First-time house renovation

latecomer

jamtart6 wrote: »

Sounds like you have been busy latecomer. I didnt want the bathroom skimming before tiling as I didn't see the point, but am glad we did it now (particularly as you have just re emphasised that point).

Although we didn't think the walls were that bad, its caused so many issues in trying to keep everything level both horizontally and vertically. And of course as you have ot use lots of adhesive in places it takes a lot longer to get the tiles aligned and also ensure they dont creep until the adhesive has started to set.

To be honest if we hadn't already done the rest of it I would get the final wall skimmed before tiling just to get it done quickly.

latecomer

jimbugalee wrote: »

How have you guys prepped the bathroom walls? We've now chipped all the old plaster off and were planning to put up waterproof plasterboard (for the wet room). Is this ok to tile straight onto?

We left our plaster in place and only fixed the area where the bath/shower had been before. I primed using BAL APD primer all over and then tanked the shower/bath area.

i'm not sure what you need to do with waterproof plasterboard but presumably you'd at least need to seal at the joins. After a quick google it looks like you can tile straight onto it but I would check first.

jimbugalee

My boyfriend is in charge of the tanking so not quite sure what is happening there. I'm really worried about these travertine tiles at 12mm thick!! Mind you everywhere says you can use them on walls and floor with correct prep and adhesive (this non slip stuff - http://www.m2direct.co.uk/pages/adhesives.htm).

That place actually looks quite good (I've got a sample) for a 30m2 room/floor we are looking around £570 all in for tiles and adhesive/grout/sealer. Our budget was more like £1,000!

latecomer

The only thing I would say about ordering online is that you dont know what you will get until it arrives. Friends of ours ordered travertine online and got a lot of tiles which were nothing like the sample but as its a natural product there is no guarantee of consistent colouring. Of course they send the best looking tiles as samples......

Thats not to say that you will have the same problem but it put us off ordering online and in the end we went off travertine completely.

jimbugalee

Yes I am worried about that too latecomer!! aargh

I'm open to the fact that the colouring may vary slightly. I'd like it to be quite light but I'm not sure it will be - I can live with that. I assume the quality will be ok? That is more important!

Travertine is giving me stress but I really want it and can't find an alternative I like as much (suggestions welcomed!). Ordering online just saves so much money (Topps Tiles £34m2 vs online £17.99 m2). The supplier I am looking at does a full refund if you are not happy (I expect you may have to pay the courier costs to return which could be expensive).

Sorry to keep going on about this!! Who would have thought tiles could cause so much hassle!

andrew-b

Well i've edged along a little bit further on the bathroom tiling yesterday. Like you Latecomer, i'm getting through tons of tile adhesive as despite having the walls plastered they aren't perfectly flat and one wall has a slight curve. I wish i'd actually got smaller tiles as 30x25cm is pretty big and i'm finding i can't do more than one tile at a time. I found it much easier dealing with smaller tiles in the past - more to cut maybe but easier to deal with and much easier if your wall isn't flat! In hindsight i think i would have either fitted aquapanel to the walls by the shower and tiled on that with 20x25 tiles (wickes do tiles of similar pattern to what i'm using in that size) or used the much more expensive shower panelling instead of tiles.

I've now finished all the whole tiles but got 28 cut tiles to go around the top and bottom edges and in the corner.

At my rate i'll be lucky to finish the bathroom before christmas. I'm getting so tired of it now and just can't see no end to it. I have to keep plodding on though as we haven't had our own bathing facilities since February. I think i might see if my Dad will come and help as it's such a physical struggle for me doing it all myself and we can't go on forever without bathing facilities!

Andy

latecomer

Glad its not just us! One of things I couldn't figure out is how to deal with the door and window frames as they need to come out or the tiles will sit proud of them and look terrible. Of course had we boarded first it would have been even worse so there must be standard ways of dealing with problems like this. I'm going to try and get some matching wood for the window frame but I'm still hoping to get away without having to modify the door frame.

We've not had a shower/bath for a long time now and I'm determined to get it in and usable by the end of the week. I want it fully working by the time I start the new job so I've got 14 days. So much so in fact that I'm going to get off the damn PC and do something constructive......right after lunch

jamtart6

jimbugalee - we have aquaboard up. When we screwed it into the joists we put a bit of sealant onto the nail as well to ensure that the holes we drilled would be water proof then put the screw into the nail! Watch which way it goes up as we ignored that and put it on the wrong way and had to take it off and do it again!!

Plasterer said its horrible stuff as you can't skim it (not that youd need to) but you do need to seal between the pieces..havent' done that just yet so unsure what to use! Will keep you posted. Tile adhesive will stick to it but nothing water based.

jamtart6

andrew-b wrote: »

Well i've edged along a little bit further on the bathroom tiling yesterday. Like you Latecomer, i'm getting through tons of tile adhesive as despite having the walls plastered they aren't perfectly flat and one wall has a slight curve. I wish i'd actually got smaller tiles as 30x25cm is pretty big and i'm finding i can't do more than one tile at a time. I found it much easier dealing with smaller tiles in the past - more to cut maybe but easier to deal with and much easier if your wall isn't flat! In hindsight i think i would have either fitted aquapanel to the walls by the shower and tiled on that with 20x25 tiles (wickes do tiles of similar pattern to what i'm using in that size) or used the much more expensive shower panelling instead of tiles.

I've now finished all the whole tiles but got 28 cut tiles to go around the top and bottom edges and in the corner.

At my rate i'll be lucky to finish the bathroom before christmas. I'm getting so tired of it now and just can't see no end to it. I have to keep plodding on though as we haven't had our own bathing facilities since February. I think i might see if my Dad will come and help as it's such a physical struggle for me doing it all myself and we can't go on forever without bathing facilities!

Andy

Don't get downhearted Andy, take a look at the photos you have taken and look how much YOU have achieved. We got all miserable about it in March, then took action and suddenly the plumbing was done and the walls are plastered :T looking back at how far you have come spurs you on.

jimbugalee

So I'm thinking maybe my plan of tiling the bathroom in a weekend is a little optimistic?! I've got my Dad on the job also Andy!