Help ! Advice needed urgently

[R0cky]

Hi all ,
First of all I want to say to considering i have never tiled before in my life , i have found this forum so helpful and interesting , so a big thankyou to all.


Here's my situation :-
My mother had a downstairs shower and toilet room extension built about 5 years ago.
The floor is concrete and had altro( I think that's what it's called) fitted which i have now removed and the shower corner was tiled from ceiling to floor and had a drain fitted into the sloped floor.
My mother wanted all the walls and floor fully tiled so because I had some spare time I decided to take the project on myself !!

I removed all the wall tiles and altro (because I read that tiles won't stick to this) . I have now finished tiling all the walls and now am about to start on the floor, but now I'm slightly worried as I may have made a mistake because I did not "tank" the shower part of the Walls.
I am now hoping that it would have been tanked the first time it was tiled and that it will still be effective after I have re-tiled it.
After removing the altro off the concrete floor I realised ,that everytime the floor got wet , a mushy glue like substance would appear, so I have now wetted the floor and scraped all this substance off.
Now before I start tiling floor I would be gratefully if anyone could give me advice and answer my questions:-
1. will the Walls be safe considering I have not "tanked" them
2. Do I need to "tank" the floor , or can I just lay them onto thinset?
3. In the corner where the shower enclosure will be , I am planning on cutting the ceramic tiles I have spare from the walls into small squares (mosaic style) and laying them so I can keep the slope for the water to go into the drain, will this create any problems ?
Thanks in advance
Rocky.

 

[joe-90]

You can't 'make' your own mosaic tiles. They would have sharp edges and cut feet. Remember 'glaze' is French for glass. You'll have to buy them if you want them.
There's no need to tank the floor.

 

[Karis]

I'm slightly worried as I may have made a mistake because I did not "tank" the shower part of the Walls.

What are the walls made of, block with render/plaster or stud partition with plasterboard/skim?

I am now hoping that it would have been tanked the first time it was tiled and that it will still be effective after I have re-tiled it.

Was this previously a wet room? If so then the walls should have been tanked at least part way up but it’s unlikely if there was a conventional shower tray/enclosure there before. But if you’ve already tiled, then it’s a bit late to worry about it now.

After removing the altro off the concrete floor I realised ,that everytime the floor got wet , a mushy glue like substance would appear, so I have now wetted the floor and scraped all this substance off.

It sounds as if the previous adhesive is water based do you know what was it? You need to remove all traces & prep the floor with a bonding agent or your tiles may not stick & even if they do they might not stay there long. But see below regarding tanking.

1. will the Walls be safe considering I have not "tanked" them

Depends what they are made & if any previously tanking is still good.

2. Do I need to "tank" the floor , or can I just lay them onto thinset?

Assuming this is a wet room without shower tray! Apart from expensive epoxy products, waterproof adhesive/grout will still absorb water, as will a conventional concrete screed. Unless you have/lay a waterproof screed, I would advise you tank the floor or, at the very least is may get a little smelly.

3. In the corner where the shower enclosure will be , I am planning on cutting the ceramic tiles I have spare from the walls into small squares (mosaic style) and laying them so I can keep the slope for the water to go into the drain, will this create any problems ?

Wet room floors should be profiled to create a fall towards the drain; you then cut the floor tiles to follow this profile. If there is no floor profile, the water won’t drain away efficiently & could cause big problems if there is a high output power shower. Cutting small square mosaics from ceramic wall tiles is neither practical nor a good idea & how will it match the floor tiles!

 

[R0cky]

Thanks for replying karis , I was begining to give up hope ! I am planning to start tiling the floor later on today , so any replies would be much appreciated.

I will try and answer your questions as clearly as I can.


Q.What are the walls made of, block with render/plaster or stud partition with plasterboard/skim?

A.The room has two exterior Walls ( the corner where the shower is ) so I am assuming that it was built with block then plaster board. I also noticed that when I removed the previous tiles , the shower Walls had been skimmed .

Q.
Was this previously a wet room? If so then the walls should have been tanked at least part way up but it’s unlikely if there was a conventional shower tray/enclosure there before. But if you’ve already tiled, then it’s a bit late to worry about it now.

A. Not exactly sure , because all the Walls were not tiled before , only the shower part. There was no shower tray just a drain built into the floor, and the shower was enclosed by two screens fixed to the walls about a metre high which extended out to meet at right angles to form a square enclosure.

Q.
It sounds as if the previous adhesive is water based do you know what was it? You need to remove all traces & prep the floor with a bonding agent or your tiles may not stick & even if they do they might not stay there long. But see below regarding tanking.

A. Don't know what the adhesive was but I have removed all of it , I was just going to tile straight over now onto the concrete , obviously pva is no good , any names for a bonding agent please?

Q.
Wet room floors should be profiled to create a fall towards the drain; you then cut the floor tiles to follow this profile. If there is no floor profile, the water won’t drain away efficiently & could cause big problems if there is a high output power shower. Cutting small square mosaics from ceramic wall tiles is neither practical nor a good idea & how will it match the floor tiles!

A. I'm not sure if the whole room is sloped towards the drain , but it definitely has a slope towards it in the shower square enclosure . The floor tiles are rather large about 50cm x 50 cm which will cause a problem around the sloped drain area , and the wall tiles were of the same design but only smaller , so I was thinking of just using them and doing a mosaic in the full shower enclosure