Bathroom tile adds class and pizazz to your bathroom. Several attractive bathroom tile pictures grace the glossy pages of home decor magazines. But in time, everything ages. And sooner or later you’ll find that your tiles need replacing or repair. If your bathroom tile looks aged and wrinkled, or pieces keep falling off the wall, then the best thing you can do is to strip it all off and start over. You might be tempted to do a temporary patching up job, but it will only be short-lived.
No matter whether you intend redoing your bathroom tile shower from scratch or merely fixing what’s broken, here are some tips to give you the best results. Often the base material on which your bathroom tile is fixed is gypsum board. But you need to make sure it is water resistant “green board”. The kind typically used in bathrooms is covered with green paper, in contrast to gray gypsum board that’s appropriate for other parts of the home.
While gypsum board is water resistant, that doesn’t make it automatically impervious to water. Soaking the baord in unusual amounts of water will cause damage. So it is important to cut the board to the right size, and bind the edges with waterproof tape.
Gypsum board is suitable for bathroom tile repair or replacement in areas of the bathroom that are outside the tub and shower. For the walls behind these parts, you should use fiberglass reinforced cement board. Even direct contact with water does not damage this material and ceramic tile or glass tile can be fitted on it.
Some contractors who specialize in bathroom tile repair prefer using lathe and cement mortar. This can get messy and is more expensive than the board based repair, though longer lasting and more secure too. When budgeting for this kind of repair job, be sure to factor in the charges you’ll pay for a professional to do the work. This is not a do-it-yourself project!
Other precautions to take when repairing bathroom floor tile is to use nails and screws that are water resistant and to cover the seams with fiberglass tape to prevent water seepage. Thick gypsum sheets are suitable for walls in residential buildings, though thicker sheets may be preferred for offices and commercial establishments. Fire regulations are also different for buildings based on their purpose, so be sure your job meets your local laws and requirements.
Installing a new bathroom tile shower as a part of a bathroom remodel is a specialized task. Once the older tiles are removed, a cement backer board is installed in the shower area. Tiles come in a range of sizes and shapes. Before laying bathroom tiles, be sure to take measurements and plan out how the tiles will sit and how many per row it will take to cover the space. Set several tiles at once.
Take care to align any decorative borders correctly. You may have to cut a few tiles to fit the dimensions of your shower stall or bathroom. When installing bathroom tiles on the wall, you must prevent them from sliding down after they are set. You can achieve this by using non-sagging thin set mortar. Special care may be necessary around drains, pipes and fixtures.
Bathroom tile ideas can spruce up your bathroom decor and add a rare style and class to even older buildings. The cost can be high if you are replacing the entire floor or wall, but over time this ends up becoming cheaper than a repair job that’s done piece-meal.
