How to fill gap between wall and bath?

[kylieklievens1]

Hi everyone,

I purchased a back to wall bath to add to my renovations and it won’t butt up to the tiles properly without one end having a very large gap, I need advice on how I can fill in this 6-10 mm gap so it’s waterproof, I think its to big to just try silicone it.

any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated 

kylie

 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @kylieklievens1. It's fantastic that you've joined us, and many thanks for your question about bath installation.

I presume it's that last tile on the right that is causing the issue. Do those tiles not form a 90-degree angle? Some free-standing tubs have a slightly convex back to them. If that is the case, has it been installed, pushed hard against the wall on the left, forming a large gap on the right? Whereas if the middle was hard against the wall, you'd have a gap on the left and right of equal but lesser proportions. If it was a case of a convex back, evening out the gap on the back looks like it would introduce another gap issue with the wall on the right running perpendicular.

In any case, adding a thick bead of silicone in that gap isn't a fantastic solution to this issue. However, it might be the only way to overcome the problem in the absence of having any other options. 6mm is perfectly fine to fill with silicone, but 10mm is starting to push the limits. My main concern is how it will look, but I might be a bit more particular than others.

Let me mention @Brad, @TedBear and @tom_builds to see if they had any ideas.

Mitchell

[kylieklievens1]

Hi Mitchell,

yes you are spot on, when you push it to the left it makes a bigger gap to the right, it’s partly installed but I can still lift it and play around with the legs underneath and try to get it to butt up close as possible but even though I’ve tried so many times, somewhere across it ends up with a big gap so just thought I’d see if anyone else had any ideas of the best way to try fix it up?

Thanks for your input so far, I think the house is so old and not square or maybe like you mentioned it could be the actual bath, I’m not quite sure to be honest, this is my first time doing anything like this so I have no idea really!!

Any advice is greatly appreciated 

Kylie

[MitchellMc · Accepted solution]

That must be frustrating, @kylieklievens1.

From the gap at the back and the gap at the side, I can see that no matter how you position it, there will be a large gap somewhere. Potentially, you could move it further away from the wall on the right. You'd need to move it enough to make it look like it was done on purpose instead of a mistake, maybe 5-10cm. As mentioned previously, you could then orientate the bath against the wall so the large gap is split between the left and right sides. Being right in the corner means the bath side and back needs to be parallel with the walls. If it were moved away from the wall on the side, then you'd only have to deal with the back orientation.

Mitchell

[kylieklievens1]

Okay, sounds like a good idea, I might try that tomorrow and see how it looks.

Thanks so much for the assistance Mitch 

I will let you know how it works out like that then tomorrow.

cheers

Kylie

[TedBear]

Hi @kylieklievens1 , as I understand it, the back-to-wall bath is meant to look good when sitting nearer to a wall than a standard rounded bath does, but is not meant to be sealed to the wall. @MitchellMc 's suggestion of moving it a little from the wall to create a small intentional gap is therefore the correct solution. 

(It's pretty rare for a wall in any house to be straight, unless the tile layer knows in advance that it is important for it to be very straight in a particular location, so the small wall curve is, unfortunately, not unusual.)

It looks pretty good as is.