Tiling in bathroom

[thescruff]

Job to say, but if you put a straight edge on the tiles they look pretty straight, so it may be the wall is that far out.

[Leif]

Job to say, but if you put a straight edge on the tiles they look pretty straight, so it may be the wall is that far out.

As someone else said, it might be that the wall is wonky because the coving was left in place and the plasterer left it thicker in the middle, and then reduced towards the coving. I've had similar comments about the poor work on another forum, so it is not just one person here with particularly high standards. I will get a good builder (did work for colleague's parents) to examine the work, and write a short assessment. And they will re-do the bathroom. Not an independent assessment, but I'm not sure what else I can do.

[Leif]

Oh and I found significant (cosmetic) damage to the back door, which leads to where he left his tile cutter (a massive device). It would not surprise me if he did it.

[thescruff]

Put that level against the wall as a straight edge and say whether there's any bumps in the tiles, or gap[s between the tiles and straight edge.

It should sit against all the tiles.

[Razor]

It might just be the picture but I think if he puts a straightedge across all 5 vertical tiles it'll look like a banana

Not many people set out to do a bad job although there's those that don't give a toss.

Most of the problems seem to be down to lack of experience or thought on the fitters part. It winds me up when someone pays all the money for the installer to practice something they should already know

[thescruff]

The corners look fine but that may be the pic as well.

[Leif]

The corners look fine but that may be the pic as well.

Yes, the lens will have some curvature despite being a very good Nikon 60mm macro lens.

[Leif]

A few points. The plastering was only a skim, so presumably apply wednesday, tile friday is okay? And I am not sure if the bath has been filled. The tiling was friday, and I saw no water in the bath when I visited on friday at 5:30pm. I am told you half fill the bath when you tile. Not that I know.

[thescruff]

There's no waste so you can safely assume it hasn't had any water init.

[Colour Republic]

No its not to tile, it's to silicone.

Personally I fill the bath completely rather than half. Basically what you are doing is lowering the bath to hopefully somewhere near half way of its range. So when you silicone it sets at the midway point

[Leif]

Regarding the walls, the left one slopes to the right, so his tiling actually makes the slope worse. The right wall is less bad, and his tiling does not correct it. I'm not sure why you want tiling plumb vertical though.

[Leif]

Just a quick update. Firstly I am very grateful to everyone for your informative posts. I have not been feeling too well recently, with loss of appetite, and nausea. I'm sure it'll pass though. I contacted Trading Standards who say I have a case against these people, and told me how to claim. Also, as a result of information here, I examined the skip and found two empty packets of adhesive: Topps powder tile adhesive, and Bal White Star adhesive. Both state that the plaster should be primed before tiling, and the White Star should not be used on plaster that is less than 4 weeks old. I can see no traces of primer on the plaster in the bathroom. I've looked underneath and around tiles, and it looks like bare plaster. Clearly these two cowboys are utterly incompetent. They are on CheckATrade and have 39 glowing reviews. WTF ???????

I recall at the outset that they mentioned that I had an old style soil pipe and toilet, and they said they could excavate the soil pipe, going down several meters, and move it back for use with a modern toilet. I decided against this but I can only imagine the damage they could have caused had they attempted to move it.

[royaloakcarpentry]

I don't use Topps or Bal adhesives as I prefer Nicabond products. However some adhesives require the walls are given two coats of primer. One vertical and one horizontal.

As you can see the adhesive on the walls, the ribs formed should be horizontal and not vertical.

The reference to plaster being at least 4 weeks old is British Standards. It concerns backing plaster with a gypsum finish coat band makes no reference to a skim. British Standards also states that when a backing coat and finish are applied, the finish should be finished off with a wooden float to leave a slight rough surface. Gypsum based plasters are not suitable for shower areas.

[Leif]

Thank you again, I think the plaster was a Thistle gypsum based plaster. When I painted the kitchen, the builder said to wait a week for the plaster skim to dry. Perhaps that was too cautious, but I preferred to wait.

[Leif]

I heard from these people that Bal Primer was applied to the walls. Would it be obvious from inspection?