Help please, 1st bathroom re-fit general questions

[barlow]

Hi all

Half way through my 1st bathroom re-fit and was hoping to get some advise regarding the following questions.

1. When tiling the floor up top the walls should you butt the floor tiles right against the wall or leave a grout joint?

2. Is it best to tile under a shower tray or fix it and tile around it? I'm fitting an offset quad so concerned I wouldn't get a great fit tiling around the curve

3. I know you silicon all internal corners where tiles meet but do you need to silicon where the tiles meet the ceiling and floor etc?

4. I need to screed an area 9m2 up by 3mm. How tricky is this? Should I just mix, pour and make sure it settles in all areas? Are there any specific tools I need and am I being a bit naive in thinking that this is relatively easy? Also to stop the screed going into areas you don't want would you just screw battens down to contain it?

Would be extremely grateful to anyone that can offer advice and apologies for asking q's that you pro's must think are a bit on the simple side......

[Alan.P]

If your tiling walls and floor then it should be a silicone expansion gap between them, not grout.

If I have the option I would tile all the floor and fit the tray on top.

Where the tiles meet the ceiling, well that's normally caulk as you can't paint silicone, I suppose if it's a white ceiling then you could silicone it.

A 3mm screed ? all over ? why and can you not just use a larger notched trowel ? If not then it is just as you've said, sort of What is the floor substrate at the moment ?

[Gazebo]

Hi and welcome

My advice would be pretty much as Alan.P has already said. bit confused about the flooring 3mm screed question though.

[barlow]

Many thanks Alan P and Gazebo for replying.

An expansion gap makes sense I was planing to butt them as close as poss but suppose you have to allow for some floor movement. Is it best to tile wall tile to floor then floor tiles up to them or floor tiles to wall and then tile down to them with the wall tiles?

Ok caulk it is.

Sorry to confuse, the bathroom is 18mm MR chipboard which I've put 12mm hardi-backer on the screed question is for the kitchen/diner. That is 3/4 18mm MR chipboard and 1/4 concrete. The concrete is currently 12mm higher than the chipboard. We're having Amtico/Karndean (recently changed from tiles, the boss aka the Mrs changed her mind) put down which needs to go onto ply. My plan is to lay 15mm ply over chipboard then screed 3mm over the concrete to correct levels. Think it would be easier than using kangol to reduce concrete then over screed. Hope that makes sense, just had extension done but I'm doing internals got so much on it's manic. living back with folks at mo but Mrs drops in 3months so clock is ticking to get it sorted!

[Alan.P]

Walls first / floors first .... personal choice, as for 15mm ply and 3mm screed, why not use 18mm ply ?

[barlow]

Just simply because using 18mm would mean bringing the screed up higher and would mean a slightly larger drop off into a couple of rooms. Just picked up the ply, it's WBP but slightly concerned that each sheet (1200x800) doesn't weigh much. I thought WBP was what you should look for when getting ply, hope I haven't got some poor quality stuff!!

[kendo1]

There seems to be a communication breakdown here.
As Alan said- why not use 18mm ply with no screed? Your level would then be correct with less work.

I much prefer to tile the floor first and overlap the wall tiles on to it.
Silicon at join of floor and wall, and caulk at ceiling.
Tile beyond the shower enclosure dimensions. You get a much neater joint and there is less cutting to do.
I've seen some horrendous cuts up to some quadrant shower trays.