Hey friends,

Fantastic news! We have a mostly functioning bathroom. Here's how it came together.

The Last Tiling

To finish this wall off I put up another batten to get my levels right. Given it's a wet area, when I later removed the batten I filled the screw holes with sealant.

I then devised a pincer movement to keep the tile above the window in place by tightening the levellers on each side.

I had to get inventive to get the rest of the window tiles to stay put:

Lower down, the shower valve did indeed land at the edge of a tile which made cutting it out easier.

The closer you get the finished tile to the maximum line, the less the knobs protrude and the neater it looks so I was pretty happy with how this turned out.

This was my best bit of tiling yet. Flawless I would say. Overall though I'd give myself a 6 out of 10 but I've seen many worse professionally done tiling jobs!

The last tiles were at the end of the bath and this is where my 5th LED strip is. The idea being that it will illuminate the loo at night without having to turn the main lights on. The downside of being on the floor is it will illuminate dust but I thought better that than shining in your face when sat on the bog.

The corners of baths must be a common problem. The tile has to be at 90 degrees but the bath is curved. I had a look at some rounded trim but decided just to smooth over the sharp corner and let the sealant create a little slope.

Tiling complete! Phew.

Grout

While tiling, I removed as much of the adhesive from the grout lines as possible and would go over them again the next day once the levellers and spacers were removed and while the adhesive was still a little soft using a grout rake. Now I was finished I did it all again, vacuumed and wet-wiped them all. It will look rubbish if there's adhesive left, especially on the outer edges.

The rule of thumb is at least 2/3rds of the depth of the tile should be clear to be filled with grout.

Last time I tiled I went with a contrasting grout (white grout on dark grey tiles). This time I want it to match the grey porcelain.

From what I gather, the best regarded grout, and indeed adhesive, is from Ardex. They do 35 different colours. They are a sister company to Bal so if you call them up they'll send you both colour charts for free. (Kerakoll Fugabella is another one I came across which is supposed to be decent. 50 colours too.)

If you zoom in on the Ardex chart you can see there are * next to some which means you can get a matching sealant.

We decided on the Dove Grey. According to Ardex - rely on the samples rather than the printed colour (which looked a little brown) as the latter are not as accurate.

This turned out to be correct as we tested it on some tile offcuts I'd stuck to tile backer before carrying on with the project.

We decided to use the same grout for the herringbone as it would be a bit pointless having gone to the effort of creating that pattern only to hide it with a tile matched grout. That said, I didn't want to highlight my poor spacing too much by going with a very dark grout. I think the light grey is a happy medium.

At the colour extremes I'd avoid white on the floor as it can get grubby and I'd also avoid blacks or dark charcoals as they often fade.

Ardex do their colours in FL which is for joints 3-15mm wide. Good for floors and apparently is a bit harder wearing. I went with the FS all round which is for joints up to 4mm (mine being 2mm, except where I screwed up the herringbone 🙈).

There are also epoxy grouts which are ideal for wet areas but I've read can be a real pain to get off the tiles if you leave it too long. I believe you have to use acid to get rid of it. Probably good for a wet room if you're brave enough.

Ardex have a calculator on their website (scroll down on the links above) where you can work out how much grout you need. Of my single 10kg bag, I've got more than half left over. It goes a long way.

To apply I used a grout float. Make sure you push it into the gaps to fill them all the way. With this grout you have up to half an hour to remove the excess. I tended to make small batches and clean it off after about 10 minutes. You can get a sponge float but I just used a regular sponge. A washboy might be a good shout but I was happy enough with a bucket.

Wipe at 45 degrees across the grout lines and that creates a slightly concave and recessed grout line. Of course with herringbone, that just means swiping up and down or left to right. You can use a grout shaper/finisher but again I didn't bother with that.

I haven't researched whether I should seal the grout or not so if you have any thoughts let me know. I did read that you should leave the grout for a few weeks first, so it's not super urgent.

Tada:

Sealant

Next was silicone sealant. Not to be confused with caulk, which you might use around skirting boards, silicone is non-paintable, flexible and usually infused with some sort of mould-resistant fungicide.

I'm mostly using Ardex's to match the grout, but will likely use clear on the outside of the shower screen and white around the windows, bath, toilet and sink. It's probably not worth skimping on - Dow's looks good.

It's horrible sticky stuff and I'm not sure I've got the art of applying it down yet but I did alright. You can use a wet finger or a profiler. Depending on how wide the joint is you can adjust how much silicone you apply, what attachment you use on the profiler or which digit you use.

If you're ever stuck deciding whether to use grout or silicone in a particular place - if there's a change of plane, use silicone, otherwise grout. The only place I'm not following this is where the tile meets the underside of the bath rim as sealant will allow the bath to move up and down as its filled and drained of water.

A perfect match:

Fixtures

I started with the shower screen and sink. To fit these I needed to drill holes in the tile. You can use a masonry bit, that works okay. I used some of these pointy types which took forever, even through ceramic. For future holes I'll be using a diamond bit. Put your drill on a slow speed and regularly dip it in water to cool it. It makes a satisfying 'tsss' sound.

I discarded the wall plugs that came with both and used my own screws/screw-bolts because this is a timber wall. You'll remember that the vertical stud was placed correctly for the bath screen and the lateral noggin for the sink:

This worked out and the top of the tap is level with the bottom of the niche as intended. Typical height for a bathroom sink is 30-32" but it's becoming more common to have them higher, at the height a kitchen sink would be (around 35-36"). I went with 33". We'll get the boy a footstool when he learns to brush his own teeth.

Next I had a go at the loo which I got on the wall and managed to flush but there was a leak due to a missing o-ring and there was overflow - something must be amiss with the float.

At this point I let my plumber take over who fitted the towel rad. It looks pretty easy - you just have to be careful to cut the pipes the same length as the fixings so it's plumb, and shut off the water of course. Did you know in America that at least until recently a towel rail, especially a water heated towel rail, is considered a luxury? Tis true.

He then fitted the shower valve face plate, showers with PTFE string (better than tape apparently), connected the tap and outside continued the waste pipes from the bath and sink to the soil pipe.

Halleluja, we have a bathroom! 🎉🎉🎉. Abi and I have been in and out admiring it all evening. We've been filling the cabinet, drawers and cupboard and the niches have been allocated according to height.

There are still some things to do - the loo, getting the door on, more silicone. Details, details. The point is we can have a proper shower in this house for the first time since we moved in. That's to be celebrated. And we are doing. Tomorrow we get married and the bathroom is my wedding gift to her.

And myself 😛.

Next week I'll draw some conclusions and we'll look at what this project cost should you want to do similar.

👋

Well, we've finally got rain and I took the opportunity to check the guttering. There are problems. The work never stops ehy?

Hit "reply" if you've got any comments on this week's newsletter – otherwise I'll see you next time. Have an epic week :)

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