Am I Planning this Right?

[andrewm]

Just about to embark on a bathroom refit which includes adding a shower. The current bath is spaced off the wall because it has the soil pipe running alongside it from the toilet next door. There is a shelf along the length of the bath. Works fine with just a bath and is quite convenient but there is too much opportunity to collect water once the shower is operational. So, I am planning on building a false wall before fitting the new bath. Having asked about this previously on these forums I have been convinced of the need to use a Aquapanel backing and not to use moisture resistent plasterboard. So that is all planned in. There is a requirement for an alcove in this wall to provide some shelf space but it is being positioned at the opposite end to the shower to avoid it getting too wet.

Question now is am I doing this right? Are there any obvious pitfalls in what I am planning to do and is there a better way to do any of it?

What I plan is:

1 - Starting with the emptied bathroom with soil pipe running along the wall.



2 - Build a stud partion in front of the soil pipe with a whole where we want the alcove. The position and size of the alcove have been determined so that it can be tiled with whole tiles and comes on tile boundaries.


3 - Insert a pre-built plywood alcove into the hole and screw all around.





4 - Face with with Aquapanel and use offcuts to line the alcove. The alcove has been constructed to allow for the extra thickness of the board.

5- Fit the bath.


6 - Tile, starting at the alcove and working out. If I have measured it right then the tiles will reach the top of the bath with no cutting and also reach the adjacent wall with no cutting although I guess this depends a little on how straight the walls are.



7 - Tile the other walls to match and install the sink and shower.




So, this what I am planning. Any comments from the Pros gratefully received before I get stuck in.

Andrew

[Bri]

Lovely diagrams, all sounds spot on from a prep point of view,I would strongly advise against coming off the bath and out of the corners with whole tiles. Most baths have a slight curve on the long edge and this will cause you issues if you attempt to start with a full tile. Same with regards to the corners, it's very rare to find a corner that is a perfect 90 degs and plumb from top to bottom. If it's possible, try to finish in each corner with a half tile and start the next with a half, this, in my opinion, gives a better flow around the room and also allows you to cater for any small discrepancies in the walls.

[stevetile]

alls i can say is its lookin good pal, im not to experienced but cant see anything wrong

[andrewm]

Thanks for the comments. The diagrams were done with the free Google Sketchup. I take the point about having a half row of tiles above the bath. If I did that I could move the border up above the next row which will make it 200mm higher (Tiles are 400mm x 250mm plain white) which I would like. The alcove could come down 200mm to keep it on tile boundaries which would also be good. It maybe a little high where it is.

The problem then is that the bottom of the alcove has now met the border tiles and I can't quite envisage how that will work. Would it be better to run the border just below the bottome of the alcove or make the alcove 50mm higher so that I can run the border into and around the bottome of the alcove?

Andrew

[Bri]

It doesn't necessarily need to be a half tile off the bath, just not a whole tile. So it could be 3/4 or 4/5, which ever works out best. As for the border, it's personal preference as to whether yo have it outside or inside the alcove, I like to see them run through the inside of an alcove but that's just me.

[JMW]

Personally have never had a problem using a full tile across a bath. Providing the bath is sound and a decent amount of silicone is used when fixing it either to the wall or brackets, I wouldnt think you wouldnt either. But if someone else, has had problems then just bare it in mind when setting out, put a line round the room at the height of full tiles off the bath, then check the measurement between the line and at least three points along the bath {not on the same side}. There may be times when you cant avoid a cut across the bath for example the cut to the ceiling or floor being rediculously small etc. A secent border height is usually around 1.2M although you can realistically put it where you want. Just my two bobs worth, good luck with the project.

[andrewm]

Agreed on the amount of tile but almost anything is going to mean that the border goes up and not down and will therefore meet the alcove. I am thinking that the border outside the alcove might look odd so will probably see what running it inside looks like. One of the advantages of Google Sketchup is that it doesn't take too much effore to change things like that to see how it looks.

Andrew

[Phil Hobson]

All good advice above, I tend to make a staff or gauge stick, this is simply a peice of wood with your tile joints marked on it allowing for your spacers. I never fix my first tile until I know where my last one will go Good luck.

[charlie1]

All sounds good, but as mntioned before, walls may lok straight but can start running off and causing you all kinds of problems!! 1, you end up having to shave milimeters off tiles or 2, you end up with a gap getting larger and you will have no option other that filling with silicone (<--no nice)...

Btw, is that your girl friend in the last pic, shes a hottie!! ;-)

Good luck andrew!!

[andrewm]

Thanks for all your comments. Feeding them back into my design I think that what I am going to do is this:

1) Half a tile above the bath.

2) Move the border up half a tile so that it still come between two whole tiles vertically.

3) Move the alcove slightly to the left (about 35mm) so that both first and last columns of tiles are less than a whole tile.

Although I would have liked to have moved the alcove down half a tile to keep in on vertical tile boundaries I can't get my brain around whether it would look odd colliding with the border so I will leave the alcove where it is. This will mean that it will have half tiles top and bottom but I don't think that will look too bad.


End result looks something like this:


Andrew