Hi, hope you all had a good weekend. Mine went downhill yesterday afternoon, and not in the good MTB way

I finally got round to tackling some loose tiles around our shower bath area, the tiles were put up pretty poorly by the previous owner and were very loose and needed regrouting. So I wanted to restick the loosest ones and regrout, particularly round the shower splash area

However, one I took the loosest bottom ones off a few fell down. I didn’t have enough adhesive to restick them and the old tiles had blobs of adhesive that I couldn’t remove

So I bodged a cover and left it at that (see photo) as ran out of time

We don’t have any spare tiles left so I’m stuck with what to do either

A. Retile whole bathroom (nuclear option)
B. Source some similar tiles and hope it’s not to jarring
C. Stick some panels up, again jarring

Problem is the existing pattern is running bond so hard to get a nice demarcation line in order to get away with just retailing the ‘shower’ area

Ps all the missing tiles are now broken up

I’m pretty sure the tiles were put up by previous owner around 20 yrs ago and cannot contact them. I’ll try homebase and b&q first on the off chance they still make them

retile I’m afraid. Everything else will at best be a good bodge. I’d only do that if it was a stopgap to a bathroom refit in the future, and as you were refurbing I’m assuming that’s not the case.

Not smashing up the matching tiles would probably step 1. Maybe too late for that now 🙂 Unless they broke when they fell they could’ve been re-used.

I’d go for option B. I’m sure get something close enough. Depends how fussy are though.

I’ve this coming too.

Bathroom fitted about 5 years ago, didn’t notice that they hadn’t sealed the shower tray properly until it was too late – couple of floor tiles lifting and cracks in the grout on the lower wall tiles.

I know once I take them off it’s gonna be a pile of shite, I’m in denial at present…. 🙁

A rising diagonal line of new tiles starting from the bottom tile sticking out from the plastic and going up to the shower head?

It would jar but it would be a neat triangle and you could pretend it was a design feature.

Can’t see to the right of the pic how the run ends.

Can. you (carefully this time and without breaking) remove a column of tiles and end the run there early, re-using those tile over the bath?

You will just need to patch in the plaster where you removed the tiles and relote the cut ones.

I had this issue and ended up fitting plastic panels over the shower portion. It looks shit, but the bathroom is getting completely redone at some point after the kids have buggered off to college.

I’ll try homebase and b&q first on the off chance they still make them

Go to a proper tile place, much more chance of a match/someone who knows what they’re doing.

The tiles fell off and broke, the plaster behind the loosest tile was really damp so it needed doing. Just really bad timing with all the other plates I’m spinning at the moment.

Take all the tiles off and put some wetwall up.

If you avoid cheap and nasty panels then it’ll look great for years and you’ll never have to clean grout again.

This is the wraparound tiles to give you an idea of the scale of retailing. Plus a pic of the deep gouge in the bath caused by falling tile

If it’s an acrylic bath then there’ll be a local Plastic Surgeon that can fix it, as long as it’s not properly cracked / burst.

Squirt a load of expanding foam on it and smooth off with a teaspoon. Take pics.

Yeah, not been properly tanked by previous owner. Looks like tiles direct on plaster. I had an inkling which is why it was daft to start the job 2pm on a sunday

Take all the tiles off and put some wetwall up.

If you avoid cheap and nasty panels then it’ll look great for years and you’ll never have to clean grout again.

This is what I did. Previous owner went a bit tile crazy and tiled everything in sight. Took days to strip it all and re-plaster. New wet wall went up in no time and looks much better. As a bonus the next owner won’t have to go though what I went through as it’ll come down cleanly in a couple of hours.

Big job though, so I’d be looking at the quick fix/close match for now.

how badly broken are the tiles that fell off? I’ve re-used tiles like that in a non-obvious place (might allow you to swap them for whole tiles?)

I’ve just redone our shower room, main objective was to make it not leak, the grout had gone and soaked the plasterboard behind so the walls moved if you lent on them. We opted for plastic panels (igloosurfaces.com) looks ok, not quiet as good as tiles but doesn’t leak and hopefully more robust. Easy to put up (glued in place and slotted into strips in the corners) and not that expensive.

If it makes you feel any better our shower/bath is leaking like a sieve in to the boiler room below, we’re infested with carpet moths, all the windows need replacing, the woodwork on all the eaves is rotten and the whole interior and exterior of the house needs painting. DIY, don’t you just love it?

how badly broken are the tiles that fell off? I’ve re-used tiles like that in a non-obvious place (might allow you to swap them for whole tiles?)

Broke into 2 or 3 pieces, and in a rubble sack on the driveway. I’ll have a look. I’m going b&q at lunch as the do a same size tile in beige marble effect

Chances of matching enough to not offend wife are slim to none however

I’m with percypanther …
As an absolute minimum I’d pull the bit round the bath and put in a proper wetwall… it’s not even stuck down properly to what looks like plasterboard and the rest is going to fall off probably sooner rather than later? (Are they tiles or real travertine?? I’m guessing tiles but worth checking)

Maybe choose a completely different tile .. just do the bath area for now but buy enough tiles to finish the rest later.

