Tiling on Wainscot

[Grenage]

Greetings,

Our bathroom has tiles above the bath, but none at the end of the bath; the end of the bath, and the rest of the lower walls are wainscot. It's a deeply grooved wood, and possibly the most demented lining I've ever seen - possibly surpassed only by the choice of paint colour.

Can you tile over such wood? I assume you can't due to wood's propensity for expansion.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Greetings,

Our bathroom has tiles above the bath, but none at the end of the bath; the end of the bath, and the rest of the lower walls are wainscot. It's a deeply grooved wood, and possibly the most demented lining I've ever seen - possibly surpassed only by the choice of paint colour.

Can you tile over such wood? I assume you can't due to wood's propensity for expansion.

Sounds like a bad idea, for the reason you give.

What's wrong with wainscotting?

Cheers
Richard

 

[ree]

Have any of the fixtures been removed from the bathroom - eg. the bath or basin?

As usual, pics would help.

Note: wainscot such as you describe was often fixed in old houses/bathrooms but the moulding section was modest. If the wainscot is removed then you might have the job of making good the wall surface. If you panel over the wainscot with say backer board then you will have pulled out the wall surface wit perhaps further difficulties.

 

[Grenage]

Hi guys,

Thank you for your replies; I had no internet due to decorating, hence the tardy response.

I have no problem with wainscot across the rest of the bathroom, but at the end of the bath, it provides channels that water from the shower sit in. It's not helped that the previous occupants used scrap wood to cover the gap.

You're right that backer board would bring the surface out too far, pushing it out of alignment with the adjacent tiles, and coming over the sink. We're moving at some point next year, so I don't want to pull everything out and make good the surface.

I think I'll cut a channel in the wainscot and put a piece of PVC at the end of the bath; at least that way I can secure and seal the shelf, without water sitting in crevices. Hopefully the water should be less of an issue once I've swapped out the shower for something with a hose longer than 3 inches.

Cheers for your input!