Plastic bathtub surround applied over tile?

[mfinley919]

Those cheap bathtub surrounds, not the direct to stud ones, but the ones that you glue over either drywall or tile. They all say you can apply them over tile, but what do you do with the edges where you can see the tile? Is there a trim kit I am missing? The tile is what about 1/8 proud of the wall and the tub surround goes over it, so looking at the tub you would see the tile under the edges of the surround right?

[Tom R]

Yeah, you're right, Mike, you would see the edges, - - how about using a white shoe molding or quarter-round made of solid PVC to cover the edges??

[tooltroll]

Right. Most of the time, when someone wants a new tub surround over tile, the old tile is loose, missing in places, and/or the wall beneath is water damaged. In these cases, I usually just pull down the drywall (or lath & plaster,) tile and all, replace it with cement board (or blue board, if the situation warrants,) and put in the new surround.

If your tile is in good enough shape to glue a surround over it, why do you want to cover it? If it's in not-so-good shape, do you really want to leave a moist, rotten, moldy mess in your wall?

Finally, (to solve your actual problem :D) you can get plastic molding in various profiles and sizes which you can use to trim out the surround.

[mfinley919]

It's a cosemetic issue only tile is old and dated, customer wants a new look, new look for the entire bathroom and is spreading around the budget, saving some here to spend more over there.

- I'm going to have to look into these plastic moldings, never paid any attention to them before. Available in the big boxes or special order?

[Tom R]

Big box, - - they definitely have the plastic, - - but if they have both get the PVC, - - it's much more dense.

[dieselfish]

What do you usually use to glue it to the wall?

[Tom R]

I guess you're asking about the PVC??

A thin bead of silicone caulk before applying the molding, - - and then an absolute minimum number of 'shot' galvo finish nails or brads to hold 'til the silicone sets, - - then a silicone bead along the shoe-mold/surround edge, - - and then another bead along the shoe-mold/wall edge (providing the wall has already been painted). Also use the silicone to fill the nail holes, - - the wipe away excess (one time only) with clean dry paper towel.