www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

We are currently half way through completely renovating our bathroom which we are turning into a wet room. We are going to do the tanking with marmox boards. The floor is tongue and groove floorboards and the walls are, well quite frankly a mess! The room was originally a separate bathroom and loo, we've knocked the wall down to make one big room, filled in one of the doorways, and totally gutted it and rerouted the plumbing.

I'm a bit confused now because there is confilicting advice on how to fix the marmox to the walls and floors, with some sites saying to use flexible adhesive (on the floor and walls) and others say to fix it with screws - which is best? Also what wall preparation should we do? At the moment it's a mixture of sand and cement render and plaster. A huge chunk of the old plaster was blown and there are many holes and gaps where the old fixings were. Should we plaster or render now, and how long should we leave it before fixing the marmox boards?

I have searched through this (excellent) site but can't find exactly what I need to know.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

Hi and welcome to UHM.

I have never heard of Marmox boards to be honest, as I am more familiar with aquapanel, which is similar.

With aquapanel though you cannot stick it to the wall with adhesive, like you can with the marmox and so from that point of view it is interesting.

I just did a google for Marmox and they have an informative site, which tells you everything you need to know-

http://www.marmox.co.uk/fixing_instructions.asp

They also have some pdf files that you can download.

When doing a job like this it is essential that you follow the manufacturers instructions

Looks like there's several ways to fix it, but best to follow the instructions.

Had trouble with this one

Thanks both, I shall have an interesting read I'm sure!

What about the rendering vs plastering and drying times? I've done a fair bit of tiling but never had to prep a wall before

Reading through the docs, it would say that a good surface is needed, so with that in mind I think you need to make good the wall.

As with any adhesive the surface must be dry, could be 3-4 days +

Marmox is usually used in conjunction with a tanking method? or marmox is used for insulation and wall boarding, the floor would benefit far more from aquapanel for rigidity, and not used as an uncoupling membrane with marmox, if being tiled, the walls would be easier tanked with Schluter kerdi waterproof membrane in my opinion, as the marmox method looks flawed and time consuming, especially for a d.i.y.er with respect... with schluter kerdi, the walls would require a true bonding coat to achieve a suitable tiling surface, but would be ready within 48hrs, primed with acrylic primer prior to adhering Kerdi.. schluter also offer a range of drainage systems
http://www.schluter.co.uk/produkt.aspx? ... g=funktion

Hi Thanks again

We already have the marmox boards m3 fitter!

I now have a builder coming in to do the rendering and plastering, he said rendering would be fine under the tiling and we just need to plaster the ceiling (obviously) and the bit of wall that isn't being tiled.

I'll have to post a picture when it's done

You should post a pic before as well Anne

The wiring is fun too - see how many junction boxes we found when we pulled the floor boards up!

Brilliant

You've wrecked it

Try and get some felt or strips of plastic under the pipes in the notches before you put the floor back, it will stop them creaking later.

And wrap those pipes in the wall with tape to protect them from the plaster/cement.

I should have done a pre- work picture too


We are hpoing to make a similar transformation to what we did with the kitchen:

Pre:


During:




after:

Brilliant job

It's fun camping out and doing the work around you, don't you think

I purchased an old house 30 years ago, and have been doing it up ever since most of that time I've had Cancer and every known illness to mankind, so I'm not in any hurry

thescruff wrote:
It's fun camping out and doing the work around you, don't you think

yeah it's great! We havent had a shower for six weeks now, it's a good job we both work mostly on our own

We paid someone to plaster and render the bathroom walls and it was such luxury. However I must remember we bought an old dilapidated house to do up ourselves. If it takes 30 years I'll be very upset though

The best system for a wet room project by far is Aquadec and Kerdi or homelux matting for the walls and floor.

I have used Marmox before, which I tanked using Kerdi. It's very similar to Wedi board, but the showerlay isn't 50mm thick, it's 18 or 20mm.

I personally don't understand why you are using an expensive product liek Marmox to line the walls, a better product would be, as mentioned Kerdi or Homelux. these products are something like 0.3mm thick and glued directly to the walls/floor, joints are covered with more membrane and this provides a waterproof seal

The Showerlay should be fixed directly to the joists after 18mm ply has been fitted at joist level to give a smooth base.

I tend to fit the showerlay/Aquadec so that it sticks above the floorboard by about 13/14mm, and then glue and screw 12mm Aquapanel to the floorboards to build it up to the same level as the Showerlay/Aquadec.

I'm not sure whether you can just install Mormox directly to the floorboards, this is unlikely to give enough rigidity to the floor unless it's very thick board. which is why I use Aquapanel, a much more rigid board. Marmox is just extruded foam with a cement coating.

Your Marmox should be fitted to the wall using a Rapid setting adhesive, then I believe it should be screwed using their discs which stops the screws pulling through (incidently can be bought from wickes)

Let us know some more details and feel free to post some questions and I'm sure we can answer them as best we can, although I'm not on the forum much