Materials needed for tiling a bathroom floor?

[NannasRenos]

Hi there,

I've just finished pulling up tiles on my bathroom floor.  They were stuck down with chicken wire and cement which was more than an inch thick.  I'm now back to floorboards that have been patched here and there.  I'm just wanting to clarify exactly what materials I need now to get the floor ready for tile laying.  I have a gap now from the floor to the bottom wall tile of 30mm so I'm thinking of using yellow tongue and cement sheet under to tiles to build up the flooring.  What other materials do I need?  Also will it need waterproofing as it's not the shower area?

Thanks in advance.

[EricL]

Hello @NannasRenos,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. Thank you for joining us and sharing your question about tiling a bathroom floor.

It's great that you've already made progress with your renovation. Would it be possible for you to post a photo of the current condition of the shower base. This will allow us to give you better advice.

Using yellow tongue and cement sheet is fine. However, it will not be enough to bridge the current gap you have of 30mm. Your options are to build up the base until it meets up with the wall tile gap. Or you can just build to the current level of the floor. Remember to take into account the thickness of the yellow tongue, tile, and tile adhesive. If choosing the second option you can then just tile the remaining gap with the new tiles. To answer your last question yes waterproofing will be necessary.

I suggest these step-by-step guides: How to waterproof your bathroom floor and How to tile a shower base. 

Let me mention our experienced member @tom_builds and see if he would like to add more advice.

We look forward to seeing your progress, if you need more information please don't hesitate to post. We're more than happy to help.

Eric

[tom_builds]

Hi @NannasRenos ,

Great to hear about your bathroom renovation project. I think @EricL has done a great job of explaining what you will need to do to get ready to lay new tiles. Packing the floor up with yellow-tongue will get you 19mm  back towards the wall tiles, then if you want to add cement sheeting over that you will probably end up using 4mm or 6mm sheets as these are the more common sizes. Adding in the thickness of tiles and tile adhesive I'd probably recommend 4mm sheeting nailed to the yellow-tongue (19mm thick) with flat head nails, leaving 7mm of room for a thick tile adhesive layer and then a tile thickness of 5-6mm.

The only other consideration I would have is do you currently have a floor waste? If you do packing the floor in this way will not enable any fall to the waste as the floor will be level. If you're planning to use a floor waste than using a sand cement screed will allow you to slope the floor towards the waste ensuring that any water falls into the drain.

Either way it is now required by code to waterproof any wet areas, as @EricL pointed out.

Let us know how you go with your reno!

[NannasRenos]

Thanks so much for your input.  I'm pleased to say I'm on track.  I've also watched the Bunnings video on how to waterproof a bathroom and have one question.  What does primer do?  The team member at Bunnings today didn't mention needing that.  Thanks in advance 

[tom_builds]

Hi @NannasRenos 

Primers are designed to increase the bond strength between a surface and the substance being applied (waterproofing, paint etc). They do this by sealing porous surfaces and in some cases by reducing the residual moisture to reduce the chance of moisture affecting the seal at a later point in time.

Applying the primer will be a fairly quick and easy job, so I would highly recommend that you apply a suitable primer for the surface you've chosen (likely cement sheeting?).

Good luck and keep us updated! 😃

[NannasRenos]

Thanks so much.  Looks like another trip to Bunnings. 😜