Tiling round a bath / shower

[denwyn]

My daughter has just moved into a brand new house,it has provision for an en suite,but as money was tight they opted for it not being fitted but all services are there to fit at a later date. They do miss the shower though as the bathroom has none fitted, i have bought them a decent set of thermostaic bath shower taps to swap over,and showere curtain rail. No problem for me in fitting them,but as i live some 300 miles away i have asked them to get the bath area tiled before i come and fit the taps ect. i am old school when it comes to showers over fiberglass baths and allways fitted the edge seal around the bath before tiling,the one you tile over,as being a plumber i can recall going to many jobs with people complaining of water leaks only to find it being the bath having no seal around the edge and in 99% of cases they used a shower. I am paying for the tiling,but the chap who is going to tile it says no one uses hose edge seals any more and silicone does instead, i am not keen on this at all. I retired from plumbing some 10 years back and am now a school caretaker and very much out of touch with modern building / plumbing methods. Would you still use a tile sealing strip around before tiling,i worry as i know there is a fair bit of movment with fiberglass baths and would hate it all to leak.

 

[Richard C]

I would agree with your tiller; I never use any sort of tile sealing strips &, IMO, they are strictly a DIY aid or for folks who like the look of such things. As long as there is no excess movement in the bath (which there shouldn’t be if it’s been installed properly), the tiller knows what he’s doing, uses the correct adhesive & grout, a good silicone sealer of the correct type & properly applied will look much better & is all you need.