Home DIY

I have a multi tool which I got to remove the first tile, which led to this mess! I could do without dust where possible, maybe I just need to open the window and hang a sheet on the other side of the door to prevent a(nother) coating in the bedroom.
Point taken about the grinder, it’s what I feared really. The rubber layer is very annoying.

Depending on your layout, putting a normal house fan to "extract" out of the window might help.

It is just a gritty job. No need for a grinder though, there are very few interior diy jobs where an angle grinder is the right tool! SDS drill with chisel mode is the best thing for removing tiles. I had to remove lots of tiles by hand before I could afford one and now I treasure it.

Finding screw holes under tile adhesive is a bitch, some people recommend a neodymium magnet.

I’ve got the cheapo Titan one, good tip on the magnet - it was getting through the adhesive that made the most mess previously. Thinking about it, I could chisel along the support beams rather than all over but having seen the work elsewhere in the room, I doubt the screws are in a nice even pattern!

There are some more specialised tools for grinding surfaces that include dust extraction. Festool do some. I've never used them due to the cost, I doubt you could make it pay for such a small area.

You could cut an inspection hole, find the joists and cut alongside them through the adhesive using a track saw with dust extraction (the blade would suffer though). You would then be left with a much easier job levering with a crow bar and spotting the screws, or use a multi tool with a carbide blade to cut through the screws between the board and the joist.

if there's a sudden reversal of gravity

You could always have a referendum on 'Swexit' and it might just happen.

Bearing in mind the alternative is a £5-7k labour bill..! Realistically though, I think the rip saw from work will go through it like butter once the tiles are off. Just depends how the top layer of rubber behaves with the SDS. You've reminded me that I cut through some of the side panel screws with a bolster chisel and lump hammer.
The rip should also make light work of the stud framing which is currently in the wrong place.

I have a circular saw already but a track saw is on the cards if I have to install wall panels or cut any large boards. I could literally take a month plus off work and spend thousands on tools and we'd be better off...

If water from outside has come inside through the brickwork (mortar most likely right?) And then followed a crack and cone trough your ceiling and dripped everywhere, but also come down the electrical cable and light fitting: what next and when can I turn the light fuse back on in the house?

Swexit

Seems reassuringly far off even if a referendum was to be held, 65% pro-EU atm according to the latest poll.

Well, that's you having some completely useless dinner tables hanging off the ceiling for the foreseeable future, then.

I managed to get the tile layer up with a bit of brute force and started cutting the base up. So far none of the rotten wood is structural but it’s also going to be awkward to replace.

Next question: I’ve removed the loose plaster on the side wall, should I take it all off and board it (suggested by builder) or just patch it? Not bothered about finish as it’ll be panelled over.

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My fatmax spirit level (1.8m long) and my cubix laser seem to have different opinions on what is level or not. Which do I trust? I would like the answer to be the spirit level as if it's the cubix I have a lot more work to do.

I'd borrow a third level and see which of your two it agrees with?

flip your level around and see if it agree's with itself

I'm absolutely not an expert on bathrooms, or building and you're already far beyond my comfort zone so you may already know this. We had our shower done recently, and the our builder did something that I hadn't heard of before and thought was useful.

We put a thick plastic shower tray down, with integral drain onto which the tiles went. However, before the tray went down, the builder painted the entire shower area (carcass made with plywood) with a thick layer of swimming pool tanking paint - the idea being that even if the tiles later leaked, the wood would be protected and won't rot / leak. Thought it was a good idea, and pretty easy to do.

Cue someone telling me that this was a disastrous thing to do and my house will rot down...

It was at this stage of my shower replacement that I found out that the previous builders had created the fall on the shower by carving a sloping piece off the end of each joist.

Which bits are rotten and what's your overall plan there?

That would’ve been good for whoever built this to do in the first place, rather than just tiling directly onto the plywood carcass! I’m not taking any chances though and thinking of using a low-profile shower tray with no tiles at all.
Not sure whether to board out the floor under the shower (the main floor needs doing) or just built the frame onto the joists as it was before, which will be easier to plumb.

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That looks intimidating :) Ours put a plywood floor (which was then tanked) over the joists, onto which went the wet room tray, onto which went the tiles if that's any use. The drain position in the plywood was transferred from the tray

Rip it all out (see photo above)!

The joists are watermarked but seem solid - the rot seems to have been exclusively in the additional timber at the front, apart from the mouldy patch of ply bottom left - not sure whether to leave, treat or cut out.

I’ve had a board (bog standard chipboard) up and underneath has some weird black dust/mold on the plasterboard below but that seems to be the extent of it.

That is a terrible mess. Electrical wires under a shower tray?
Rip out the panel on the right and replace with cement board, not drywall. All three sides should be cement board instead of plaster or drywall. I would just put a prefab fiberglass shower enclosure in there, easier to install and clean.

Yeah that is helpful, I’m building a picture in my head of the layers to build it up. The ceiling is quite high (>2.4m), so I think if we go for panels, rather than fannying around with extra pieces above the main boards, raising the base to suit will be better (and improve fall).

Ceiling height - panel height (inc sealant gaps) - tray height - tray fixing (?) = height of shower platform

Are there any prefab units that look nice?

I'd strongly recommend a shower tray over titting around with wet-room tiling. Our "wet-room" floor failed because the ply that it was laid on was not thick/stiff enough. It flexed under the weight of anyone using it, which cracked the grout, which allowed water through, which rotted the ply (despite tanking). After I ripped that all out I "sistered"some level extra joists to the existing (slant-cut) ones, added loads of noggins and then re-boarded the floor with marine ply, which I painted with tanking paint before putting down the cement base for a shower tray.

The only pain was attaching the new drain, since I had no access underneath. I just had to set up the drain really carefully and pull it up as I screwed the top collar into it. The wall tiling was mostly sound, but where the walls needed sorting I used cement board (take not of the instructions as it can be nasty when you cut it). If I needed to do the walls I'd definitely use panels instead of tiling. In general, the fewer joints the better.

I bet after a couple hard rain-sun cycles they'll be happy again.

After all of that, they decided to fell the remaining ivy!