the resurgence of the Wetroom

Tom Hagen

Hi,
the wetroom seems to be back again in bathrooms everywhere.

anybody know a good brand of tanking kit? and what would you expect to pay for tanking kit?

any tips I should watch out for when my tiler is doing his thing?

any info appreciated

murphaph

I don't have a wet room but I did tank my bathrooms just to be sure. I used PCI kit but it's probably the most expensive of the lot. It's made by BASF. I don't know if it's readily available in Ireland though. We built in Germany.

I did it myself and I'm glad I did after I saw the job the neighbours' tiler did over there. Very sloppy and even gaps in the tape around pipework. Ok, their plumber made a mess of that but they should have been able to work around it.

Don't forget to use the special patches around protruding pipes where your shower mixer is mounted. They are elasticated to provide a permanent seal around the pipe rather than relying on the gum.

I personally spent the extra on the inside and outside corner pieces, rather than trimming the tape to shape. It's just a better job IMO.

Make sure the guy gives it at least 2 thick coats, though I gave it 3 and 4 in the shower area. The stuff is a lot cheaper than a leak.

PCI offer the gum in grey and white so you can see the second coat but this is a gimmick as it dries much darker than it goes on and you can just use the grey one for both coats.

Make sure the tape is tucked tight into the corners or the cut tiles will puncture it!

I posted some pictures in the live builds IIRC.

Oh one more thing...I was recommended by our house builder to "stay in system" no matter which brand I chose, so the same manufacturer for the bonding, the gum, the tapes and the tile adhesive. The grout could be from a different manufacturer however. I chose to follow this advice and stuck with PCI for all this and even the grout in the end.

madmac187

Fosroc nitocote cm210. Stuff is unreal, using it in a pool construction on the concrete topping of precast slabs around a pool at the minute. It needs to be floated on but two coats 2mm thick. Great stuff. You will get it from plaka in Kildare. Two part, powder and resin. Unreal, just don't get it on you as you will need a knife to cut it off.

murphaph

Oh yeah, both the above products are rolled or floated on (PCI can be floated on too) but I would only use such a liquid based system over screed or concrete or other rigid base. If you have floor boards I think you'd need ply first but even that will be too flexible IMO and you'd need a mat type solution alongside the resin/gum to allow a little bit of movement. PCI requires that you use flexible tile adhesive too. Not sure if that's the norm.

tedimc

I got some Schluter linear drains for my wet rooms and they also do a tanking membrane which looks decent and I was going to take a chance on it.

Comes in a roll and has some pre-formed internal corner tapes, etc. You apply it with 'thinset mortar' - good few videos on youtube.

CJhaughey

tedimc wrote: »

I got some Schluter linear drains for my wet rooms and they also do a tanking membrane which looks decent and I was going to take a chance on it.

Comes in a roll and has some pre-formed internal corner tapes, etc. You apply it with 'thinset mortar' - good few videos on youtube.

Schluter is a good system, easy to get and has a lot of the trim that you may need not just the tanking membrane.
I did a wetroom upstairs over chipboard floor I did both paint on rubber dispersion and the Schluter orange membrane over the top of that again.
You can't be too careful with tanking, it has to be done correctly from the start.
Youtube has a lot of clips showing the Schluter system being applied.