Bathroom Tiling + renovating.

[headworx]

Hi all,

Recently purchased house, 1930's. Doesn't seem to have been decorated for years.

I'm getting round to decorating the bathroom. So far all walls are back to brick, and ceiling is down. (All was necessary).

I'm planning on having a quadrant shower approx 950x950 or slightly bigger (no bath).
Tiling all walls floor to ceiling and will be tiling the floor too.
Wall tiles more than likely large format 300x600.
Floor Tiles prob 300x300.

One interior wall will be removed and rebuilt (not a load bearing). Will be using the aeriated 4" thick blocks, then will use soundboard on bedroom side to insulate.

Can you knowledgeable peeps on here tell me if the best way to do it by correcting my points below. I've read seemingly hundreds of posts and just getting more confused.


Plasterboard ceiling - fit using drywall screws.
Get ceiling skimmed.
Aquapanel all walls - As prob large format tiles, I know I will prob need to fix straight onto the Aquapanel. Trouble is, is there a way to insulate the wall too as 2x are exterior walls and I want it as warm as poss (batons an option?) I've read that if big tiles, then plaster or render wont hold the weight.

If we decide not to use larger tiles, then I think I'm gonna render the ext walls, then have plastered, then tile. Drying times arent really an issue as I wont move in for 2/3 months.

Floorboards seem sound so will use say 11mm MDF on top to make rigid (poss thicker - as thick as I can get away with to reduce flex).
Floor Tiles will be prob 300x300 - will use flexible adhesive to fix.

Tiling wall - Start from centres and work out using a baton or something straight then working upwards.

Then install toilet, sink, shower, ceiling fan etc.

This all sound OK?
As I'm learning all this, if you offer advice, I'd be grateful to know WHY too as I'd like to understand the reasoning (at least I'm learning then and not just blindly following instructions).

Oh I hope this is in the right forum as it does have tiling in there - Sorry if not, please feel free to relocate post.

Thanks for reading peeps.

A similar post (this one is more specific I think) that I posted is here:
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1886542#1886542

I have taken the contents of this on board and hopefully this one can be answered as well as that.

 

[Richard C]

You've come to the right furum alright but when your post includes the mention of MDF, you cant have read many of the tiling archive posts. Lots of questions you have there & I'm not going to attempt to answer now.

Youve picked a day when I'm building & configuring my latest PC so my visits are a little spasmodic & will remain so for the next 24 hours but I will get back later today or sometime tommorow. One of the other pro tilers might help but, in the meantime, don't do or buy anything!

 

[tictic]

walls....

1.render them sand/cement ..scratch coat then 2nd coat, these will take the weight off the tiles no probs...dont skim them this will bring the weight down to 20kg per m2.

2.metal studding then breathable membrane,20mm thermal aquapanel tile away..

floor..
dependant on joist space/spans lift floor and replace with 22mm-25mm wbp...prime(sbr) underside and edges,screw every 150-200mm..NO MDF..

flexiable adhesive/grout..

 

[headworx]

Thanks both.

Richard - Have fun building your new rig - what spec you building?

I try to plan ahead so wont be buying ought for a week or so, I've learnt not to jump right in with things I don't understand

tictic - Cheers, this breathable membrane, if I go to wickes or Selco will they know what I'm on about, i presume theres just one type?
Also the metal studding, I dont really understand, is this to hold the membrane in place or do you mean to hold the aquapanel on?

Sorry for being such a chump but we have to start somewhere and my learning curve has never been higher

 

[Richard C]

I like to upgrade around every 3 years or so & current rig is an Athlon duel core 64 bit but I’ve got one of those early SATA 1 Mobos that won’t support SATA2 & I was running out of HDD capacity so crunch time was looming ever closer. New system is a Ebuyer Asus/Phenom 550/Cooller Master bundle with 4GB ram, 2 x 1 TB HDD & a Blue Ray dvd. I’m currently running the on board graphics/sound & as yet undecided to fit the legacy Audigy 2 sound & MSI graphics cards I’ve had in my last 2 machines but am wondering if the on board stuff is now superior anyway. Probably nothing special for the gamers (which I’m not) but I fired it up yesterday & internet access is flying like jet compared to the Athlon rig. Problem is that the Mobo & much of the legacy stuff I’ve been using is becoming incompatible so, after trying the wife’s Win 7 on her laptop, I’ve also taken the jump from XP Pro to Win 7, 64 bit (first time I’ve ever bought software ). Problem now is that several of the programs I regularly use are comming back with incompatibility issues which I'm trying to sort out or find a way around. I’ve got Vista but never really liked it so stuck with XP but that’s getting increasingly dinosaur like & I can’t get support from MS if you get my drift!

Got to get back to transferring files & loading software now but I promise I will look at your post & come back later.

 

[Richard C]

Tictic’s given you most of it already. Only points I would make are;

• Take note of what I said about stripping a thermal element on your other thread.

• If you have solid external walls, you must use a waterproof render or you could have damp problems. As you have such large tiles, I would also go with either metal or timber studding with a breathable membrane & then the 20mm thermal Aquapanel or Marmox insulation boards might be a better option for you. Don’t be tempted to dot & dab boards, you will create cold spots.

• For the floor, forget the MDF or chip they are non starters. You could overboard (minimum 12mm WBP ply) or lay backer boards but that will give you threshold problems. Personally I always prefer to replace with 18-25mm WBP depending on joist size/pitch/span; again, Tictic’s covered it so well I could have written it myself!

• Re-board the ceiling with 12.5mm not 9.5mm (no one really uses 9.5mm anymore); screw fix every 150-200mm max, use full size boards & stagger across the joists.

What do you mean by “soundboard” on bedroom side?

Take some time out to read the Tiling Sticky & some more archive threads & don't use cheap DIY crap tile products, it will end in tears with the size of tiles your proposing.

 

[tictic]

you have a house built 1930s

so the reason i would spec the metal stud partions,is how is the house built single skin/double/cavity?? dont think it will have a cavity....

so you could have problems with damp/coldness etc,.. so by using a metal stud frame this wont deterate over time,..but a timber stud would..

the breathable membrane(vapour barrier) will help stop any damp/condensation etc attacking your interior walls and comes in 500guage up to 1200g..

gypsum or knauf do metal stud frames as for vapour barrier yes you can pick these up just about anywhere,..they aint that dear at all.

 

[headworx]

Brilliant, thanks both!

After some thinking, I'm going off the large format tiles idea and think I'll go smaller - the room is only small so think it may look silly too.

When I put Soundboard, I meant the heavier 'E' Boards:
http://www.wickes.co.uk/Soundshield-Board/invt/224657

This was just to try to meet the regs and also reduce any sound from bathroom to bedroom.

I ended up knocking the rest of the ajoining wall from the bathroom to bedroom as the blocks I bought were thicker and this seemed easier. Wall now rebuilt with 4" thick aeriated blocks.

I will be buying the decent grout and adhesive which I have read on here and would probably have been caught out by buying the tub stuff.