tiling around fibreglass tub

[roger g]

I am in the process of renovating my nephews bathroom and I have installed a new fibreglass soaker (extra deep) bath tub.
In the past I have installed ordinary metal bathtubs and have started the tiling by placing the first row of tile on the top of the bath tub and go straight up. Sometimes I might put a very slight spacer between the tub and the first roww of tile to let me put more silicon sealer. A metal tub is flat and makes a nice surface to start with.
A fibreglass tub is a different creature whereas there is no flat surface to start from and where it really does become flat (horizontal) is not where you would want to start the tiling.. The lip of the tub where it hits the studs is a series of radius's in several steps.
The first row of tile would not rest on anything remotely flat ( horizontal)) and if the first row started to drop before it dried, it would start pulling away from the wall as it hit the ever increasing radius.
I'm thinking that if I lay one row of tile ( and hope it wouldn't sag down) then wait until it dreid, then I could do the rest because I now Have a firm base to start with.
Any idea out there? I 'VE SEEN LOTS OF FIBREGLASS TUBS BUT NEVER had to tile one before to have ever seen this problem.




roger

[Dragon]

I am in the process of renovating my nephews bathroom and I have installed a new fibreglass soaker (extra deep) bath tub.
In the past I have installed ordinary metal bathtubs and have started the tiling by placing the first row of tile on the top of the bath tub and go straight up. Sometimes I might put a very slight spacer between the tub and the first roww of tile to let me put more silicon sealer. A metal tub is flat and makes a nice surface to start with.
A fibreglass tub is a different creature whereas there is no flat surface to start from and where it really does become flat (horizontal) is not where you would want to start the tiling.. The lip of the tub where it hits the studs is a series of radius's in several steps.
The first row of tile would not rest on anything remotely flat ( horizontal)) and if the first row started to drop before it dried, it would start pulling away from the wall as it hit the ever increasing radius.
I'm thinking that if I lay one row of tile ( and hope it wouldn't sag down) then wait until it dreid, then I could do the rest because I now Have a firm base to start with.
Any idea out there? I 'VE SEEN LOTS OF FIBREGLASS TUBS BUT NEVER had to tile one before to have ever seen this problem.




roger

Picture?

[roger g]

A picture!!!!!!! I'm lucky I can type with two fingers. :lol:
Just think of what would happen if you put a tile on a wall and slid it down to where you would hit a concave radius. As you pushed down, the bottom of the tile would kick away from the wall. There is no horizontal flat surface and only one flat vertical surface but that one will be covered somewhat by the drywall. It goes from a concave surface to a convex surface to a concave surface without a useable surface inbetween. I just came back from a friends place and looked at his tub and he had a definite flat surface to start from. Maybe my nephew bought a cheap model. All the funny surfaces make for great water drainage but not a good starting point for tile.



roger

[Tom R]

Draw a line representing the bottom of your 'proposed' second row of tile (your 'tile size', plus a bottom caulk line, plus a top grout line). Now temporarily screw a 1 X 3 (or similar) the length of your wall, so the top is 'even' with your pencil line. Now proceed to install all your tile - - except your bottom row. Let it 'set' for 24 hours, then remove your 1 X 3, and now you can install your bottom row (which now won't have any weight on it). P.S. Keep your pencil line fairly light so it doesn't 'bleed' through your grout.

[roger g]

Now that is a GREAT idea. I like that. Thanks Tom. You da man.


roger

[Tom R]

Glad to help, Rog - - Good Luck!

[roger g]

Just to give you an update on the tiling of this fibreglaass tub . I guess the first thing I would do would be to throw the damn thing away. I came to realize that fibreglass tubs are really handmade and therefor most of the dimensions are really plus or minus something. The drain was out 3/4 of an inch than indicated on the drawing. The contours of the tub which run around the perimeter of the tub where the tile is supposed to rest or at least finish, varies as much as 1/2 inch at different locations around the tub and especiually the corners. ALL FOUR FRIGGIN CORNERS!!!!!!! Even the skirt which hangs down to the floor which supports the whole side of the tub wasn't at 90 degrees to the top of the tub.
I like steel tubs where some machine punches thousands of identical ones . The original question about supporting the tiles worked itself out very good because we used an adhesive that didn't sag at all, so we started from the bottom and worked up and it didn't sag one bit.


roger

[mfinley919]

Tom's advice was right on. It should have been a simple matter to scribe the bottom row of tiles for a perfect fit.

I hope you also used a cement board product for the walls, if this tub had a tiling flange you should have installed the tub first and then over-lapped the cement board over the tub flange, leaving about a 1/4 gap between the bottom of the board and the top of the tub so no water would wick up.

What brand of tub was this that was so poorly made?

[roger g]

Yup. DOne lots of tubs and thats the way I do it. I reallly wasn't expecting the problems we had. Beccause there wasn't a definit place to start the tiling ( some place to sit (with clearance)) and go up like any tub I had ever done, I was more concerned with stopping the tile from sagging. Not in my wildest dreams was I expecting the variations and humps and bumps. I was caught with my pants down It all worked out in the end. My 32 year old nephew, the engineer, really didn't know the difference between a screwdriver and an ax but h e wanted to learn when doing the bathroom makeover. When we did the tiling I started and got him to continue. I'm lucky I'm used to my wife (his blood aunt) who really is slow and picky. He was 10 times worse. At one point it took 90 minutes to cut and lay 3 tiles. PICKY!!!!!!! He would measure to one milimetre or half a milimetre. He would say " I want it to fit like a glove". I would say " we friggin well don't have glove making equipment".
When it came to grouting a few days later I started a patch and said he could finish but told him that the inmstructions say we had only one hour. After him doing it for 20 minutes and we hadn't progressed much more that when he started I suggested for him to move over. I slapped the stuff on and went like a whirling dirvish and we still had time for him to play at the end. He would lay his face down on the tile and look down all the grout lines to make sure they were all the same.
I told him there was nothing wrong with being fussy but you couldn't afford to hire people to be that picky plus people would walk off the job.
When it was all said and done he was rightfully proud of the results and I think he is starting to take an interest and is even looking at tools. He even remembers coming to my place when he was about 6 and I was about 25 when we had a barn raising party. I built a big workshop beside my house and I needed a hand with trusses so we made a big paarty out of it.


PS I don't know the manufacturer of the tub but I was at home depot and none of their tubs were like the one we did.

roger