Tiling a bathroom

[plasticpigeon]

Hello again. i shall be revamping my bathroom soon. The room is very small and I will have to put a shower over the bath. I plan to use cement board around the bath and shower area, and tile onto thiws. However I don't want to tile all the way to the ceiling. I assume where I don't tile it would be ok to use plasterboard and then skim plaster the plasterboard (this will be on a stud wall). I am puzzled about how to deal with the interface as the tiles will be stuck directly onto the cement board, but the plasterboard will need skimming and skimming the cement board rather defeats the object of using it. I have a feeling the best idea would be to stick the tiles on to the cement board and then skim around the tiles. As the skim is very thin, I imagine it will not protrude past the thickness of the tile adhesive. Does that sound right, or is there another option.

 

[skier-hughes]

Sure there are other ways, but that sounds ok to me.

 

[Penners]

Your method sounds OK to me. However, a few warnings:-

* If the room is small, it will get very steamy from baths and particularly showers. Make sure you have really effective ventilation.

* For the same reason, be sure to use damp-resistant plasterboard - not just the ordinary stuff The damp-resistant board is coloured pale green. Tiling right up to the ceiling would be an even better plan.

* Use ample studwork behind your cement board. Although this board is nominally rigid, if it's not properly supported by its studwork it can still flex slightly in extreme circumstances (eg: if someone were to fall against it). Tiles mounted on a flexing substrate have a nasty habit of shedding their grout or even coming unstuck.

 

[angrybird]

I agree with Mr P. we used this as there are no windows in our ground floor shower room.
http://reviews.wickes.co.uk/9987-en_gb/220561/reviews.htm

 

[Moo]

I, too, agree with Mr P.
Tiling right up to the ceiling would be simpler and less likely to cause problems in the future.

 

[Penners]

I can't get used to all these people agreeing with me.

New Year's resolution: must be more controversial.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

There's no disagreeing with the wise owl :!:

 

[noj]

Last time I did this I used the cement board all the way to the top (so no interface between different types of board) meaning that the wall unprotected by tile was also impervious and then skimmed the top bit, feathering out to nothing where it would be tiled. I reckon it's easier to plaster this way and make the tiles level with the adhesive than to skim smoothly along the raised tile edge...

I guess it all depends on how high your ceilings are relative to the height you're tiling to?