What are you covering up with ?

[terry the tiler]

hi tilers ! just wondering what you lot use to cover baths and floors before tiling ? i used a dust sheet in a bathroom job and had a slight accident with my trowel and chipped the bath , also fully covered a laminated floor a while back with the poli underlay used for laminate flooring but when i completed the wall tiling and lifted the floor covering there where scratches all over ? i can only asume a bit of tile must have got under the covering and ruined the floor. also are bath repair kits any good ?

[chrisroe]

i use office entrace matts rubber backed with hardwearing front and can be washed

[Stewart]

If there are already baths and trays or finished floors on a job the first thing I do is inspect them for damage. I do this before I bring a single tool into the house and point anything I think may be a problem, out to the customer. I also take pics of everything before I start.

For baths and shower trays, I have several boards made out of ply that I can use depending on size. I also tape up all external and top edges with duct tape.

Finished floors have sheets and underlay taped to them too, but if it does have a finished floor I tend to work very clean and don't do any cutting in that room or have many tools to minimise accidents.

As for bath repair kits, they're a waste of money IMO. Always inform the customer straight away and get a pro in to fix it properly. 50-100 quid is cheaper than replacing the bath after a botched attempt to fix it.

[Mike]

i put small off cuts of carpet on the bath then my bathboard(6' x 3' ply) on top. it doubles as a work bench too

[Scott]

Bathboards or a piece of ply are most common. I maskign tape the rim of the bath ten tape a dust shee to the tape to ensure it sticks. Then i put my ply on top, that way you can use the bath as a work top.

For floors i use an old piece of vinyl offcut for hard floors as this means its slip free, other wise i have some thick canvass dust sheets that i fold in half. These are thick enough to stop liquid spills in moderation too.

[Bathfix Bob]

Nothing worse than damaging a bath or shower tray, you only do it once though.

If I'm honest what I use varys depending on what the customer is like, for landlords its just dustsheets but for the picky, finicky nightmare customers its the full job lot.

One thing to look out for is existing chips and scratches that only make themselves visible when dirt gets into them, you just don't know if they were there already.

[marbleman]

i always check baths and trays for damage , and thats before i get a tool out, then clean dust sheets and use boarding to cover bath and tape it off,

[marbleman]

on some floors cordex taped down and then ply on top but normal done by chippy,