Tiling en-suite, progress thread including images

[GaryMo]

I'm going to have a go at tiling my en-suite though have no previous experience at all. I am pretty methodical though working as an electrician.

The bit that's worrying me the most is the shower area.

Tray is 1200 x 900 and forms one end of the en-suite. All three walls are skimmed standard plasterboard so from what I've been reading here I need to use a tanking product. BAL seems to keep popping up.
How high should I apply the tanking product? Considering the area to tank will I need more than one tin/can/bottle or whatever it comes in?

Tiles I'm looking at will be around 400x250 and be sandstone in colour.
Is there a specific adhesive I need to buy?
Should I tile pretty much to the tray, over the upstands then close the gap with silicone?

With regards to cutting the tiles, how should I go about cutting a 100mm diameter hole for an extractor fan?

Also holes for towel radiator pipework?

Floor tiles.....current floor is chipboard so assume I need to overboard with ply? Do I really need to go to the extreme of 18 or 25mm? That'll cause quite a step considering the tile will be in addition to that.

 

[gcol]

I'm going to have a go at tiling my en-suite though have no previous experience at all. I am pretty methodical though working as an electrician.

That's the spirit!

Tray is 1200 x 900 and forms one end of the en-suite. All three walls are skimmed standard plasterboard so from what I've been reading here I need to use a tanking product. BAL seems to keep popping up.

With good reason too. It's good tackle. Though you've wasted your time skimming the plasterboard - that's not necessary for tiles.

How high should I apply the tanking product? Considering the area to tank will I need more than one tin/can/bottle or whatever it comes in?

As high as you reckon water will go frequently. Dunlop recommend tanking 1m high from a shower tray, so derive from that what you will.

Tiles I'm looking at will be around 400x250 and be sandstone in colour.
Is there a specific adhesive I need to buy?

The colour of the tiles has little bearing on the adhesive used. Anyway.... for tiles that size you want to be using a powdered adhesive - that's one that comes in a bag and you mix yourself.

Should I tile pretty much to the tray, over the upstands then close the gap with silicone?

The upstands should be sunk into the walls so that your tiles will cover them. Then, as you say, you siliocne the tray/tile joint.

With regards to cutting the tiles, how should I go about cutting a 100mm diameter hole for an extractor fan?

The escutcheon (cover) of the fan should cover a degree of rough cutting of the tiles. Don't be too proud to rough cut the tiles if the edges will be hidden. You can either rough it out with an angle grinder and diamond blade, or drill a hole and saw the shape out with a tile blade for a hacksaw.

Also holes for towel radiator pipework?

You want to be using a collar to cover the bottom of the pipe where it goes through the tile. So again it's not essential that the hole is a beautiful cut. A diamond drill will make short work of a hole that size, but can cost a few quid.
If you don't want a collar, then you need to accurately mark out where the hole should be and then use the diamond drill to make a neat hole.

Floor tiles.....current floor is chipboard so assume I need to overboard with ply? Do I really need to go to the extreme of 18 or 25mm? That'll cause quite a step considering the tile will be in addition to that.

12mm WBP is fine.

Going for a lie down now - all that quoting has made me tired.

 

[GaryMo]

Many thanks gcol, that really is very helpful advice and exactly what I've come to expect of this great forum

 

[GaryMo]

I've bought all my stuff this afternoon so should be ready to go soon.

Tilemaster didn't stock BAL products so I took their advice. Has anybody used these products before and can comment on any success or failure?

Walls - Tilemaster, white standard set, waterproof mortar for floors and walls.
Use is to spread adhesive to a depth of 3-6mm for dry areas and for wet areas bed the tiles directly into surface of adhesive.

Any idea of the difference between the application in dry and wet areas? Is it telling me to apply adhesive to the tile in dry areas and to apply adhesive to the wall in wet areas?

Floor - Tilemaster Setaflex

Grout - Mapel Ultracolour Plus (jasmine colour as thought while might be a bad idea)

Tanking - Benfer Easy Bath, shower tanking system kit.

Going to use No More Ply on the floor to limit the step into the en-suite. Bought their branded screws and adhesive and will follow their installation instructions to the letter. Hope I don't regret not using ply!

 

[wap]

the no more ply is miles better than ply just dont get the glue on your hands. use the same trowel on all walls. i personally would use 8mm notched trowel. apply adhesive to walls instead of backs of tiles. the benfer tanking gear is quality as well

 

[GaryMo]

I made a mistake and bought a 10mm notched trowel. I'll take it back and exchange it for an 8mm trowel.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[GaryMo]

Just made a start with the Benfer tanking. Messy job that is!

Last night I gave the area 2 coats of Benferprim ready for its first coating of Benferschirm.
I coated the areas where the linear band was to be fitted with Benferschirm then applied the banding using a small scraper to smooth it into place.

First coating of Benferschirm.

I'll let it dry overnight and give it a second coating tomorrow evening.

 

[GaryMo]

Started tiling today.
I've just tried cutting an oval shape into a tile with a tile cutting jigsaw blade. Admittedly it was cheap but it's not touching the tile at all.
Any recommendations on quality blades or another way of cutting out for a built in shower value (below)?

 

[gcol]

Is the cover that's going over that plastic bit also oval? How much margin of error have you got - I mean is the cover a lot larger than what I can see there?

 

[GaryMo]

The plastic piece is just a protective cover and an aid to level the built in value. It's replaced with a chrome cover.
Here's the reverse of the chrome cover, as you can see, margin of error is small as the seal has to sit on the tile face but the cutout in the tile has to be larger than the area which has fixing holes. We're probably talking 5mm at the most.
A jigsaw would be perfect if I can get hold of a decent blade.

 

[gcol]

Oh that looks like it's going to be tricky. I'm assuming that because you've had a go with a jigsaw, that you must have made a hole in the tile, and for you to drill a hole in a tile they're probably not porcelain tiles. If they were porcelain tiles, you'd have needed a diamond drill. So... that's not too bad - you should be able to make this hole without major drama.
What I'd do is, mark out the line accurately. Then lightly go round the line with the angle grinder (diamond blade) and just break the glaze. Then roughly make a hole with the angle grinder (keeping away from the line). Then remove the rest with tile nippers.

Failing that, get yourself a rod saw blade for a hacksaw. Although looking at the position of the hole in the tile, the frame of the saw might not be big enough.

 

[GaryMo]

Yes, they're ceramic tiles and no problem to drill through will either a tile drill or a masonry drill.
I've noticed that Bosch sell tungsten carbide grit edged jigsaw blades so I'm going to order some of those and see if they were any better than the cheapo ones than B&Q sell.
Failing that, your diamond bladed angle grinder and tile nippers sounds like a plan.
Thanks

 

[GaryMo]

gcol, excellent advice there - ceramic grinding disc and tile nippers did the job perfectly. I did try some Bosch tungsten carbide jigsaw blades but same result as the cheapo ones, wouldn't touch it.
Just waiting for a 19mm holesaw to cut a hole for the outlet.

 

[gcol]

Brings a tear to my eye Gary. Excellent job and respect for keeping us posted with your progress.