Bathroom tanking kit recommendations

sx_turbo

sx_turbo

sx_turbo

Associate
Joined
10 Sep 2022
Posts
1,486
Location
essex
Hi all,

So doing bathroom, stripped it bare one wall has had to go right back to brick (2 walls are dot and dab, one wall is stud and plasterboard the last one is plasterboard glued together.)

Bathroom is going to be replastered, and tiles fitted round the bath only.

I'm undecided whether I'm going to do the tiling (really don't want to) or whether I'm going to pay someone,

What I do know is I need to tank the walls around the bath.

I'm just not sure what kit to get.

The bathroom is tiny, so to maximise space I would prefer a paint on kit.

Problem is I've only heard of mapei, bal and everbuild. But there is many more available.

The BAL kit seems like it could go wrong easily, the everbuild kit has a lot of steps and I question the quality, mapei loads of places stock their stuff but a lot of people seem to complain about it so I'm not enamored to give it a go.

I use to ask diynot for this stuff but it's full of Muppets these days so I give it a wide birth.

I've seen there seems to be a few knowledgeable folks on here so hoping someone might be able to help
 
They are all much of a muchness, any are fine. I’ve used the everbuild kit before and it was fine. Very much the case of just follow the instructions, it was dead simple.

Really tanking kits are to be avoided if you are doing it ‘properly’.

You should really use a cement based tile backer board which is designed for the job and is already waterproof and you can tile directly onto. I used marmox boards in my shower which is also insulated.

You’d use also have to be careful with tile weight on plasterboard to comply with building regulations. Pretty much all large format tiles are a no go and many smaller tiles are also too heavy.
 
Mrs wants metro tiles, I wanted to go for the plastic wall sheets but they look truly awful when up close so that was quickly kyboshed. The metro tiles and worst case weight of adhesive and grout comes to 16kg per square meter so weight wise should be ok, they say limit is 20kg per square meter for plaster skimmed plasterboard.

I've seen a lot about the water proof cement boards, unfortunately I don't have the luxury of having the room to install them otherwise the bath doesn't fit. The room with plasterboard and plaster is exactly 1700mm. Fitting a 1500 bath would be too small and look odd having a 200mm blank at one end (or 100mm either end).

I could board down to the bath, but having a 12mm overhang (by time tiles are added aswell) wouldnt look right for the bath we getting (one with ultra thin sides ).

So I feel I'm stuck with tanking the walls. I'be looked around and think I might go with bw1, though it's very pricey
 
The cement boards would be to replace the plasterboard rather than something you would add on top.

I understand why you wouldn’t want to rip down perfectly good plasterboard though if it’s going to do the job. As I said, I’ve used the Everbuild kit and that’s because I tanked the skimmed plasterboard in my bathroom when I refitted it. The existing boards were perfectly fine and made no sense to rip them out given how little use that shower was going to get.

On the other hand, the boards in my en-suit were completely shot, the previous owners didn’t maintain the grout or silicone and I spotted they were sodden after moving in. They were getting ripped out within a few weeks and I went with Marmox boards in there.
 
I used Mapei recently and it is fine. I would say the seal around the bath is a bit tricky. If starting from scratch I would kerdi board.
 
When talking cement boards remember normal standard cement boards e.g hardibackers are not waterproof boards, you want xps boards instead.

SpeedFreak said:
I used Mapei recently and it is fine. I would say the seal around the bath is a bit tricky. If starting from scratch I would kerdi board.
Click to expand...
Its very easy really. Use a classiseal on the bath and tile over it. Fill the bath up and let it settle for a day before finishing with a silicone joint.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom