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Hi, I'm about halfway through tiling my bathroom (2nd tiling experience after my kitchen floor) which seems to be going very well at the moment. Around the bath / shower I'm using marble mosaics and was wondering what the best solution was where the tiles meet the bath, i.e. sealant strip or silicone? I have already bought a Homelux sealant strip (to fit before tiling) but think it will look untidy and know they can discolour. If I fit this how will I seal the ends? If I don't use the strip will silicone be good enough to get a seal? The bath is in place already (cut slightly into the newly plastered wall).

Also, I have a couple of cheap bath panels which i'm thinking of returning in favour of making my own tiled panels. How can I ensure that they are removable?

Many thanks for any help I receive.

Hi,

and welcome to the forum.

For the seal around the bath I have either used the strips that go behind the tiles, like you have or I have just used silicone.

Silicone can be ok if you ensure that the bath can not move, there is a page on how to do this here-

http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/silicone_sealant.htm

Or there is a new product called a Teleseal 10, this gets good reviews and has won a few awards- http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/teleseal10.htm

As for the bath panels, I think that normally people try and ensure that at least one of them can be easily removed, so that maintenance of the taps/waste can be acheived easily.

I'm not sure of the best way of doing this, so hopefully one of the pro's will answer.

OK.......

You should be tanking the wall because a mosaic will not provide a waterproof barrier at all.

The tanking membrane will actually seal right down to the bath. The marble mosaic is then the aesthetic finish.

Thanks very much for all of the advice posted - much appreciated. Mudster, do you sell the tanking membrane? Just followed your link and noticed you are off Jct 6 on the M25 - right near myself (Crawley, West Sussex).

while your there get some pva of him as well.

MCLB01 wrote:Thanks very much for all of the advice posted - much appreciated. Mudster, do you sell the tanking membrane? Just followed your link and noticed you are off Jct 6 on the M25 - right near myself (Crawley, West Sussex).

I don't but a good outlet near you will be Rogers Ceramics, on the industrial park where PC World and Curry's are (can't remember the name of it).

You'll need BAL WP1 or similar, they may do an Ardex version of it.

Alternatively Tile Base - Who I think also have a store in Crawley. - They will do the BAL WP1 kit.

'As for the bath panels, I think that normally people try and ensure that at least one of them can be easily removed, so that maintenance of the taps/waste can be acheived easily.'

What is the best way to do this if you are going to tile onto board? Would you tile the board first and then drill holes to fix it in place? Or would you tile around the holes?

Cheers

You might have to use external ply for the short end!

I would make a panel out of external ply and then use several of these to hold it inplace and then tile it.

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro ... 6&id=19215



If you ever need to remove it you can pull it right out.

You might need a cuction cup or something to get it out with though!

I tend to use these for access panels on a tiled bath panel:-

http://www.schluter.co.uk/produkt.aspx? ... g=funktion

I use silicone instead of grout where the access panel meets the fixed part.

Thanks guys for the replys - I really appreciate the advice.

Regards

In regard to BAL tanking I came across an interesting website that seems to offer a real good solution when tanking over bath and tray ledges. The seals were designed by a crowd called Sealux and their strips have a silicone 'release' film that makes them very flexible (they also conceal the silicone from view). The following link might be of interest. Hope this helps.

http://www.waterproofingshowers.ie/bal_installation.htm