New bathroom makeover

[pauledward]

Hi, We are going to renew our bathroom and replace all the obvious items - bath, loo, basin. We are adding an above-bath shower to bring us closer to the 21st century.
We want to have a large mirror above the long edge of the bath. We also want to have tiles under it, around it and probably just above it.
The tiles will also go around the shower end and across around the basin.

My question is - should I tile the walls first and then screw the mirror through the tiles onto the plasterboard wall?
Or put the mirror up first and tile around it? The wall had a large mirror on it before using large "butterfly" (?) type plugs and that worked very well and it was secure.
I don't think I should silicon stick the mirror onto the wall for safety purposes - but I'll consider this if that's the best option.
I'm worried about drilling through the tiles once they're up as the plugs are quite a large diameter and I'm assuming that I'll crack a tile or two somewhere during the process.
What would be the normal / usual way to go about all this please?
(We've considered mirror-tiles and decided against that idea.)

The plumber is going to screw the shower onto the tiles at the tap end of the bath, and he says that this is normal, as he'll then seal around the shower to make that waterproof. I'd sather do this tiling / mirror part of the project myself if I can - due to budget!

Thanks for any suggestions.
Paul

 

[Richard C]

Tile the wall first & then fit the mirror but how heavy is the mirror? Use a solid adhesive bed where the mirror fixings are going, start with a small pilot hole & don’t use the hammer action when you drill.

If you’ve got plasterboard walls, you should either tank the wet areas or replace it with waterproof tile backer board if you want it to last; do you intend tiling the floor? Before you buy any tiling materials & start tiling read the Tiling Forum Sticky & Archive posts, it may prevent you making potentially disastrous & expensive mistakes.

 

[pauledward]

Thanks Richard, - not sure what you mean by tanking, but I'll read that sticky again. I did briefly look through that earlier but could see nothing about mirrors.
cheers, P

We aren't tiling the floor, we're putting a vinyl floor down. The mirror will be about 1 mtr square.

 

[Richard C]

I was more concerned with the tiles & tile base rather than the mirror but you didn’t say how heavy it is! “Tanking” is applying a waterproof membrane over tile base before you tile. Plasterboard is not good as a tile base in wet areas (around baths, shower enclosures & wet rooms, it turns to mush if moisture gets in & conventional waterproof adhesive & grout is only waterproof in the sense that it wont disintegrate when it gets wet, it’s permeable & will still absorb water which is why you need a waterproof tile base.

 

[pauledward]

Yes that makes complete sense to waterproof.
The mirror is approximately 16kg in weight.
Paul