Grouting Floors + Dot & Dab

[Tom TGH Tiling]

Hi everyone, I'm new on here (as you might guess) I've got a couple of questions. One about a job I've just completed at my brother's and another about our bathroom that I'm about to take on.

First off... I've recently re-tiled my brothers floor and to start with was trying to grout the joint between the edge tile and the skirting, but it was black grout and making a horrible mess of the skirting.... so I decided to leave it un-grouted and just to silicone seal it instead. My brother disagreed though and said it needs grouting, then that made me think, is it right to grout the edges, as if the wooden skirting swells there won't be any give at the edges so it will push onto the tiles.

Second question... I'm about to re-tile our own bathroom at home. It's currently tiled and the bath takes up the full space wall to wall lengthways. I'm mindful that if I take the existing tiles off then the plaster behind might come with it. The general advice appears to be to dot and dab new plasterboard onto the wall if old plaster has come away, but I'm worried about depths, would dot and dab plasterboard have a greater depth than the existing plaster? As if it does, it's going to overhang the bath...

Thanks for your time and help, Much Appreciated, Tom

 

[J Sid]

Hi and welcome Tom

First, definitely silicon between floor tile and skirt. Either use a colour match silicon to match grout or, as I prefer is to use white if skirtings are painted white.
Secondly, we need to know what the wall behind plaster board is before we can answer

 

[Tom TGH Tiling]

Cheers Julian, much appreciated. I'm pretty sure it's some sort of cinder block, but not an expert. I've drilled into it from the other side and the dust is black, it's easier to drill into than the brick walls.

 

[Andy Allen]

only way you could dot and dab plasterboard on the wall would be to take the bath out.
or you could take the tiles off and patch the wall with a one coat plaster

 

[Tom TGH Tiling]

Thanks Andy, I've no idea what I'll find when I take the tiles off, but hoping it will need patching at worst. I just want to have an idea what I'll do if it's really shoddy behind the tiles. I doubt I'd get the current bath back in if I remove it then dot and dab, it already looks like it's too big for the space. It currently measures 1670 from tile to tile, so I'm guessing it's a 1700 bath cut into the wall slightly.