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dilby

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Hi all -

I've got a downstairs showerroom/wetroom (not sure of the difference!) and am a little unsure whether to tank it or not and hoping someone could kindly offer me some advice.

The room is on the ground floor, and previously there was a corner shower unit, with the entire room tiled. I want to replace this with a sliding shower door, but to have no shower tray, just a continuation of the floor tiles (the shower area slopes towards a drain unit).

I've stripped the tiles and noticed that the room was painted with a polymer based paint which i assume is some form of tanking. However I've looked online and there are all sorts of crazy tanking systems that include boards/seals/tapes/glues and all sorts of fancy contraptions and potions. I'm hoping those are more for upstairs bathroom where a leak could cause big problems, and for a downstairs bathroom where there's just concrete floor and plastered brick walls, some more waterproof tanking paint would suffice?

Appreciate your thoughts!

Many thanks!
 

widler

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Thanks for the reply. I am using subway tiles on the floor (200 x 100mm) and large square ceramic floor tiles. Do you need any other info? Im not sure how best to describe them.
I’m hoping you mean the subway tiles are on the wall :)
Yes you need to tank it with it having no tray, the corners need taping and tanking , and floor tanking , then the tiles must have a fall to the drain.
Does the floor slope to the drain ?
 
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dilby

TF
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I’m hoping you mean the subway tiles are on the wall :)
Yes you need to tank it with it having no tray, the corners need taping and tanking , and floor tanking , then the tiles must have a fall to the drain.
Does the floor slope to the drain ?

Thanks so much for the reply.

Haha yes the subways are on the wall
I've attached a picture of the room, before I stripped the wall tiles off. As you can see there is a drain in the corner, and the floor slops towards it - along the blue line towards the drain, and along the green line towards the wall (it levels out a bit horizontally at the red line). The black line is where I'll be running a sliding shower screen.

Can the walls be tanked to 'fall' into that drain? Or do I need a new unit?

Please excuse my ignorance but when you say they do need tanking, does that mean boards or is painting it with the polymer based paint enough? I'd like to understand more why the taping is necessary as in my mind the waterpoofing tanking paint would protect the walls and cement floor, and the cement wont get damaged anyway from water.

Thanks so much.
 

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