www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Right bathroom is MR plasterboard on the walls and floorboards with 12mm marine ply covering, all new and nicely solid. Ive bought:

Bal WP1 shower tanking kit (for tanking around the shower area, especially the window inside the enclosure)
Bal Rapidset flexible tile adhesive powder (for floor tiles)
Bal Grip ready mixed wall tile adhesive (for shower and round the bath)
Bal superflex wide joint dark grout (for floor tiles)
Ceramic 33x33cm floor tiles
Ceramic 8x4in wall tiles (for shower and round bath)

Can anyone see any problems with what Ive bought with my desired useage?

Also Ive head alot of conflicting info on whether to seal marine ply before tiling, does it solely come down to the tile adhesive on whether PVA'ing is required or not?

Thanks

I wouldn't trust BAL Grip in a wet area.

The 12mm ply is undersized - 15mm is minimum BS although most decent tilers use 18 as minimum. In fact if the floor is solid without defection a tilebacker board would have been better

PVA is not a suitable primer. An SBR at the very least. Ply should be sealed on the underside before it went down too.

What would be your choice for adhesive in a wet area?

Is that 18mm OVER floorboards or instead of? Seems very overkill and surely you have a massive step between that and the hallway etc? I might live to regret it, but the 12mm is staying for the mo.

Whats an SBR? Can you recommend one?

Thanks

For the walls I would use a flexible bagged adhesive much like you have for the floor - Use a white adhesive if the tiles are light unless you work very cleanly so a flexible standard set addy from Bal, Mapei, Ardex...

I take it you are shopping in topps? if so you are more than likely paying wayyyyy too much for your adhesive unless you are on good trade terms.

There are a couple of reasons for not using ply or using thin stuff. Firstly 90% of the ply on the market today is of very poor quality. Secondly an undersized ply can have 2 negatives 1) thin ply can not always cope with the moisture from the adhesive alone and delaminate 2) It doesn't add strength to the floor if undersized, if the floor was deflection free already thickness is not an issue but you still have the problem of moisture from the adhesive and also the risk it's poor quality. Sop a tile backer board or a cement board would have been better, these are also much thinner at 9mm for cement board

SBR is a primer and not too disimilar to PVA but without the properties that make PVA unsuitable for tiling. Better still would be to buy a primer that is suited to the adhesive you are using, so say BAL it would be BAL APD or Mapei would be Mapei Primer G....

Unfortunately yes I am shopping at Topps at the min :-( As a convience thing more than anything. I spose I can look at it like I have a day off work holiday, I can look round comparing prices or just go there who I know will have in what I want, but ill pay over the odds for it. Sometimes times worth more I guess, still begrudge it though!

Thankyou very much for your advice, ill sort the adhesives out tomoz, and in future will take the advice on the ply sizing.

Thanks

Don't get me wrong convenience is worth a lot, no point in driving for an hour all over town to save £2.50 on a bag of adhesive. But let me ask what you paid on a tub of BAL Grip? I don't buy the stuff but know only last year I would have been paying £6 a tub, rapid flexible I wouldn't pay more than £17-20 a bag.

You're not trade and as such you don't buy as much, clearly you won't get it at the same price but that doesn't mean you should have your pants pulled down by topps.

Bal grip 15kg tub, £34.99. . . .

What spacing would you use for floor tiles in bathroom? 5mm?

Thanks again

3mm.........would need to be a flaming large tile for me to whack in the 5mm spacers