Bathroom Refurb

[ah666]

I am about to start a bathroom refurbishment in my house, and have a few questions about the best way to do things, any advice would be great :

The grout within the current shower has come out so I know its going to be a mess behind, all tiles are coming off and I am expecting to replace plasterboard. For best results do I :

• Replace old plasterboard with new Plasterboard and then tank
• Replace old plasterboard with Aquapanel and no tank

The floor is currently chipboard and this is coming up as some pipework has been completed under there during heating install, I am not happy with tiling onto repaired boards so again for best results do I : (I am planning on installing underfloor heating and then tiling)

• Replace with 18mm ply ply, install heating elements and tile straight onto this and if so should it be exterior quality ?
• Replace with 18mm or 22mm chipboard and then 6 or 12mm Hardiebacker , install heating elements and then tile onto this ?
• Anybody got any experience of Karndean flooring as I have been recommended this by a colleague, would this work OK with underfloor heating, yet to see samples, so its only an idea at the moment
• I am concerned about height of floor compared with the bedroom which leads into the bathroom so want to keep the height difference to a minimum

Bath surround - The bath in this room is quite large and will have a surround on two sides (the other two against the wall) The baths I have been looking at seem to sit inside a surround thus you have a ledge that goes all the way round the bath (I hope that makes sense). My initial thoughts are to have the ledge made from Granite or more likely Composite. Would this be suitable ?
I would then tile up to the bottom edge of this ledge with wall tiles (on Hardiebaker as used previously in my 1^st bathroom refurb as recommend on this site)
If I can’t use Granite then my thoughts are to basically create a tiled box that the bath sits in, however in this instance I would be very concerned about the corner of the bath which sits in the middle of the bathroom, if I have a square box the it would be a very sharp corner therefore

• I don’t want to make it circular as it will not match the bath
• I don’t want to use plastic tile trim as this will make a very sharp corner (and to be honest I think a 3 way mitre in the middle of the room would be beyond my skills)
• Can I get tiles that have a suitable edge so I don’t have to use a trim, I think they used to be call bullnose
• Any other ideas ?

Thanks for any advice

ah666

[Sir Ramic]

Hmmm lots of questions.
First you can use plasterboard and tanking,
As for the floor, get rid of the chipboard and before replacing with 18mm WBP ply ( of good quality, not the cheap stuff) try and add noggins between the joists to beef up the floor.
Overlay with 6mm Hardibacker fixed with SPF adhesive and screws.
Lay UFH and cover with a leveller such as Mapei Renovation screed.
Then tile the floor.

For the questions about the edging it would be better if we knew what material you decide to use. If you chose a stone then this could be bullnosed to suit your requirements.

[Sir Ramic]

Not sure on the Karndean question.

[tiler bob]

Right on the karndean side all you need to do is make sure floorboards/chipboard is fixed properly as karndean fitters should fit 6mm ply board first the finished flooring will not make a step at the door as they should Finnish off with an appropriate door bar hope this helps max thickness of karndean and ply 9 mm