Wetroom renovation

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twitcher

twitcher

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Got a wetroom to renovate that's been done well over ten years ago, and it was done really badly. The shower water has gone right through the tiled wall which was done with bonding and multi - there's no tanking at all! The floor was done a little better - there was a lino that was heat sealed and went up the side of the wall by about 100mm. This has come away from the wall though and the water has penetrated. I've ripped out the lino and there's some kind of membrane there but the water has penetrated underneath because there are huge gaps between it and the wall. I've only ever really seen lino's in local authority wetroom conversions but it looks like the weak point is the join with the wall.

They can't afford for someone to lay another lino - we're probably looking at £500 plus. So I'm gonna suggest ripping the membrane out and tanking it with a BAL WP1 waterproofing tanking kit. Then mosaic tile the floor cos of the angles to the waste and it'll be non-slip.

With the walls, I've removed the tiles to reveal lots of water damage. Gonna hack the plaster off when it's dry enough. Then it's a SBR cement slurry, and 2 coats of render with waterproofer.

What do you reckon, is that the least hassle cost effective way of doing it and am I overlooking anything?
 
I subcontract to a company doing wetroom conversions for local authorities, and I reckon what you have proposed will be fine, just make sure that the mosaics you use are non-slip or you may end up being sued if someone slips on their arse !

The only thing you may need to check is the waste fitting, as they tend to be certain types which are specific to the type of flooring to be used, so if you've ripped up a vinyl floor, you might find that the waste fitting will need changing if you're going to use tiles. Have the falls to the waste been done in s&c screed, or has a tray been used?

For your info, the non-slip vinyls used for wetroom come in about £15 per m2, so depending on the size of the room the cheapest option may be to refit new vinyl. You can get a purpose made cap-tile, which is like a plastic tile trim that is put on the wall about 100mm from the floor - the tiles sit on top of the cap-tile, and the vinyl tucks up into a slot underneath, stopping any water ingress.

Another option is to use an epoxy resin quartz screed. I've just done one in a shower room in a factory. Here's some info on it:

Resucrete - Resin Surfaces Limited

It's not the easiest stuff to use, but once it's down it certainly does the job

Hope this helps
 
Cheers for that.

The falls to the waste have been screeded with s & c.

Can't seem to get the membrane up though. Can I just tank over the membrane?

Thanks for the info on the waste fitting - think I'll have to get a new one.

The vinyl's cheap enough, it's just the fitting that bumps it up. I haven't got any experience of heat sealing stuff - wouldn't know where to start. So it's mosaics all the way.
 
Yeah I'd just go over the existing membrane if its stuck down that well.

You'll probably need to chisel out some of the floor to release the waste fitting, quite often the connection from waste fitting to waste pipe is solvent welded so you might need to replace a section of pipe as well.

Might be worth just stopping the mosaics an inch or so from the waste and then tapering down with grout, if you'd get away with that? Could save you a lot of hassle!
 
so it's alright to use that Bal WP1 tanking stuff straight onto the old membrane?
It doesn't matter that it isn't porous?
 
Yeah, the WP1 generally comes as a kit, containing a primer which allows you to go over pretty much any sound substrate.
 
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