Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Bathroom fitting advice!
  • wilsonthecat
    Free Member

    Its DIY time again, and I’m calling on STW for some solid, professional advice!

    I have a downstairs shower room which I’m currently refitting due to the previous owners poor efforts.

    I have a 3m3 metre room, the shower tray is being fitting into an alcove, of which has been aqua-boarded, skimmed and tanked. The shower tray base is 1100x700mm. The floor has been screeded on a to a concrete base and back filled with karndean flooring. The pictures below show the shower tray dry fitted onto a riser board. The walls are going to be finished with mermaid panelling

    Right now the questions;
    1. The gaps around the two walls are around 12mm, Is this too much or can I simply fill it with silicon.
    2. How do I fix the riser tray to the concrete floor? Drilling the holes for the adjustable legs would be a difficult. Would I be better to scrap the riser kit and build up with plinths and a ply base?

    The reason I choose the riser kit is the house has previously suffered from subsidence and although the floor is now flat is still far from level.

    The walls have taken a serious amount of effort to get plumb and level!

    stufive
    Free Member

    You could wedi board the walls down onto the tray to reduce the gap then put your finish onto that, i wouldnt be filling a gap that size with silicone

    easygirl
    Full Member

    Think the reccomendations with mermaid panels is that the shower base is recessed into wall a couple of mm
    Then the profiles are fitted to the wall.
    Have you got the base profiles yet, to see how much they cover the gap

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    wilsonthecat
    Free Member

    Thanks, for the answers so far.

    Could the space between the tray and outer walls be filled with wedi or something similar? I’m trying not add to the walls above the top of the tray as the walls continue round and it would look odd with the extra space added.

    The panels are actually ‘Showerwall’ (similar to mermaid) and the installation instructions recommend the panels are dropped onto the tray and finished using either the showerseal system or by leaving a 3mm gap and backfilling with silcon.

    Any thoughts on fixing the riser kit to the floor, adhesive?

    Most showers seem to leak due to movement in the tray itself, I’m trying to avoid that and looking for the best solution now!

    wilsonthecat
    Free Member

    EG- If the tray is lined up and equidistance between the two walls the gap is 6mm each side. The panels are 10mm deep, so it does cover it but not as much as I would like.

    nealglover
    Free Member

    Personally I would build a plywood topped plinth for the riser.
    And dot and dab aqua board on the exiting wall down on the the tray to make the tray slightly recessed into the wall.

    stufive
    Free Member

    As above id dot and dab wedi onto all three of the shower walls down onto the tray then silicone the wedi to seal it to the tray then put your shower wall on top, the shower screen door should cover the wedi and shower wall edges so you wouldnt know the wedi was there, id fix the tray down by the feet if you can, put some shims or silicone it to fill the gaps before you finish the walls to stop it moving from side to side, use plastic shims rather than wood

    BearBack
    Free Member

    Really, you’re trying to solve a problem that you should have addressed before you aqua boarded let alone tanked.
    Personally, I’d want to see some kind of mechanical tiling upstand/flange on that shower tray with the top end of that upstand tanked in to the rest of the system.

    If you’re having ‘out of square’ issues at this point.. its going to maginfy through to your tile installation. If you rely on silicone to bridge that gap, you will have leaking issues.. remember all the moisture that gets through your grout will trickle down the tanking and the idea is that it returns into your tray.. asking silicone which doesn’t last forever to hold back any water for the life of that shower is a long shot.

    Any subfloor flex will break open a silicon bond and you dont want to have to tear out your lower course of tile to address failure donw the road.

    Best solution – restructure to make your alcove square.
    Alternative solution – tiling upstand tanked into place.

    bear in mind that you *need* to have your tile overlapping the tray.. so a 12mm gap will require a huge thickness tile to span the gap…
    Really.. if you’re adding more backer board layers at this point.. hows that going to look when you have to finish the edge of the tile (front right of your tray) as you’ll now have a step in the tile that even the biggest tile edge profile wont fill..

    My vote is to restructure.. but you dont need to have the wall skimmed again.. you can install concrete backer board shimmed to make it square and allow the tray to rotate ccw a few degrees to bridge that gap front right rear left then overlap your tile installation onto your current untanked finished surface where it will transition from backer board to your current plaster finish . then use a tiling upstand and tank then tiling is easier as you’ll be working on a plumb and square wall surface. [*** edit – might only be your back wall out of square?]

    OR (cheap option) – work with what you have, install tiling upstand to tray, tank it into your wall system then tile then hope you can cover the foot of the upstand with a combination of tile/caulk. Or use this as well once you are sure any moisture migration issues are resolved.
    Schluter Dilex AS

    wilsonthecat
    Free Member

    Ok, more clarification needed I think.

    The walls are square, however there is a gap. I pushed the shower tray tight to one end where it sits square along its face. I’ve measured the gap correctly this time and I have between an 8mm to 9mm gap.

    In theory if I reposition the tray this leaves a 4-5mm gap either side.

    Tiles aren’t being used as previously mentioned as I will be installing shower panelling. The panels are 10mm each plus the dot and dab adhesive will give me 12mm for each panel.

    This means each board will be overlapping the tray by at least 7mm.

    I think I will scrap the riser tray and lay it on a bed of cement over a ply raised plinth.

    Now will this still be a compromise and should the above be OK?

    Leak prevention is number one on the list

    Bear
    Free Member

    as you are using a panel then water penetration should be non exisitent, just build out with ply so that the tray is snug.

    You could use a 6mm marmox board if you were worried but an expense you don’t need.

    Stick with the riser, so much easier to level, you could run a batten around the walls to pick the edges of the tray up if you are worried.

    BearBack
    Free Member

    sorry – Ignore me – I wasn’t paying proper attention 🙄

    looks like mermaid use a similar profile to that schluter piece.
    looking at the mermaid system, not sure what the need is for tanking as its a non permiabel system. Belt and braces though as Mike Holmes says

    Their instructions how that this solves your gap:

    Position the Transeal profile over the joint and
    rotate it into position, in the process fusing the
    Sealux-N in the profile with the Sealux-N on the
    shower tray to form a watertight seal. Screw the
    profile to the wall (Fig #7).
    Here – fig 7

    wilsonthecat
    Free Member

    Best way to fix the riser tray to the concrete floor?

    wilsonthecat
    Free Member

    No problem!

    You are right about the tanking, but I think with bathrooms/wetrooms the belt and braces approach is required.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

The topic ‘Bathroom fitting advice!’ is closed to new replies.