any significant movement.
Whether this looks good aesthetically is another thing. It can look rather strange unless both sets of tiles are chosen carefully.
One solution is to make a small upstand skirting using the floor tiles
- perhaps 75mm or so high - and to wall tile down to that.
I used this approach in my cloakroom project recently, cutting strips of the floor slate and tiling down to that. I used strips of 9mm ply behind the slate upstand so that there would be a ledge where the wall tiles meet it. The result is very effective.
marine ply is specific and not needed for this application. The normal choice is WBP, which is commonly available.
The key things are:
1) Make the framing absolutely rigid so that there is no movement.2) Use 18mm ply, nothing less.
3) Use a good quality flexible adhesive. These are either specific products or a non flexible one with an ad-mix. Ardex and Weber are the market leaders in tiling adhesives and own other brands such as Dunlop, BAL and Howtex. You will be able to use the adhesive for the rest of the installation as well. A similarly flexible grout is needed as well. Check with the manufacturer about the installation procedure onto ply. Some require no primer at all (specifically), others suggest painting on a PVA solution and yet others specify a two part resin primer. You must use the manufacturer's recommendation.
Suspended floor?
A solid floor?
In my case, the floor is concrete, some walls plasterboard on studs, some ply and others breezeblock. Either way, I did expansion gaps underneath the upstand sections just in case. This is simple to do. When sticking them, arrange a gap at the bottom of about 3-4mm using tile spacers or wedges. Then on completion, fill the gap with clear silicone (or possibly white if appropriate) up to just flush with the surface.
The other thing I wonder about with tiling a bath panel is the weight. Over the length involved, it would be quite difficult to produce something that isn't going to flex if removed, even if ply is used.
Thanks. I assumed marine was the only ply proof against water, I'll look for WBP. As for the tiling wall to floor, you are right about the matching. It will depend on the choice of tiles which will be made by a higher authority than me (wife). If she goes mad with colour/pattern I may just replace the current scruffy skirting with new stuff.
Thanks for the replies.
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