Hacked off!

[cornish_crofter]

Just to ADD to the woes I'm having with this new slab in the wetroom, I ask the shop what the coverage is per bag of Greenscreed

5m squared, came the reply.

Good, I thought. I'll need a shedload to do the former, then the rest can do the 2.5m squared or so to stick down the ditra matting.

So, picked up the Greenscreed along with a load of other bits. Got it out of the van later yesterday in case the temp drops too much.

Looked on the back. Coverage is 2.8m squared per bag.

Jeees I am annoyed. Not only am I likely to need at least one other bag, but I now have to order it in - again! I'm just hoping that there'll be enough to do the former It's a 1200 x 1200 Tilux former but it has been trimmed down to app 1200 x 1050 (average dimension.

I'm not going to mention the outlet. Sufice to say this is the first time they've given me a bum steer.

So that's another £50 this job is going to cost me (which I can't ask the customer for - Grrrrr) and another trip to to go and get it. I'm actually in danger of making a loss on the materials for this job. It's a good thing that I seem to have got the labour about right.

[kilty55]

hi cornish why cant you ask for the material extra money?

[Dave]

That coverage will be based on a tipped towel that you normally use with fast flex..

You will get much more coverage with the matting and the former..

[cornish_crofter]

hi cornish why cant you ask for the material extra money?

Because I've effectively quoted for the job. I cocked up by not fully appreciating that the new concrete can't be overlaid with tiles or the former using normal flexable rapid set for 7 weeks, whereas BAL Greenscreed at twice the price can be used after a week. So that is nearly all my markup on materials gone. It's the first time I've had to lay tiles on a new slab.

Tomorrow I'll be having a chat with the supplier over this.

[cornish_crofter]

That coverage will be based on a tipped towel that you normally use with fast flex..

You will get much more coverage with the matting and the former..

Thanks Dave, I've got to put some on both mating surfaces when I adhere the former in position. How long do you think it will take for the greenscreed to go off? The BAL fastfex I used last time went rock hard within an hour. I remember the former was like concrete after then! I suspect this will take longer.

[Dave]

If i recall right.. it is a 16 hr set time..

[cornish_crofter]

If i recall right.. it is a 16 hr set time..

Which I guess would mean that I have all day to make sure the former is level :LOL:

[cornish_crofter]

One other question on the adhesive Dave, when I used the BAL fastflex I backfilled the channel for the drain with the same adhesive as I was gluing the former down with, and at the same time. Would doing this with the Greenscreed be OK, The channel probably has about an inch either side. I would probably chuck some quick setting mortar underneath the drain to go off before I put the former down. At the moment the channel is about 5 inches deep.

I laid the channel this deep because I had no data on the former when I laid the slab. Ideally I would have liked to have the former in my hands before I laid the concrete, but alas it wasn't to be. The last job I did I actually had the former. I had cut it to size and positioned it over the floor area several times marking everything out. That was dead easy.

[hillhead]

It's s pain when we price wrong, on Friday I asked my customer for some money... No problem Joe he said then proceeded to quote a higher price than we agreed,200 quid more in fact but I corrected him rightly so and then offered s little discount which I do a lot of lately and people love it, I have even pulled two £100 cash tips in the last 3 weeks, lol.

[kilty55]

im happy to quote on labour but always estimate on materials

[cornish_crofter]

This is one of those jobs where I will just have to grin and bear it. I've done a few odd jobs for them before. My wife works for them. They are very nice people but in hindsight I was probably too keen to do a wet room.

They wanted either a wetroom or the shower tray etc reinstalled. The wetroom idea made more sence but at a higher price. This is because the rear wall of the room is completely out of square. In a room 4 feet wide and 8 ft long one side is 1 foot longer than the other. The shower area is at the back with the out of square wall, so as you can imagine it lends itself to a wetroom. The customer suffers from a permanent bad back so he needs all the space he can get in the shower.

The installation that was ripped out used a 900 by 900 tray shoved up against the acute (less than 90°) corner with ply stretching into the corners where the tray wouldn't fit to try and achieve a splashproof area. It was hopeless. The job was done about 5 years ago and completely ruined the floor and joists etc, and leaked through to another room, with a 4 inch block wall in between! I have never seen tanallised wood rot at all before now.

[kilty55]

we all get jobs like this from time to time i bet,learning curve eh hope it turns out good for you crofter

[cornish_crofter]

im happy to quote on labour but always estimate on materials

Good move. My quote exluded tiles. I said that I could get tiles for them but they would be extra. The reason for this is that tiles can vary in price so much. I managed to find some porcelain for a good price to them (and me), and they are having 10 x 8 white on the walls.

To be fair we've started out with a ballpark, so the quote isn't rigurously fixed, but I should have forseen the new concrete slab problem and I didn't. I can't really expect the customer to pay for my mistakes.

[cornish_crofter]

we all get jobs like this from time to time i bet,learning curve eh hope it turns out good for you crofter

Thanks, once I get the former down I'll be on the home straight. Apart from tiling the former itself where I'm having to cut the tiles for the fall I can't see it being too complicated.

It's a Tilux former, and although the last one did give me problems as I tried to rush it, I salvaged the situation and set about the job the following day. In the end it worked great.

I'm just a little aprehensive as I'm going onto straight onto the concrete. Last time, partly because I had messed it up on the first attempt, I eventually laid it onto a level surface of dried fastflex, which actually worked really well.

[cornish_crofter]

Got the former down this afternoon. I was going to leave it until tomorrow but at 4 pm I though 'Sod it, I'll do it now' It took me about an hour to lay it and that was only the 2nd I've ever done. The first was 2 years ago.

The greenscreed mixed up beautifully. I applied it to the base and the former using a 10mm curved notched trowel and then placed the former down. All that preparation for the former (drain position etc) really paid off! I had even knocked off a few high spots in the concrete that I missed when I put it down

That former is dead level! Last time I was slightly out and made up the heigh difference with tile adhesive when I laid the tiles.

As for the coverage. I used most of one bag. Mind you that did both the former and the sub base (both surfaces) - each of which are about 1.2m square. So I reckon BAL have got it about right with the 2.8m squared. I've still got a bit left in that bag plus the other bag to do the ditra on the rest of the floor.

I am quite chuffed it went well. A reasonable amount of thought and preparation went into this.

I've got an electric radiator in there to keep the temperature up overnight although the towel rail is working well. I don't want it to drop below 5°C in there tonight!

Top tip when fitting the Tilux former - leave about 15 to 20mm around the former. Don't make it a tight fit to the walls/screed. This will give you room to twist it into position to help level/align it. This gap can be backfilled with screed or tile adhesive later.

Top tip #2 - fold the membrane over and tape it to the top of the tray. That saves you fighting with it whilst laying it.