Advice

[darrena]

Hi,
I'm a keen DIY'er at best and have tiled several floors and walls in the past with acceptable results!

I'm just about to embark on tiling a feature wall in our downstairs loo.
The tile is a Stratum Grey from Topps Tiles and from the reviews is a great tile but a sod to lay as its textured!

The wall I'm is behind a hung on wall toilet with a concealed cistern so I will need to tile round the toilet and the flush button!

I'm thinking this is averagely simple as I have not corners and just have to contend with the toilet and button. Just after any pointers on the type of tile and problems I may come up against

Also out of interest where should I start, top bottom middle if the wall?

Many thanks in advance
Darren

 

[vinn]

Have you already bought the tiles and installed the WC?
Do you own a tile saw?
Can you post a photo of the wall and WC?
Do you understand the possible difficulties in grouting such tiles?

 

[darrena]

Hi,
Tiles no yet purchased but a job for Saturday
I do own a tile saw although only a £40 one.
I appreciate that grouting may be tricky given the tile design but have not experienced this before. I understand you do a 1mm grout?
Picture attached of wall

 

[darrena]

Sorry missed, toilet not installed yet, was considering pre mounting a piece of Ply of the same diameter as tiles and shape of back or toilette tile up too as bolting toilet against tiles will most likely crack them due to weight

 

[vinn]

You've jumped the gun here but not much you can now do.

If using ply, it should have gone on first, and then the plaster board on top of the ply.
The p/board in the photo doesn't seem to have enough fixings - is there enough framing to fix to?
Cut/remove the bottom 30mm - 40mm of p/board to break floor contact.
Is there access to the cistern from the other side - if not how will you access it for maintenance?

You've chosen what could be a difficult tile to fix for a DIY'er but other DIY'ers on here have claimed to have done a decent job with that tile.
Your tile saw should be adequate.
You decide on grout joint width or consult tile Mfr's for advice.

 

[darrena]

Hi
Thanks for the feedback
There are 4 beams from floor to ceiling and two horizontal.
With regards to the ply, I could remove plasterboard and attach some ply across the frame of the enclosed cistern screwing it to the study wall frame.
Can you please explain what you mean by difficult to fix?

 

[vinn]

You could leave the p/b in position and try below?
Why not bolt the WC to the wall as it is now - with a few old tiles spot glued to give true position?
You could pour a few buckets of water down to see what happens after you've put some weight on it?

Fixing textured is not as simple as ceramic etc. you can easily run out of your setting-out lines or out of level. Steady attention to detail I guess is needed?
But grouting and esp. cleaning the grout can be a tedious business.

 

[cjard]

The "in wall" toilet I have has a support plate immediately behind the plasterboard; does yours have this? If you wanted to remove the plasterboard though, you can easily do it with an oscillating multitool, take about a minute to zap a neat hole in the board and leave yourself room to install ply the same thickness as the pb.

then you have to decide whether to profile them around the toilet or mount it over them. In either case one of these may be handy:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-100mm-D...-Grinder-Concrete-Granite-Stone-/152045409042

Either for profiling a curved cut in the tile to go around the bowl, or for flatting off the high points of textured surface to reduce the point loading caused when the user sits on the bowl, and hence risk of breaking the tile. Getting the surface reasonably flat, then applying silicone or some other paste that will set firm but flexible, and be hidden by the back of the bowl edge will help spread the load and provide some tolerance to movement.. "what gives won't go"

If you're concerned that you don't want the gap filling to stick the bowl to the wall, you can certainly apply something to the bowl to prevent adhesion (Vaseline, electrical tape, even fairy liquid) but personally I think I would adhere it and cut it in future if I needed to

 

[L95]

Not sure if this is over and done now but these are fixed in store with a 2 mm joint. However I would suggest you pop into your local store and ask if they have it on display.

Also it's worth noting that these tiles are porcelain and NOT ceramic.