sealing around new bath

[boy01zone]

I'm just about to start to replace my bathroom fittings. I'm fitting new bath and tiling wall, so will fit bath to new tiles, i.e. tile first.
Question:-What's the best method to use to seal around the bath. I'll be using silicon to seal bath to tiles but that all.

many thanks

 

[Iddy]

imho you'd be better off fitting bath first, sealing it to the wall with silicone, then tile and silicone around again after - double seal achieved.

 

[skodaman007]

fill bath with water first then silicone and allow 24 hours to set.

 

[Peet]

Tile the wall. Grout it completely. Leave the grout to set fully. Mount the bath so that you have a reasonable bead width of silicone. Too large and it's hard to seal/set/too slow to cure, and too thin and it won't stand as much movement/expansion/ be hard to seal. Mount bath so that there's no undue play which will eventually split the silicone seal. If the amount of movement in the bath is small pick a medium modulus silicone as it'll be more robust in use. Neutral curing silicone is prefered over acetoxy for a couple of reasons. Fill bath full of water. Clean / degrease the surfaces to be joined. Silicone it, making sure there's no low bits that water will collect in. Leave the bath full of water while silicone cures.

Personally I steer clear of any silicone made by Henkel which now includes all the B&Q own brand stuff as I found it often molds and mildews before its time, sometimes even the sanitary grade stuff in undemanding situations. Also steer clear of anything marked 'contractor' as it's usually inferior.

Some good ones are made by Sika, Dow corning and Evostik. Sika's EBT has been quite amazing stuff especially for kitchen worktop joints and tools beautifully with a rag wet with white spirit.