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Hi, I did a bathroom renovation. We took off the cornices which created a gap. The tiler tried to fix but I feel it doesn’t look polished. Can someone help me with what the next steps would be? Do I need to plaster, sand and paint? Or can I just do caulking?
Hi @diy_jen,
A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and thank you for your question.
Fundamentally what has been done is correct, but as @diy_vvv has mentioned, it's some fairly rough work.
You can see in the below photo that there is unsanded plaster compound. It's possible this is leftover cornice cement that used to be concealed but with the cornice being removed is now visible.
The first step I would suggest is to sand and scrape this back to a smooth surface. You can use a combination of a joint knife and a sanding sponge for this. Once it has been sanded back, you can assess whether you need to do any further plastering.
After the plaster is fixed up, you should remove and replace the caulk. Because you have a connection between tile and plaster, caulking the gap is your best option, but you can achieve a much better finish than your tiler has produced.
Use a wet area filler such as Selleys White No More Gaps Bathroom And Kitchen Gap Filler aiming for a consistent, smooth bead that covers the gap in all areas. You can check out How To Silicone a Gap for some guidance.
Once the connection has been caulked, touch up the paint. Where the paint has gotten on the tiles, you can use a paint scraper or utility knife blade to gently scrape back the paint. Ensure you wear gloves, long protective clothing and take all necessary precautions to avoid lacerations.
When everything is prepped, you can repaint the ceiling. Use painter's tape to mask off the tiles so paint doesn't get on the tiles.
Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Jacob
