WEEK 28 – Tiling Bathrooms (31 Oct – 6 Nov)

WEEK 28 – Tiling Bathrooms (31 Oct – 6 Nov)

You know the builder means business when he has the guys working on the weekend! Saturday was more gyprocking, plus waterproofing of the bathrooms, Sunday was my guy fitting undertile heating to the bathrooms – not to mention all the landscaping works out the back!

It was pretty cool technology for the waterproofing – a thick rubber sheet that is blown with a heat torch to melt into position and can be then walked on immediately, rather than waiting 3 days to dry like the old method.

The tiles, from Abruzzo Ceramics, were delivered by a stylish Italian man in his 70s, wearing a collared shirt, with a cane and bowler hat!! How is that for European authenticity to our tiling! They were remarkably careful and diligent – checking all the fine print with me, verifying the tile samples were correct. 

Unfortunately, the woman at the store who assisted us with the tile selection was not so thorough. We ordered 600 x 600 floor tiles and 300 x 600 rectified white wall tiles. One would assume that a 600mm tile would line up with another 600mm tile – right? Apparently it is not quite that simple when floor tiles come from Italy and wall tiles were manufactured in China… they end up a good 10mm difference in width – enough that they won’t line up L Having paid a lot extra to do beautiful floor to ceiling tiling, we are pretty disappointed about this. Nonetheless, we had pretty outstanding workmanship from the tilers and the end result still looks great, even if the tiles had to be offset not neat and tidy rows and even if they did grumble about how hard it is to lay such massive tiles!

Josh was the final decider on the tile selection – Duomo Cinza (based on a bianco marble and the colour translates as ‘Ash’) where my first choice was a more conservative, beige, travertine look http://ceramic.pt/pdf/Cat_Ceramic_DUOMO.pdf. The rooms are more ‘grey’ than we had imagined, but I think they look really classy (which is lucky, as it is a decision he would have had to own every day for the next few decades!!). In ten beautiful years of marriage, I don’t say this often enough, but… he was right. I love them!

First 'torch-on' waterproofing membrane (0.5 days work)

 Waterproofing around our shower niche

 Next, we laid the underfloor heating, it covers everywhere except where the vanities are and not under the shower.

 Switches for the lighting and thermostat for the underfloor heating.

The tile delivery - Duomo Cinza in very bright light (it has more beige veined tones in other lights)

 Uh oh - 600mm does not equal 600mm! Solution was to offset them like this, rather than uneven rows

 Wall tiling going up

 A better shot of the feature tiles used on the floors and up some walls.

 A beautifully finished niche inside our ensuite shower

 The very talented Han, head tiler.

 Grouting over the feature tiles

 Final day of wall tiles around architraves in the kids bathroom

 Bath hob - oh my giddy joy! I can't wait for our 1800mm long super sized bath, with oodles of space to line the kids up in the tub (or a soak for me after hours!)

 The gorgeous smart tile finishes - so much nicer than the traditional chrome waste. And from those cuts to give fall to the drain you can see what hard work was involved for the tilers using a 600 x 600mm porcelain floor tile! Sorry guys!

 The white porcelain niche in the kids shower.