my wetroom construction

[pieman]

I'm in the middle of a shower/wet room installation.
I always go for belt and braces, and its not going to be the cheapest in the world, but I'm hoping it will be bulletproof, or even better, waterproof.

25mm marine ply to falls, edges and underside varnished, noggins under all joints, (no movement detectable) all joints taped with fibreglass mat and polyester resin, sanded, and then entire surface flow coated. plastered surfaces sealed with rollered on polyester resin, also. fibreglass lapped over flange of gulley. Mosaic tiles on top of finished fibreglass. Used sikaflex as adhesive, to ensure adhesion to fibreglass and allow movement, gunned out of the tube, and then spread to correct thickness with appropriate notched trowel.
Possible issue with adhesion of mosaic grout , as I don't expect it to grip the sikaflex well, so it will only have the tile edges to hold onto. We'll see shortly!

I found the fibreglassing very managable, using 1 litre plastic measuring jugs 50p from Wilkos to measure resin, (will do half a dozen mixes before they go too manky) and those little syringes for doing kiddies medicine for measuring the catalyst.
The sikaflex was fine, too. very mess free using the cartridges in a gun, compared with mixing a conventional tile adhesive.
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hope its of interest. comments welcome!

 

[Jasonb]

Would have been easier to buy a tanking kit than mess about with the fibreglass but should be OK. If you used a notched trowel to spread the sikaflex the grout will go into the gaps behind the tile edges and help hold it in. Make sure you use a grout that is flexible as the wood may move slightly, something like BAL superflex wall grout.

Jason

 

[pieman]

Jason, thanks for your note of confidence on the grouting, and the pointer on the BAL superflex.

thanks for the thought on the kit - I did consider using waterproof board, but it would have meant building a timber floor anyway,and then constructing a secondary floor in the waterproof board over the top. the kits I've seen www.diywetrooms.com do look pretty pricey, too, but I've not done much of a trawl.
I was dreading the fibreglassing, but I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was with disposable mixing vessels, disposable (15p) 2inch brushes off the market for spreading, and the faithful surgical gloves.

 

[duxster]

Hi

I am also fitting a wetroom and am currently looking for advice on the recommended slope for the floor?

Can I ask what you have used for a fall?

Cheers

 

[pieman]

I had to go and measure - I couldn't remember!
I can't advise you on recommendations, but I can tell you I used 1 in 30. Its not tested yet, but I don't forsee any problems with the fall.
I do have the luxury of a massive floor void, so I could set the fall as steep as I liked, without having any threshold at the door. (the way my shower is arranged, I don't need a threshold water bar)
In theory, it should work shallower. Water runs down pipes at a much shallower angle. With a floor, though, you are probably limited by how accurately you can make the floor to falls, (minor inaccuracies in a very shallow fall are much more likely to cause puddling than in a steep fall) and how smooth and free from irregularities the surface will be. I am aiming at a very grippy and hence rough finish to my mosaic - its a matt ceramic, and I will keep the grout fairly well back into the joint, so the mosaic tile edges give extra grip.

good luck.

 

[duxster]

Thanks for the info, a great help.

My setup does not need anything across the door as the shower is at the far end of a 2.5m room so no chance of water backing up that far.

For the area around the shower I was going for a 1" drop across 3ft which sounds similar to yours. The rest ofthe floor will be sloped but at a much shallower angle as I do not expect hardly any water on this area due to the design. Again I'm using mosaics on the floor so shaping a drop around the drain should be a doddle!! Grip was an issue for us at first we wanted large tiles on the floor but I was worried about how slippy they would be. Anyway found some gorgeous mosaics so not a worry!!

Cheers