Bathroom plasterboard tiling

[Pac]

hi, probably annoying to you all as i see many posts on this and have read a lot but so many different answers i just wanted to confirm.

i am in the building trade but tiling is something i have actually done little of which is quite surprising.

i have dry-lined my daughters bathroom and am read to skim it all.

the usual bathroom layout, bath/toilet/sink/shower cubical.

tiles are 400mm/250mm/8.5mm standard from B&Cr4p of all places because they were actually the best price on those at the moment. the adhesive is from "Tile Town" & is their "Supergrip" labeled tub.

i am only tiling to window sill height on 3 walls and around the shower, so i have got to skim the walls for them to paint.

it would appear that "BAL" is what you all recommend the most as a primer (i know enough not to use PVA:smilewinkgrin🙂 but what is the exact stuff i need to look for and where stocks it?

is that it? do i just need to prime the skimmed walls before tiling and that is all?

thanks in advance for your help. extensive forum on tiling btw

 

[aflemi]

Best not to skim as the recommended drying time is 4 weeks and adhesion is much less. Can you not tile then skim above the tiled area? Your adhesive depth would be about the same as the skim coat (3-5mm?)
Alao the sealing/priming product you need is SBR Bond. Your tiles are slightly on the large side for tubbed so I would go for bagged gear. Bal would do Single Part Flexible (SPF) white, at least on the shower area if not everywhere else. Most woulkd recommend that you tank the shower cubicle to be safe, either paint on eg bal wp1

Bal_WP1_Tanking_System.pdf or tanking membrane eg Homelux.
Both of these tanking products need cementitious self mixed adhesive. WP1 needs acrylic primer on subsrate, see above link.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

hi pac

I would recommend not skimming inside the shower cubicle. bare plasterboard is better for tiling on. and the tiles you are sticking up seem to be quite large, particularly for a tubbed adhesive, so I would be inclined to use a powdered cement based adhesive to be on the safe side. big tiles and tubbed adhesive don't tend to work well together as tubbed adhesives require air flow to allow the adhesive to set and big tiles tend to be quite heavy so you run the risk of the big tiles coming away from the walls and taking ages to set.

any good tile store will stock a good primer. If you have a Tile Giant in your local area, they will do a Mapei primer, and if there's no Tile Giant, Topps Tiles will stock the BAL primer.

I would also recommend tanking inside the shower cubicle as this will get a soaking of water on a daily basis, and if the tiles or grout were to fail, then the tanking would help prevent the plasterboard underneath from being ruined. Check out one of my threads Tanking - do you bother? as my own shower cubicle was not tanked, the walls inside the cubicle were skimmed, and the poor adhesive and grout led to water ingressing up the walls and making the insulation between the stud walls mouldy.

I'm sure the other tilers on here will be able to share their thoughts and opinions with you, so stick around. Better to have too much info than not enough

GRR

 

[aflemi]

GRR, thinking on the same lines, but you went into more detail lol:lol:

 

[Deleted member 9966]

GRR, thinking on the same lines, but you went into more detail lol:lol:

it's a topic close to my heart at the moment aflemi :20:

http://www.tilersforums.com/tiling-forum/30278-tanking-do-you-bother.html

 

[Pac]

quick replies there

ok then, i will mark out the tiles area and skim to that line before i tile. this "tile town" is actually a pro place not a shed so i expect they will stock the required there then.

i will take a look at your "tanking" thread and look at what you both recommend. as it's my daughter, i want it right, not so i have to keep redoing it with grief :smilewinkgrin:

 

[aflemi]

And pocket, I'll bet.......................

 

[Pac]

And pocket, I'll bet.......................

LMAO 😳

so you have daughters too then :lol:

either that or you have watched me buy most of it knowing i won't get any of it back because "dad's a builder and he has spare materials" yeah right, i still have to buy it at some point and having spent about 5 months at the beginning of last year with no work, i can't afford it either.

 

[aflemi]

Indeed, I'm sitting at home so know the feeling.......
Tiny point, but would you not be better skimming after you tile? Your top tile may move around a bit when you come to set it out. Any excess adhesive above top of tile won't be an issue and your trim or top of tile edge will give a good straight edge to skim down onto. If you do use trim just protect it a bit with masking tape.
That's my preference anyway from my experience..
Good luck and pls feel free to ask any more, always get great advice on here, I wouldn't be without it...

 

[brian c]

Brilliant advice Liz.

Just to add...if all the walls are dry lined then you could use mapei primer g and kerraquick adhesive which is flexible and fast setting.You might also want to consider the mapei gum waterproofing membrane along with some wetroom tape.

The BAL tanking kit is also very good.