Making half-tiled bathroom fully tiled

numnutz

numnutz

numnutz

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Hi All,

Due to my sister moving in with me, I need to look at options for getting a shower installed in the family bathroom, which is currently only half-tiled and has a bath!

I was hoping to not have to retile the whole lot as it's not that old (new build) and try and either find some similar tiles, or just get some contrasting tiles to go above? Any suggestions here? Has anyone experience (or can give me a rough idea) of doing something like this?

Photo%2025-09-2014%2010%2039%2032.jpg

Thanks!

Ross
 
I would try to get the same tiles as the grout on the existing looks pretty clean. This means that the newer grout shouldn't look too bad against the old.

Wickes have some very similar tiles I believe. Contrasting the tiles might be quite tricky to achieve I think.
 
I was planning on going on a massive hunt around all the tile shops, but will try Wickes thanks!

I was planning on removing the tile trims, possibly a bit optimistic but was thinking I could just chisel them off... It seems a much bigger job to pull everything off and do the whole bathroom again, but It may well have to be the case to get a much better job!
 
you might be better off just knocking the existing tiles off and start over and tile completely

wont be much more money tbh
 
The tile trims will go 10-15mm under the top tile, depending on the price of the tiles its probably going to be worth doing it all again. Honestly its not that much hard work to tile that bottom bit if you are going to tile the whole wall anyway.

Although, if you can find a match for the tiles exactly, i would just removed the top tile of the two and then continue it up to full height of the wall.
 
Is the developer still onsite? If so ask the site manager where they get their tiles from, that's what we did (and conviniently at the time we asked they were ordering a lot from that company so he got extra for us at trade price!)
 
numnutz said:
I was planning on removing the tile trims, possibly a bit optimistic but was thinking I could just chisel them off... It seems a much bigger job to pull everything off and do the whole bathroom again, but It may well have to be the case to get a much better job!
Click to expand...

As stated above, the tile trims go under the tile, so you would need to knife along the trims length to remove the top bit.

You can't tile over the painted walls, so would need to prep them anyway, so its just as easy to knock the lot off.

How much area are we talking about?
 
The room isn't massive, maybe about 3m by 2m and is all half tiled so if end up having to retile the lot, albeit still half tiles around the non wet areas.

With the existing bathroom being in reasonable condition, it's not that old than I thought there might be a less drastic option! However, I'm feeling like that's just be a massive bodge. I assume I could simply reuse existing sanitaryware and thus aside from tiles, it won't be too expensive. I've already decided I want to do it, as it looks fun!

Developer is off site now as the last houses completed a few years back - good suggestion though!
 
What is the wall made of?

With the tiles currently just acting as a splashback the wall may not be adequately tanked for use as a shower.

Even if you could match up the tiles and remove the existing trim without damaging the substrate it may prevent future problems if you have all the tiles off and ensure the wall is properly prepared before retiling.
 
You can tile match them pretty easy. Just go round a few merchants, travis perkins or even somewhere like topps should be able to match those up.

Cut off the tile trims with a multitool (bosch pmf or similar) or even a stanley knife and lots of swearing, give the painted wall a coat of tanking and SBR and you can just tile away. Might need to regrout the bottom lot to get it to match up mind.

Wouldn't retile unless you have to, retiling is such a crap job. If those are on board then you're in all honesty going to be replacing all of the boards 9 times out of 10, most newbuilds are dot and dab so it's likely even an outward facing wall is plasterboard.

Even if it's on render and skim you're likely going to need to reskim, wait for that to dry, prime it and then retile. Pain in the arse is an understatement.
 
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So the wall is almost certainly plasterboard, and i doubt it was ever at all 'tanked' which I guess means I could run into problems, if it's expected to be getting a lot wetter as a shower splashback, as opposed to the casual splash from the bath.

Is dot and dab where they just stick the boards up as opposed to nailing them onto batons, this more likely they'll come off the wall if i try to get the tiles off?

Really in 2 minds about approach here, the house will eventually be rented, and the bathroom isn't exactly in a bad state at the moment. However I don't want to do just bodge a job now, and have to fix it later.

Cheers
 
Theoretically, if you can find exact replacements, I'd be continuing the tiling rather than starting again. Hack off the tile trim with a dremel or Stanley knife, prime the wall, and tile away. I bet showers over baths are hardly ever tanked anyway.
 
We've just done exactly this not so long ago. Went with the carry on option as pulling the original tiles off the plasterboard would probably have ruined it and added to the overall cost.

I just cut the existing trim off using a Stanley knife, prepared the walls by removing paint then used a border to break the two types of tile.
 
yeah that is another option if you add a border tile where the old ones are and a different tile on top if you cannot find the same ones. Means if you do it right it will look like you designed it that way
 
numnutz said:
So the wall is almost certainly plasterboard, and i doubt it was ever at all 'tanked' which I guess means I could run into problems, if it's expected to be getting a lot wetter as a shower splashback, as opposed to the casual splash from the bath.

Is dot and dab where they just stick the boards up as opposed to nailing them onto batons, this more likely they'll come off the wall if i try to get the tiles off?

Really in 2 minds about approach here, the house will eventually be rented, and the bathroom isn't exactly in a bad state at the moment. However I don't want to do just bodge a job now, and have to fix it later.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Realistically you could get away with not tanking providing they don't absolutely soak the walls every time they get in the shower and the tiling was a good job with a quality cement based grout. You'd get anywhere between 5 and 20 years out of it and then no doubt it would need updating anyway. It's not likely to turn to weetabix overnight.

Doesn't matter how the board were secured - if the tiles were stuck to the boards properly you're almost certainly going to ruin them pulling off the tiles, you'll start taking off a row and it'll rip lumps out, by the end the board will just push through because so much has been taken from it.

I'd just cut the boards down and bin the lot, quicker and easier. Stick up some MR plasterboard or tanked plasterboard then tile straight over it - no need to skim boards if you're tiling on them.
 
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