Technical guides

Specification guides for bathroom substrates and tiling

Written from site work rather than from product literature, and referenced to the British Standards and manufacturer data that decide what is acceptable. Each guide covers one layer of the build-up: what fails in it, what the standard requires of it, and what the layer above it demands.

Large-format tiles and porcelain slabs →

Thickness and handling, substrate flatness to BS 5385, adhesive classes and coverage, joint minimums, deflection limits, and the failure modes that come with sheets over a metre. What a slab demands of everything beneath it.

Porcelain slab on a work table with a Sigma rail cutter and vacuum suction cups set up for cutting

Large-format tiles and porcelain slabs →

Repairing an existing screed →

Most existing floors are sound; what changed is the covering. Identifying the four failures that actually occur, stitching cracks with steel and resin, rebuilding removed areas, and bringing the surface back to the 3 mm tolerance tiling works to.

Crack in a cement:sand screed stitched with steel connectors set into transverse slots

Repairing an existing screed →

wedi board and waterproofing systems →

Board thicknesses and where each one belongs, fixing and sealing sequences, wet room formers and linear drainage, and the difference between a tanked substrate and a decoupling layer.

wedi board bath surround and wall build-up with sealed joints

wedi board and waterproofing systems →

Board thicknesses and where each one belongs, fixing and sealing sequences, wet room formers and linear drainage, and the difference between a tanked substrate and a decoupling layer.

TECEprofil pre-wall framing →

Where the system came from and what it replaced, what can be built with it beyond the standard set, how it compares to drywall stud, welded frames and blockwork, and where its published load limits end.

TECEprofil corner joint and angle bracket on a pre-wall frame