Hi All, newbie about to tile an en-suite...

[milesd]

Hi All

From a complete newbie to tiling :lol:

SWMBO has decreed that the en-suite needs to be tiled. House in question was built in 2000 and en-suite is partially tiled (shower area and splash back around sink). Having never tiled before I thought it'd be a good idea to join this site :welcome:

Now some questions:

1. Are there any tricks to removing tiles from skim plasterboard? When tiles are removed if the plasterboard is damaged in any way how best to treat prior to fixing tiles?
2. The tiles we've gone for 330 x 600 x 9.5. What's the best adhesive to use to fix them?
3. Is it best to tile everything first and then do the grouting?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as time goes on. Any answers to the above questions, advice and pointers on where to get knowledge much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Dan]

Welcome to tilersforums.com | Tile Forums | Tiling Forum!

Hi milesd and welcome to tilersforums.com!

 

[Deleted member 9966]

hello milesd

:welcome: to the best forum in the world.

what kind of tiles have you gone for? cermaics? stone? porcelain?

As soon as we know that, we should be able to answer your questions

 

[Alan.P]

1. Are there any tricks to removing tiles from skim plasterboard? When tiles are removed if the plasterboard is damaged in any way how best to treat prior to fixing tiles?
2. The tiles we've gone for 330 x 600 x 9.5. What's the best adhesive to use to fix them?
3. Is it best to tile everything first and then do the grouting?

Hi and welcome.

1) If all your walls are skimmed plasterboard then your going to be borderline to overweight for your tiles, you'll need to either strip the skim off or overboard or reboard, stripping the skim off could / will damage the board, can you overboard or reboard ?

2) Depending on your speed you could use either a rapid set flexible powder adhesive, or a standard set flexible adhesive if your not confident, this will give you a longer working time.

3) Depending on the area and your confidence, maybe do one wall at a time if your worried.

Hope that helps.

This link will give you an idea of weights and surfaces

EDIT and as GRR says, let us know what tile type your going with, ceramic, porcelain or other.

 

[david campbell]

:welcome:to the forum

the above is spot on

 

[milesd]

Hi and welcome.

1) If all your walls are skimmed plasterboard then your going to be borderline to overweight for your tiles, you'll need to either strip the skim off or overboard or reboard, stripping the skim off could / will damage the board, can you overboard or reboard ?

2) Depending on your speed you could use either a rapid set flexible powder adhesive, or a standard set flexible adhesive if your not confident, this will give you a longer working time.

3) Depending on the area and your confidence, maybe do one wall at a time if your worried.

Hope that helps.

This link will give you an idea of weights and surfaces

EDIT and as GRR says, let us know what tile type your going with, ceramic, porcelain or other.

That helps a lot, thanks.

Tiles have already been brought and are ceramic:



The invoice has the weight as approximately 425.04 kg for 120 tiles.

The plan is to have two mosaic borders between the big tiles, so the layout proposed is:

CEILING
1 600x330 tile
mosaic border (2 deep)
1 600x330 tile
mosaic border (4 deep)
1 600x330 tile
1 600x330 tile cut to size to reach floor level
FLOOR

The mosaic tiles are 13 x 13 squares that you cut of the sheet (hence the 2 deep/ 4 deep in the above layout).

One thing to say about the skim is that it isn't deep. Other houses on the estate have tried painting their en-suites and found the skim has come away with a stroke of the paint brush!

My ideal would be removal of skim and then tile onto the plaster board. Think I need to do some weight calculations.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Scott]

Alan has pretty much covered it but sometimes its easier to rip the boards off when hacking off the tiles. If they are well stuck on you can get large sections off in one go and makes it much quicker.

As for the weight issues i wouldnt put any tile of that size on skim plaster regardless of the material its made from.

Reboarding gives you a couple of advantages, if you are have a shower then you can use cement boards (aqua panel, hardi backer etc) in the wet areas which will avoid the need for tanking and the added advantage of being able to ensure that any uneven walls can be packed out and spaced to get them as flat as possible. That size tile will need the walls really flat, even more so if you are considering having them brick bond to avoid and lipping of the tiles.

Edit: Just seen your latest post. IS the mosaic the same thickness as the other tiles? From what you say about he skim and the weight issues it will be quicker and easier to reboard the room. Depending on your level of DIY/buidling. Its not that difficult by the way.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Miles

If you need to think about the tanking, take a look at this thread
http://www.tilersforums.com/tanking-wetrooms/30278-tanking-do-you-bother.html?highlight=tanking

My own en-suite shower room was only 6 years old when I had to rip it all out just after Christmas.

GRR

 

[Alan.P]

Another point to add, you say your planning on starting a full tile at the ceiling and ending with a cut to the floor, you could come a cropper as ceilings are rarely, if ever square / flat / level, so if you were to start at point a, point b c d etc might be higher or lower resulting in differnet size gaps to the ceiling, much better off splitting the cuts between the floor and the ceiling, this way you can cut the tile to the correct size, remember to leave a couple of mm between tile and ceiling, this can then be caulked.

 

[suave]

:welcome: