Fitting a bath

[Deejay]

Afternoon all

I've got an acrylic bath to fit in the corner of a bathroom, which will be tiled.

I've been told that the proper way to do this is to fit the bath to the wall before tiling. This means that the bottom edge of the wall tiles sit on the top edge of the roll of the bath and are then sealed with silicon.

The bath is supplied with brackets which are screwed to the wall, like 'hooks'.
The edge of the roll of the bath is then dropped into the gap between the wall and the bracket to give lateral support.

The side of the bath is against a wall with a window, so the reveals will be tiled, meaning a fair bit of cutting and faffing about.

I don't fancy tiling with the bath in situ, but it seems that I've got three choices.

1) Fix the tiles to the wall starting just below the wall brackets and fit the brackets and the bath to the tiled wall.

2) Fit the bath temporarily and fix the second row of tiles at the right height. Remove the bath and tile everything but the lowest row. Then fit the bath, silicon it to the wall, fix the lowest row of tiles in the gap and silicon the gap between the tiles and the bath after filling it with water.

3) Fit the bath and struggle to fix the tiles with it in place.

Any advice will be welcome.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dee J]

#2 seems like a winner

Dee

 

[Doug B]

Tile the walls above the bath leaving a row of cuts to the bath, then fit the bath, cut & fix the bottom row of tiles to the bath.

Baths are seldom flat, usually a slight bow one way or the other, so best to cut the tiles to the bath or end up with a silicone joint that varies in size.

A good idea is to fix timber to the walls where the under side of the rim touches them so the top edge where the silicone joint is is fully supported so less chance of movement & the silicone joint breaking down.

 

[Dibs-h]

2 sounds good - although I have done #3 as well. Silicon doesn't stop water getting past, even tho you might think so. In the past - I've fitted seals such as http://www.teleseal.co.uk/ (there are others too - proper ones not the $5 rubbish in B&Q) and they do what they say on the tin. Acrylic baths are likely to flex a little more than cast iron or steel.

HIH

Dibs.

p.s.I would be tempted to waterproof the tiling substrate with something like a Bal waterproofing kit, as that way should there be a leak, you are likely to see it and deal with it - without the tiling substrate being completely wasted by that time.

 

[jasonB]

I usually go with option 3 but I am use dto tiling, just put lots of protection in the bath just incase you drop a tile.

2 will likely be the better option for you and being a corner won't be hard to fit the bath, if they are going between two wally you sometimes need a bit more room to lower them in.

Jason

 

[sparkymarky]

#4- fix 2 pieces of baton at the same level of the bath tile to the baton so as not to damage the bath. then remove baton, then silicone the edge of the bath fit the bath then silicone the bath / tile edge.

this is how i would do it rightly or wrongly.

cheers, mark.

 

[porker]

Hi I have fitted quite a few acrylic baths and would agree with the other comments. I always get the edge of the bath resting on a batten on the edges along walls as they tend to move a bit. I have a piece of ply slightly smaller than the bath to protect from dropping tiles into it (I learn't this the hard way - new bath!). Also put water in the bath before you silicone it if that is how you are going to seal it.

I have also found that most grouts are not truly waterproof so if they get a lot of water on them from say a power shower it can be a good idea to seal behind the tiles for a few courses. If the backing is plasterboard, I usually pull it off and fit cement board, something like aquapanel as it does not soften like plasterboard. HTH

 

[Deejay]

Thanks for the replies folks.

Looks like option 2 then.

Good point Doug about the bath roll not being flat. I'll leave a bit to cut off the bottom course.

For battens, a length of T&G floorboard with one side of the groove cut off might be the answer. It would give both horizontal and vertical support and the brackets would be redundant.

The walls are clad with Aquapanel Dibs, so they shouln't need proofing.

Thanks again

Dave