Newbie after advice/opinions please!

[skeg]

Hi there, I have recently had some training in the tiling industry and have used this around my home and at a friends parents house. Am now looking more seriously into doing it more as a living, although still part time employed elswhere while i am treading these waters, got to pay the bills some how.

I have looked at a few jobs and now want to ask for advice on a few things that have cropped up that i want to know the right way to do things. These will probably be obvious for most of you on here but here goes.

1. Do tilers out there always use trim on ceramic tiles where the biscuit colour of the tile i.e. the non glazed bit, is going to be showing? Two examples i've had of this are a 3 tile high splashback with a window reveal involved and also an open end to one end of the worktop (the customer doesn't seem too keen on tile trim). The other example is tiling on the three walls surrounding the length and width of the bath. On the opposite wall to where the shower would be the tiles would only come upto the edge of the bath, so would you use trim there or just grout the edge of a whole tile (given that it gives you a big enough cut in the corner of the wall) to give it the finish?

2. Linked with the above. I have never had to install trim of any great length, so have, upto now, only had to cut small bits of trim and managed to slide the trim behind the tiles before the adhesive had any chance of setting. Obviously with a much longer bit of trim i don't think this would be possible because the adhesinve setting would prevent this. So if i was doing the above mentioned splashback and was using trim all along the top, would i measure, mark out and then install the trim first and then install tiles to fit after?

3. Is it always essential to tank a shower/bath area? When i tiled our bathroom many years ago, before i had had any training at all, i wasn't even aware of tanking and just tiled straight onto the wall. I have done this in the last two places we have lived in and have had no problems. Both were just baths with an electric showere installed. I see why you would do this for a shower cubicle and a wet room but are there any instances where you wouldn't use the tanking method in a bath/shower area?

4. On a plastered wall that has had tiles removed and left some damage, larger bits of damage i believe are going to be re plastered, smaller bits are not. The customer seems reluctant to have the whole wall re plastered or just skimmed. As long as the remaining plaster is good and solid can i use adhesive to go over the smaller damaged areas to make good? When i say smaller, it's the where the old tiles have been taken off and have taken the skimmed bit of plaster with it.

Sorry for all the questions on a first post.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Skeg

[skeg]

Any advice or help would be great thanks. Don't want to seem inpatient but don't want to see my post slip off the page unnoticed.

Thanks.

[GirlRacerRed]

Hi

I can help with Q3

Tanking - do you bother?

I knew this was going to be bad when I took all the tiles off the walls because I had seen water seeping into the plaster skim at the edge where the tray meets the wall. So I personally have tanked both my en-suite shower cubicle and the 2 walls in my bathroom where I have a shower over the bath. I really didn't fancy water seeping through into adjoining rooms and spreading mould around the house.

GRR

[skeg]

Thanks for that, tanking it is then!

Any more advice on the other questions i have asked would be great, thanks!

[Bri]

A bit of info on the trim, some people like it some don't. I never use it with natural stone. With ceramics I always suggest to customers to have the metal trims as it is much more attractive than the plastic stuff and generally speaking can be purchased to match taps, door handles, showers etc, so can look very complimentary. I don't like to see the tile biscuit showing so if there is a budget to work to, I'd rather see a plastic trim fitted.

[Bri]

Oh and repairing the walls, if the holes aren't to bad just mix up a bit of rapid set adhesive to patch in. Leave it for an hour or so then you can begin tiling (after priming and setting out of course).

[aph257]

Q1. i've had clients who didn't want trim (plastic or metal) on ceramics so depending where it is use silicone or caulk.
Q2. as you say on long runs cut trim to length and stick to wall, i use little bits of masking tape, make sure it's still verticle after. then tile.
Q3. Tank defo
Q4. fill with rapid.

[skeg]

Thanks for all the help.