Case study
Wet room installation, London — boarded, tanked and tiled
A standard bathroom converted into a level-access walk-in wet room. Timber floor stiffened, boards installed and jointed, the whole enclosure tanked, then finished in large-format porcelain with a linear drain.
Location
London
Sector
Residential bathroom
On site
6 working days
The brief
The client wanted the bath removed and replaced with a level-access shower area, with no step, no shower tray lip and no risk of water tracking into the joists below. The existing floor was a bouncy timber deck and the walls were a mix of plasterboard and old tile adhesive.
Getting the substrate right
Old tiles were hacked off and the walls made good. The timber floor was stiffened and overboarded so deflection was within tolerance for porcelain, then the shower zone was formed with a pre-sloped former running to a linear drain. Anywhere movement could occur, a movement joint went in rather than a bead of grout hoping for the best.
Waterproofing before a single tile
The enclosure was built in bonded tile backer boards, jointed and sealed with the manufacturer's sealant and banding, then the full wet zone was tanked. Internal corners, the drain upstand and every board joint were banded. The tanking was left to cure and checked before tiling started — this is the part nobody sees and the only part that stops a leak.
Tiling and finishing
Large-format porcelain was back-buttered and solid-bed fixed with levelling clips to keep lippage under control. Cuts around the drain, niche and pipework were made on site. Grout was a flexible cementitious grout; every change of plane was silicone rather than grout so it can move without cracking.
Photos from site
Specification
- Level-access walk-in shower with linear drain
- Pre-sloped former set to a 1:80 fall
- Fully tanked enclosure — boards, joints, corners and upstands
- Recessed shampoo niche formed and waterproofed
- Large-format porcelain wall and floor tiling
- Flexible grout with silicone to all internal corners
Free quote
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