Tiler mistake with shower - large gap between tiles and ceiling

[Roy_66]

My 115mm angle grinder will make a tidy cut through pretty much anything if you put a diamond cutting disc in it and are patient. Includes tiles. You can even do fancy cuts to fit around pipes, stairs, electrical conduit...

Lots of people hate tiles on plasterboard. Think the practice is against the latest British Standards (not sure though). Myself I cannot really see a problem. My own bathroom (which I refuse to bugger about with as I want to relocate it) has bad tiling on plasterboard. The plasterboard has been cut right through at the head of the bath due to bad fitting and the bath is not as well supported as it might be so I have to redo the sealant annually. Given the general quality of the bathroom extension, I doubt if the plasterboard is water resistant or tanked. We don't have a power shower and the shower is used for less than 15 minutes per day, but the bathroom has been in daily use since I bought the place 16 years ago and, while the tiling is terrible, nothing has ever come loose nor is anything looking like impending failure. I imagine there are millions of similar houses in the UK. Wouldn't want to try this professionally, but I'm not sure it is as inherently defective as we are lead to believe.

Using hardboard tile-effect caravan lining around showers, however (I've also seen that), does seem to cause problems.

Think you are right about there being 1000's like it.

For the shower I've seen one recently done with what I guess might be flooring lino (into a shower tray not a bath). Couldn't tell the backer board.

For the bath (with the standard 2 cradles) I fixed the support with bits of 2x2 for the horizontals and Wickes 10mm threaded rod (into pilot holes in the wood) and big washers and nuts for the verticals. Used an architrave cutter to shape the wood at the tap end to fit round the taps. Also a bit of old pond liner to give a nice cushion fit between the wood and underside of the tub. Use the nuts to get the support just right in each place. Did three supports total. Now rock solid and the sealant doesn't rip. Yes ideally it should have been installed by a chippy with a full wooden frame for those with the budget. It is the original bath.

My bathroom walls are paramount (plasterboard over cellular cardboard core) and the tiles haven't fallen off. No standup shower though.

Cheers,

Roy (amateur)

 

[Ben-gee]

Some say that the push for BS to be tile backer board rather than plasterboard is at the behest of the manufacturers of the former - I couldn’t possibly comment.
Noticeably BS has another common meaning, plasterboard is fine if used by a competent tradesman- even tile backer board will fail in the hands of the muppets. (Seen it many times…)

 

[gmartine]

A trim piece over the filled gap would just draw attention to it.

It's not ideal but I'd get the tiler to remove those top tiles and add 1 or 2" of mosaic strip say and then trim the top tiles to fit properly, at least it would look a little more deliberate rather than an after thought.

 

[Lou]

(Just bumping a few older threads, they will drop off what is new soon)

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