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Hey guys

Ive spent the majority of the day sorting out my bath and have finally finished it to what I think is the best I am capable of getting it. What I would like is some suggestions on whether I have done things correctly so for next time I know what to do and what not to do.

A bit of background.

I was installing a full brand new bathroom. Ripped old out, bought new one.

We offered up the bath to the room and adjusted the height then marked where the top of the bath was. We then put a wooden batten in around the top of the bath and took it out of the way.

The wooden batten acted as our tile to point so that the other walls lined up. We put a row of tiles in that were cut so they lined up with the tiles on the other walls and then tiled the rest of the wall etc.

Upon removing the batten and replacing the bath there was a gap where the batten had been approximately 1cm wide from top of bath to the edge of the cut tiles.

We looked at options:
1) use a plastic seal with a 90 degree bend
2) something else.

We bought the plastic seal stuff and I tried to offer it up. We did not skim the walls prior to tiling, and the walls were not true to begin with (mistake I know.. next time this will be done). As such the tiling wasnt 100% perfect (first time ive ever tiled). This meant that the plastic trim simply did not seal it properly. I was going to try and put silicone along the inside of the trim to make a watertight seal but it was having none of it - and it didnt look very nice either. I think the stuff we bought was designed to be installed *behind* the tiles.

So my next solution was to jack the bath up, allowing me to add more support underneath it. During this I put a lot of silicone sealant between the bath lip and the wall and squished it in, hopefully this has created another seal.

Jacking it up and securing it in place resulted in gaps between top of bath and cut edge of tile of 1mm - 3mm.

I sealed around the bath using DOW 785. Left the first seal to cure for 4 hours then placed another seal on top of that to get a better water shedding shape.

I have included pictures of the results.

What I am looking for is some feedback with suggestions of what I could have done better and whether my results are any good - they look okay to me but as this is the first one ive ever done I dont really know what a good job looks like!

Was I correct to do it the way I have done it?
Would the plastic 90 degree trim stuff have been the better option?
Should that plastic 90 degree stuff go under the row of tiles?

Ill be doing another bathroom in the near future so I want to learn as much from this one as possible so any feedback as to what I should have done (although it wouldnt be something I could do now to this bathroom) is appreciated.

My goal is that I learn from this so when I do the next it doesnt take me nearly as long as I wont have to question so many different parts of it and I will have a more general idea of what needs to be done.

Thanks in advance!

*Almost forgot - the corners of my bathroom are tricky - using either a smoothing tool or my finger with washing up liquid isnt working too well - are there any tricks to getting the finish on corners better than I have done (I have noticed in other bathroom corners appear to be the areas that look the worst).

Always get the bath in first mate. If you can chase it into the wall a little then even better. Then half fill the bath and seal it up with a good quality silicone. Then tile and silicone again. Those trims are garbage.
Maybe you could also have tiled from the centre of the wall, looks like you've come a full tile off the right hand end of the bath and have been left with a small cut on the left hand end.

It's your bathroom, if you're happy with it and it's the best you could do then

I might have set out the tiles slightly differently, but on the whole it looks like a decent job. You'll know better than anyone what you could have done better, that's often what DIY is all about.

not a bad job at all..normally I would fit the bath before tiling, you seem to have gone for the "Continental" way of doing things..

I find my "Little finger" gets into corners better..

I think that it looks very good and I like the way it looks

The only thing that I might have done (but this does depend on the rest of the room and where you want the visual point to start from - floor/window/bath etc) but I might have placed a full tile above the bath and use this as your focal point. So mark the top of the bath, leave a gap, then have a batton to start tiling from. I am not sure if I would put the bath in or not. Maybe put it in just incase it has to raise lower for any reason. I am only a diyer so not neccesarily gospel!