If it makes you feel any better our shower/bath is leaking like a sieve in to the boiler room below, we’re infested with carpet moths, all the windows need replacing, the woodwork on all the eaves is rotten and the whole interior and exterior of the house needs painting. DIY, don’t you just love it

I can trump that. We have damp patches everywhere and a leak into kids bedroom which our builder thinks is ridge roof tiles that needs replacing. Plus faulty loose render. Fencing needs doing etc. This bathroom job was nothing and was meant to be a little job as the silicon needed replacing. #shouldvegotanewbuild

Pull the bath panel off and look underneath the bath, often trades leave excess tiles from the job under the bath in case spares are needed!

Waterproof telly innit. Should cover a few up.

I dropped a tile in the new bath when I tiled the bathroom, 13years on I still haven’t got around to sorting it :-).

Unfortunately, I’m in the retile camp.  Once water has got down the back it could have tracked a fair distance so you could do with removing the tiles and having a proper look behind to sort out.

Our bathroom and toilet are separate but tiled to match.  I’m going to modify the toilet room as part of an extension so I’m trying to track down 13year tiles, but I suspect that I’ll end up redoing both rooms….

Good luck!

Strip back and then Wetwall, no more yellowing/black grout.

Serious question, is there any wetwall that looks like it isn’t in an old folks home/public swimming pool?.

#shouldvegotanewbuild

Dunno – another chap on here i know locally was of that opinion … he did do the new build thing hes had similar issues to you – caused by builder ineptitude causing an invisible leak behind the tiles…… just out of warrenty the kitchen roof got wet. tiles out , replacing the shower outlet (the wrongly fitted part) new plasterboard, Tiles etc etc , Kitchen roof.

Thats just the more serious of his issues.

He is looking for his next house he wants an old shell to modernise again – His attitude now is – at least if it needs modernised itll be me causing the issues – not having the guess what someone else has bodged in.

+1 for wetwall BTW

Serious question, is there any wetwall that looks like it isn’t in an old folks home/public swimming pool?.

Of course there is.*

Can be spendy though

*Disclaimer – In the last year i’ve been involved in jobs where we’ve fitted out both an old peoples home and a swimming pool in wetwall….and toilets, bathrooms and kitchens. Haven’t done a single job with wall tiling. It’s too high maintenance.

Aye, I’m right up for using it, just haven’t seen anything that isn’t a bit meh tbh. Wouldn’t mind it being a bit spendy, tiling is so much more expensive than tile costs.

Ta for replies

Because of the running bond existing tiles, anything like wet wall will mean a replaster job and I don’t have stomach or money for a plasterer

Unless I just stick a beige wet wall panel over the existing mess which won’t bother me for 12 months, until I can do the job properly but wife is another matter

the moron who tiles my bathroom bridged across from wall to door frame at teh edge of the bath. and left a 20mm gap between bottom of the tiles and the bath.

Everytime I flush the toilet i have prepare myself for a replacement bathroom.

redoing the silicone takes a WHOLE tube and last about 6 months 😀

Serious question, is there any wetwall that looks like it isn’t in an old folks home/public swimming pool?.

Definitely. The cheap cream/white stuff certainly looks a bit municipal but there are some very nice finishes out there if you spend a little more. Ours is slate effect, and looks pretty good and I am not usually a fan of materials trying to look like other things.

I’d hazard a guess more tiles in the damaged area are likely to fall off in the near future.

option D.
Remove all tiles around bath and shower, cut a neat vertical line up the tiles to the left of teh toilet and finish with edging, maybe replace plasterboard,
Put wet wall up behind shower as said above, or retile with a similar pattered but contrasting coloured tile.

I was going to post what @meatsupreme suggests. I found spare tiles a couple of times in the past under baths. It could be travertine which I think needs waterproofing when installed. If that wasn’t done then it could explain the wet plaster behind. Wetwall it travertine pattern.

Option D, leave as is. It looks like a perfectly good repair that you have done with the sheeting.

Serious question, is there any wetwall that looks like it isn’t in an old folks home/public swimming pool?.

Yes. We’ve just had our bathrroms done including floor to ceiling all over in main bathroom. It was spendy though and a significant amount of labour cost as needed proper joinery work to get the finish needed. It looks awesome though and I’ll never use tiles again

As a short term ‘fix’ just put the wetwall up over the tiles – it should have enough grip to stay up even in the tiles are not very firmly fixed to the wall?

Just leave the bags on it makes me feel less shit about mine…

It could be travertine which I think needs waterproofing when installed. If that wasn’t done then it could explain the wet plaster behind.

Drop some acid on one of the broken bits… or just try and scratch it with steel….

As a minimum dry the plaster and fix some proper cement board. If you did manage to tile over that you will just get rot and mould… and its only a matter of time before the rest start to fall off.