Doin'up my bathroom - eek!

[notsohandyman]

Hi to all

This is my 1st post since joining a few days ago and I'm about to tackle a bathroom. The room is currently an 'empty shell' and I've read in previous posts that you can fix placterboards direct to the wall using the 'Dot & Dab' method. I would be grateful for advice on the following......

1. Is it OK to use this method in a bathroom, what with steam and all?
2. Do you have to remove all old plaster and go back to brick even if it is still sound?
3. One wall is already back to brick but has large chunks missing out of the face of some of the breeze blocks. Should I fill these before plasterboarding or let the bonding mix fill in?
4. Blueboy asked in a previous post "Is it OK to tile onto plasterboard"?, to which the reply was YES. Is it still OK if they've been fixed by Dot & Dab method or is weight an issue?
5. What side of the plasterboard is used for tiling?
6. Do you need to tape the joints if tiling?
7. Someone mentioned "Aquapanel would need to be tanked with BAL WP1". What does 'tanked' mean?
8. Would it help if I posted some pictures of the room before I cause havoc on it

Sorry if some of these questions seem a bit basic but I'd rather ask than mess up!!! Be aware there's likely to be rather more of these in the weeks ahead!!

Thanks in advance,

NotSoHandyMan.

[Mudster]

1. Yes it's fine

2. Not that I'm aware of, but if the plaster is sound what are you dry lining?

3. If they are large enough to cause a fixing problem deal with it first, if they aren't just don't fix where the holes are.

4. It's still fine, but by dotting and dabbing you reduce the weight you hang from 32kg/m2 to 20kg/m2 (normal ceramics or thin porcelain will be fine - anything over 9mm - 10mm is getting a bit heavy).

5. The face, not the brown back.

6. Not strictly necessary but it does help and doesn't take long with a bit of self adhesive tape.

7. Tanking is a waterproof latex membrane that's painted onto the walls of the shower, it prevents water penetration in the event of a grout or tile failure. BAL WP1 is a particular manufacturer and the name of the kit. click the following link for pictures of a shower being constructed in Aquapanel and tanked (courtesy of Bstyle):-
Dead link removed

8. Follow numbers 1-7 and 8 shouldn't be required, however we'll answer any specifics you may have and feel free to post oics if you think it will help 8-)

[notsohandyman]

Hi Mudster,

In answer to your reply......

2. Not that I'm aware of, but if the plaster is sound what are you dry lining?

I thought of boarding over was easiest way of getting a nice flat surface for tiling. The walls are uneven where a stud wall, tiles and previous shower have been removed.

Would you suggest getting them plastered and skimmed instead?

Thanks for your help.

NotSoHandyMan.

[Mudster]

Difficult to say what your best route is here without actually looking at it.

I only ever used to dryline if plastering wasn't an option (usually timescale) but you're always reducing the size of the room slightly by doing this.

If plastering is an option that would be my first choice.

[notsohandyman]

Hi Mudster,

Thanks for you reply. I've been thinking about what you said reagrding why I'm dryling the walls and now I'm not sure what to do for the best. The reason for dryling was threefold.....

1. I'm on a tight budget so can't really afford the cost of a plasterer (or wait months for one).

2. I can't plaster but I can do the plasterboards myself.

3. The walls are an assortment of different surfaces, as I'll try to explain below, beacuse the new bathroom space has been formed out of an old ensuite and part of a landing area.

The bathroom room is 7ft x 9ft. The current state of the 4 walls are as follows.

Wall 1 is a stud partition with bare plasterboards.

Wall 2 is back to bare breeze blocks

Wall 3 wall is part bare blocks and part rendered in cement based plaster. The plaster is covered in old tile adhesive thats stuck like sh*t to a blanket!

Wall 4 is part stud with bare plaserboard (where doorway formed), part skimmed in gypsum and part covered in bonding.

So, as you can appreciate, there's an assortment of surfaces and 2 walls are uneven as well where an old stud wall was removed. As WALL 1 is plasterboarded, doing the other 3 seemed to take care of a mulitude of problems.

I know it's hard for you to say without seeing it but what would you do?
I did try to attach some pictures but even with my camera on VGA setting the file size was too big?

Also, a shower cubicle is going against Wall 1. Would you just tank that area of plasterboard or replace with Aquapanel?

Sorry this is so long but your (or anyone else's) help is appreciated

Cheers,
NotSoHandyMan

[Mudster]

1. That governs what you can have rather than what you want, whilst there's nothing wrong with drylining in your case plastering would have the edge in my opinon, but it's not the end of the world to dry line.

2. Kind of reinforces your decision, although the plaster I employ (and his mate) would do an entire bathroom for me in a day, often including ceiling. For around £250 + materials.

3. I'd personally always use aquapanel out of choice, if it's two walls you need to baord thats about £50 , if you're doing 3 walls a total of £75, a small amount of money to guarantee your shower will never break down due to water ingress, I'd also tank this...cost £50...so for £125 you'll have a shower that won't leak, and won't ever fail due to atmospheric moisture. - Good value if you ask me.

Also consider what you will do where the dry lining meets area of wall where wndows and doors exist, are you going to need to re line the doors to account for the extra thickness, same with windows, what are architraves going to look like etc.....

With a bathroom fit the devil is in the detail, and ocassionally spending a little more money at the preparation stage can save money in finishings and produce a better article. However without actually seeing the room I can't make an informed decision, just a best guess on the information provided.

[notsohandyman]

Thanks for all the advice Mudster.

I'm going to get a quote for plastering the room although I'm tempted to have a go myself, else I think it will be dryline.

Once I get started, I'll definately use Aquapanels and tank as you recommend, if a jobs worth doing it's worth doing right!

Don't laugh, the wifes got all sorts of grand design ideas for this bathroom including a double ended bath set in a tiled surround, a built in 1200 shower area and sink with vanity unit.... all to be built and tiled by moi!!! (God help me)

I guess I'll be looking for a lot more advice in the weeks ahead

thanks again,

[Mudster]

She'll like Utopia furniture then...

http://www.utopiagroup.com/

[tim'll fix it]

She'll like Utopia furniture then...

http://www.utopiagroup.com/

I picked up that catalogue the other day, has to be the hardest concept for a catalogue ever

I couldnt make head nor tail of it, all coloured blobs on the top of the page to indicate colours and no prices

and I didnt like the designs much