Setting out is a little suspect, i can try and explain how to do this if you like? other than that it looks like a decent job. As for the bath there are 2 ways to do it: 1) work out where you want your last full tile above the bath, batten out and start tiling from the batten, do the full height round the bath and when the adhesive is dry take the battens off put the bath in, get it level then put your last row of cut tiles in. 2) (the best method). Put your bath in first using 3x2" battens on the wall that are perfectly level, if you can support 3 sides on battens then all you need to do is get the battens level, put the bath in and screw the feet down untill they are touching the floor and you have a perfectly level bath which is well supported, you can then tile your bath in but i always put the cuts in round the bath last. One thing i have just thought of though, how did you get the wall brackets in and fixed to bath if it was tiled before the bath went in? its not just held to the wall by silicone is it?

Looks decent. nice and tidy considering you fitted the bath after too :)

Looks tidy JS

Gotta mention, as everyones has, the tile lay out and that chip in the tile behind the taps would bug the life out of me. Cracking attempt though and I've seen a lot worse done by supposed tradesmen that charged!

I have seen jobs that look much worse than that, there is nothing wrong with it at all apart from the tile spacing which is not that critical IMHO

If you fit the bath first you can get a special sealing strip that sticks to the bath and goes behind the first tile, you can then bead the gap with silicone.

Siliconing tools are available for giving you nice neat bead such as Fugi or Fugenboy (just Google them)

For a first attempt you have done very well

Thank you for the feedback guys - I have been a bit busy with the rest of the house recently and only just getting back to finishing the bathroom off - DIY is fun, but time consuming!!

All of those replies make sense. The chipped tile is bugging me but it was my fault as I tried to move a tile which had already been set in place for a few hours, slipped and.. well - the chip is the result :( We also ran out of tiles so I couldnt pull the tile out and redo it at the time. Many many lessons learnt from this!

The tile pattern I hadnt really noticed. The way we set about doing it was probably strange looking back on how we could have done it.

The question about the bath support - unfortunately yes its not hanging on any wooden battens, however I have reinforced the bottom of it, added another adjustable leg which I have a large wide piece of wood glued onto so this is supporting about 50% of the bath underneath - the rest is via the four legs at each side. I was going to try and put some more supports in around the sides, using adjustable bath legs (The jack-type screw adjustable things) with combinations of wood etc however I could not for the life of me find anywhere that sold adjustable bath legs like the one I needed.

When I raised it up to meet the tiles I used a trolley jack.. and then adjusted all legs so it was near enough pinned up in place. It didnt move easily either because its kinda jammed in via some tiles too. Removing it, if we ever have to, will probably involve a circular saw unfortunately!

Overall I am happy with it and the comments raised will make me think about it a bit more before going ahead and doing it. I took my time with it and now its one of my favourite rooms - just a little left to do now with the window sills and surround.

Thanks for the feedback guys :)

If you've done it yourself and you're happy with it, then you've done a good job.

definately not my choice of tiles, but it looks great none the less.

Personally I'd have started tiles in the corners and had cuts at walls, but that's my personal preference!

Cheers

DTWCeramics wrote:If you've done it yourself and you're happy with it, then you've done a good job.

definately not my choice of tiles, but it looks great none the less.

Personally I'd have started tiles in the corners and had cuts at walls, but that's my personal preference!

Cheers

Really like the tiles.Would've started in middle to ensure good size cuts in both corners.How about the bath panel ?

Always support a bath on battens. Same for shower trays that aren't on a platform or directly on the floor.

Always fill it so that the water goes into the overflow. That is the only way to check the overflow for leaks. Apart from the bodgers way which is to find out when water damage appears on the ceiling below.

we charge and therefore never use fingers for silicone joints. All internals should be siliconed also. Grout cracks in these positions.


The rest of the process is mainly combinations of a few ways. Tile onto batten works if you are not confident but not seen that done on a professional level. Just make sure the timber isn't bowed!

DTWCeramics wrote:If you've done it yourself and you're happy with it, then you've done a good job.

definately not my choice of tiles, but it looks great none the less.

Personally I'd have started tiles in the corners and had cuts at walls, but that's my personal preference!

Cheers

Started with a full tile at a corner? what happens if the walls aren't plumb? which they quite often are not

I would hope he means that if on setting out the tile into corner was 180mm and the tiles were 300mm then he would start the next wall with the 120mm off cut.