Those telltale stains on the ceiling!

greatgimpo

Just bought a house, and noticed that the lounge ceiling has been partially painted approx under the bathroom shower. We'd planned on replacing the shower anyway, so ripped out the wall to the side of the shower, got the ceramic tiles off, the shower door and the old shower tray out. It must have been leaking for years as the plaster behind the tiles was rotten and the floor is heavily stained.

My question is, is there a method for replacing the shower tray, door and tiles and virtually guarantee that water will never get behind the tiles? I've ordered a shower tray with 4 upstands - anything else I can do?

ormus

use aquapanel instead of plain old plasterboard. use the correct tile adhesive.

make sure the base is rock solid and doesnt move a mm. so the silicone sealer will do its job.

greatgimpo

So, which is best - tanking or aquapanel... or both? Plasterboard is on one wall, the other wall is blockwork (with rotten plaster that will have to be replaced).

martinthebandit

http://www.screwfix.com/p/dunlop-shower-waterproofing-kit/79333

does what it says on the tin, or something like that

tpt

You dont need to tank aqua panel. short answer if you already have plasterboards\plaster in then fit the tray, silicone the tray to the wall, then tank (you can get kits for this, its just like rollering thick paint), then tile.

if you are replacing everything or are back to bare brick, then use aqua panel (or no more ply, or hardi backer - there are loads), fit tray and silicone to the wall, then tile without tanking it.

in short the reason for all of this is that waterproof adhesive and grout doesnt stop water passing through it, it just doesnt fall to bits when in contact with water.

googler

The way our plumber and joiner did it was to rip everything out, back to wall framework and floorboards.

Plyboard onto floor, ready for floor tiles.
Install water resistant plasterboard ('green' plasterboard, they called it) down to floor level
Skim coat of plaster
Install shower tray on cement base; allow to dry/settle
Seal edge of shower tray to plasterboard/plaster
Install 'Showerpanel' (or wall tiles), butting down on top of shower tray. Install shower enclosure. Seal showerpanel/tiles and enclosure to shower tray

Anything that's rotten or mouldy has to be stripped out before you re-install on top of it, or it'll just fester.

tpt

Just to add to googlers post. the green plasterboard still needs tanking. its only moisture resistant - it wont stand actual water contact. and dont skim it - its pointless, its actually a worse base for tiling than plasterboard.

mchale

Marine ply & dow corning 785 silicone