Tiling question re cracked grout on bathtub/tile junction

rob w

A question for any tilers on here ...

We have a newly renovated bathroom which has a bath built into a timber frame against the wall and is tiled down directly onto edge of the bath on two sides.

Tiler has used grout between bath and tile joints and he has yet to come back and finish a few bits including a bead of silicone along these areas.

However, after the bath has been filled for the first time all of the grout has cracked along this joint. It looks absolutely poxy and I'm raging. (This comes after a tiling issue that caused leaks in the first bathroom we renovated late last year - so we went with a different tiler this time around) We are not having much luck!!

Should this joint have had any grout at all in it or just silicone? Surely it was always going to crack as you get movement when the bath is filled/used?

The wall has been tanked behind right down onto bath so I'm not worried about water travelling in under it right now, but want to make sure its fine right second time around.

Is best approach to remove all of the grout and apply silicone, or can it just be applied over the grout? Tiler was going to apply over the grout originally, and in this case it would have cracked and we would have never known?

Thanks

Bonzo Delaney

rob w wrote: »

A question for any tilers on here ...

We have a newly renovated bathroom which has a bath built into a timber frame against the wall and is tiled down directly onto edge of the bath on two sides.

Tiler has used grout between bath and tile joints and he has yet to come back and finish a few bits including a bead of silicone along these areas.

However, after the bath has been filled for the first time all of the grout has cracked along this joint. It looks absolutely poxy and I'm raging. (This comes after a tiling issue that caused leaks in the first bathroom we renovated late last year - so we went with a different tiler this time around) We are not having much luck!!

Should this joint have had any grout at all in it or just silicone? Surely it was always going to crack as you get movement when the bath is filled/used?

The wall has been tanked behind right down onto bath so I'm not worried about water travelling in under it right now, but want to make sure its fine right second time around.

Is best approach to remove all of the grout and apply silicone, or can it just be applied over the grout? Tiler was going to apply over the grout originally, and in this case it would have cracked and we would have never known?

Thanks

Usally with a bath the best thing to do is ¾ fill with water then silicone the joint, leave for 24 hrs then let the water out. Weight of water creates the max joint for the silicone

BryanF

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Usally with a bath the best thing to do is ¾ fill with water then silicone the joint, leave for 24 hrs then let the water out. Weight of water creates the max joint for the silicone

+1

rob w

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Usally with a bath the best thing to do is ¾ fill with water then silicone the joint, leave for 24 hrs then let the water out. Weight of water creates the max joint for the silicone

That is for that, that makes a lot of sense to me. No mention of that method from the tiler though. Will talk to him when he is back.

As I was wondering though, should there be any grout applied at the joint between bath/tile?

Bonzo Delaney

rob w wrote: »

That is for that, that makes a lot of sense to me. No mention of that method from the tiler though. Will talk to him when he is back.

As I was wondering though, should there be any grout applied at the joint between bath/tile?

Generally no as there is movement at that junction grout will just fall out eventually and hinder the silicone making a permanent bond also common practice now to silicone all junctions ... internal corners floor to wall and floor to ceiling. Also window junctions.

rob w

Bonzo Delaney wrote: »

Generally no as there is movement at that junction grout will just fall out eventually and hinder the silicone making a permanent bond also common practice now to silicone all junctions ... internal corners floor to wall and floor to ceiling. Also window junctions.

Great, thanks for that. Its what I thought, just wanted to see what the norm is.