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Hi guys,

I've been asking a few questions over the last couple of months for an en suite refurb im doing in the house. I have attached a few pics of before and current floor situation. I have lined the floor with ply board and screwed it down every 6 inches. I used a rapid set flexible cement based adhesive and tiles are looking really well down and don't feel like they are going anywhere. Next job I have to do is the shower cubical. As I've taken the old tiles off it has caused a small amount of damage to the plaster and plaster boards underneath. What I want to know is can I line the area to be tiled with say 4mm ply board and screw this into the studs behind the stud wall and tile onto that to give me a more even surface to tile on? If I do this what preparation work needs to be done? I am using Mapei flexible rapid set in grey if that makes a difference. Tiles are 6mm ceramic and are aprox 60x30cm.

If you need to know any more details let me know.

Firstly, you don't want to be using ply in a wet area. The floor is fine but not in the shower itself.

You have a number of options as the tiles you will be fitting are quite light and give you no weight issues.

1. Simply fill any holes in the existing plasterboard (assuming it's still structurally sound) and tank the area using something like the BAL WP1 system.

2. Cut out the damaged plasterboard and replace, in an ideal world with a product like 12mm thick Aquapanel or equivalent. Tank, then tile. Plasterboard would do - but as you're going to the trouble of cutting it all out you may as well replace it with tile backer.

Screwing something over the top of what's there gives you an edge detail to deal with where the shower enclosure meets the tiles/wall.

Your process is - tidy up the wall choosing one of the options above.
Tile
Grout
Seal tray to tiles with silicone (all to cure)
Fit enclosure on top of tile and seal to tray externally only. (No silicone inside the shower screen around the base, the vertical rails are fine to seal in the shower)

In a word 'No'

4mm ply isn't suitable to tile on to especially not in a shower.

If its light damage then replaster the patches, if the damage is more widespread then remove the plasterboard and reline with tile backer boards or aquapanel

ATS beat me to it.

Hello mate BTW ;)

The board itself is fine, just some plaster had came off with the old adhesive. Can I patch these in with tile adhesive or am I best using filler or plaster?

Thanks for the replies.

You can in fill with rapid set but prime the area first with a suitable primer or sbr, not PVA

what is a suitable primer? Thsoe tanking kits seem to all come with a membrane? Is there not a paint on tanking kit I could use?

or if using SBR, do I mix it with the rapid set for the entire tiling job?

A suitable primer would be Mapei Primer G. You should prime all plaster surfaces before tiling with cement based tile adhesive.

Here's a How too guide from BAL on their particular kit:-

http://www.bal-adhesives.co.uk/newpdfs/ ... eaflet.pdf

Read the instructions for the shower enclosure and ignore earlier advice about sealing it.

Some manufacturers instructions will be to seal the outside, some are inside, some are inside and 150mm up on the outside of the wall profiles. Others you have to sit the bottom profile on a bed of silicone.

If you take blanket info for the enclosure it may well leak from day 1!

No problem, will do ROC Thanks!

I have another quick tiling question. I am planning on doing a small 5 inch skirting in the same tile as the floor with an L shaped chrome edging strip along the top. Can I just grip full these tiles onto the wall or is it necessary to use adhesive? I don't think it'll be easy getting my trowel in there and could get a bit messy. Although I still want to make sure it lasts so needs must and all that.

I wouldn't use gripfill but plenty of people will tell you that they can be stuck on with silicone.

Best way would be to butter the tiles with tile adhesive.

I'll try buttering them. I've been buttering all the tiles as well as notching the floor and it's definitely a better job. If that doesn't work would the likes of tec7 do the job?

And just out of curiosity why not grip fill?