I recently purchased my first house and wanted to give the bathroom a go myself. I haven't done one before so would appreciate some advice please. Installing L-shaped bath and shower. ceramic tiles: 248x498 , 1.875kg per tile I have removed all appliances and all the tiles. Walls: The walls are black mortar and some parts are showing the brickwork, other parts sound hollow so I'm assuming will need to be removed. What is the best way to tiles the walls in this situation? I'm limited with the size of the room so trying not to add too much to the walls. Will I need to prime the walls first? Floor: There is a cement board laid in the centre of the floor and then it seems like mdf around the edges but it doesn't quiet go to the edge of the walls. I cant see any screws holding it down so I'm assuming its been bonded down. What's the best way to remove this without damaging the floor boards underneath? Thanks
Walls- hack off all previous plaster, tiles, boards, the lot. Wire brush the walls then seal walls with watered down PVA and when dry either dot and dab 12mm moisture resistant plasterboard to the walls or batten the walls and fix 12mm Hardibacker board to the shower area, moisture resistant plasterboard to the rest of the bathroom. If you choose to batten I would add 25mm celotex insulation between the battens if I was you, makes a hell of a difference warmth wise. At this stage it's worth spending time on getting your walls plumb, square and flat, as you're using large tiles later and bumpy walls will be a nightmare to tile on. Floor- no real way to get it up without either using a flat crowbar to jam under and lever up, or a small SDS drill with a chiselling function to do the same. You're going to have to lift the floor anyway to alter pipes, run cables etc so I'd resign myself to a bit of collateral damage I'm afraid.
Thanks for the advice. Managed to get the floor up with minimal damage. My wall width is1800 (bare walls) and my bath is 1700mm. Took me a while but I managed to find some square edge MR plasterboards. I plan to fit directly to the wall other than the wall with the shower pipes which I will batten and insulate as suggested. I will use hardi backer boards for the floor as well as the shower area as suggested. Do I need to prime the plaster boards or hardi boards before tilling? Thanks again for the help.
No need to prime either plaster board or Cement boards prior to tiling. The cement boards can be a bit dusty though so after fixing, give a good brush down Make sure boards are rock solid after fixing with no flex, use plenty of fixings. Use top quality tile adhesive and seperate grout. Large format tiles ? Then go with a powdered cement based adhesive not ready mix tub