Tiling on plasterboard walls query, plus tap question

[Ed]

Hi there helpful people!

We recently got a quote for rebuilding our bathroom, knocking toilet and bathroom together and putting in a shower cubicle but it came out too expensive.

So our thought now is to just replace the bath suite and put in a shower tap on the bath. Unfortunately the wall at the tap end of our bath is only half the width of the bath as the window comes across, so I dont know the feasibility of having the shower tap at that end, as it may splash all over the window sill and the wife's acoutrements thereupon.

So my thought is to perhaps have a bath with the taps on the side. Would this cause any problems plumbing wise, it would make the plug about 50cm further away from its current position?

Also, for the tiling question, we'd have to go bath to ceiling if adding a shower attachment to the tap; currently there are just a few rows of tiles and as we have a plasterboard wall I'm reluctant to try and get them off as they'd probably pull off half the aforementioned wall and require a plasterer to make the wall good again before re- tiling.

So I'm left with the problem of tiling on top of the current tiles, which should be fine, but then the tiles above behind the shower that are just on the wall wouldn't be flush with the area that I tiled over, if that makes sense. I'm worried that would make it look DIY'd and spoil the whole thing.

Can anyone offer some advice on the matter please?

[boltmail]

Pull the tiles off, and if the plasterboard gets damaged pull that off as well. Replace with new plasterboard, or better, aquapanel, or better still wedi-board. Even plasterboard doesn't need to be skimmed before tiling - in fact it is better not to.

[chudford]

Why not fit a seperate shower mixer to the other end of the bath, a thermostatic controlled mixer shower would be much better and safer. Screwfix have them for =A365. I have done this very successfully at my son's house.

Depends on what is on the other side of the wall how easy this would be to fit.

Alternatively you could fit an electric shower.

[NOSPAMnet]

snipped

Sits and ducks as folks get out their slings and crossbows to fire at the mention of "electric showers" :-)

personally I have had a ES for years and years but ,even though I stay in a sec'd floor flat,I have loads of water coming through the mains cold and have no problem with them .

[sm_jamieson]

What are the current tiles like ? You may not get any to match, but you could put a boarder of, say, mosaics, and then similar tiles above, and the slight difference may not show. Best to put an thermostatic mixer in - shower/taps are never that effective IMHO. If you can get at the back of the bathroom wall (say from the landing or a bedroom), you may be able to fit piping from there. Of course, best job would be retiling, maybe removing bath for plumbing changes etc. But that all puts up the cost. Simon.

[Ed]

Current tiles are about 40 years old and presumably were once white. Bathroom wall backs onto garden...

[Alang]

I took out a faulty Mira shower a few months after we moved in. They were about £250 in BQ at the time but after replacing several components in theold one I decided on a different model. Put a Triton in that cost less than £100. Basic but less to go wrong. Hot showering was crap until I put the finer spray mira shower head on it instead of the one that came with the shower. I can get a decent shower even in winter on an 8Kw heater. I have to turn the temperature control up to about three quarters so there is *some* reduction in water through put but not anything I'd complain about. Used it every day for the last 10 years.

[The Medway Handyman]

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