Bathroom/shower tiles - gaps/loose, how to solve?

martin2345uk

Sorry if this seems a stupid question... just moved into first house and clueless with DIY issues!

So: there's 2 bathrooms - main one and en suite.

The main bathroom has good tiling round the shower (which is the above-bath type) but the floor tiles need re-doing. The grouting between them is coming away, one is broken in half and they shift underfoot. Indeed you can see on the ceiling of the living room below, that at some point water has leaked through them and made a water stain.

The ensuite bathroom has a small cubicle type shower. Today I've noticed the tiles at the bottom of it are also missing some grout and shift when pressure is applied... it's only the first couple of rows up that seem to be dodgy.


Questions are... obviously we need to sort both, but we need to be able to still have showers while we do it! So I was thinking...

Use the main bathroom shower, being very careful not to let the floor get wet. Meanwhile get a tiling person in to re-tile the en suite shower.

Once that's all done, switch to using the en-suite shower and get the person back again to re-tile the floor of the main bathroom.

Does that sound the right course of action..?

Thanks! :think:

-taff

there may be a leak from thebath to the floor that you can see that's made the tiles loose.
You'll have to investigate a bit more because it may not just be re-tiling.

martin2345uk

Oh dear.. okay thanks for the tip - would that involve taking the front panel off the bath and turning the shower on to check for water coming through somewhere?

andyhop

Sounds very much like poor or incorrect prep work prior to tiling

Ensure this time you get shower and bath walls tanked as grout or adhesive is not water proof and will allow water to pass and be absorbed by the substrate

martin2345uk

andyhop wrote: »

Sounds very much like poor or incorrect prep work prior to tiling

Ensure this time you get shower and bath walls tanked as grout or adhesive is not water proof and will allow water to pass and be absorbed by the substrate

Oh dear it's like another language! What's "tanked" in this context? And "Substrate"?

Sorry..:o

andyhop

Tanking is either a sheet membrane from the likes of homelux or dura but can also be a paint on rubberised kit from Mapei, Bal or weber.

Substrate is the plasterboard, plaster wall. Plywood wall etc

The floors we generally get called to rectify are often down with 6mm plywood, 4mm hardboard or tiled straight onto chipboard. Floors should be over boarded with a minimum of 15mm marine plywood, screwed every 150mm. Then use a decent quality S2 adhesive not the cheapest available for a DIY shed.....failure to do the above and you end up with movement, cracked grout, cracked tiles and a huge mess!!!

martin2345uk

andyhop wrote: »

Tanking is either a sheet membrane from the likes of homelux or dura but can also be a paint on rubberised kit from Mapei, Bal or weber.

Substrate is the plasterboard, plaster wall. Plywood wall etc

The floors we generally get called to rectify are often down with 6mm plywood, 4mm hardboard or tiled straight onto chipboard. Floors should be over boarded with a minimum of 15mm marine plywood, screwed every 150mm. Then use a decent quality S2 adhesive not the cheapest available for a DIY shed.....failure to do the above and you end up with movement, cracked grout, cracked tiles and a huge mess!!!

Gosh.. thanks... do you have any idea what cost this might involve? There's a photo on this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4738066

keystone

Answered on your other thread.

Cheers

daisyroger

I would like to install a transition strip made of wood that will cover all this gap. If that is not an option for some reason in your bathroom, then you would want a color matching caulk.

joechoniski

Tiles along walls will be cut at different sizes to accommodate the 'bows.' It is not uncommon to find rooms that are out of square or that are wavy or bowed. The row of tile is cut to accommodate the imperfections and tend not to be noticeable. Diamond pattern helps camouflage the fact that walls are not square and may be bowed. The eyes will be focusing on the pattern and not along the walls