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https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl DIY Forum >> Painting, Decorating & Tiling Questions >> Natural Stone - Travertine https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1190637924 Message started by CadmannUK on Sep 24^th, 2007, 1:45pm

Title: Natural Stone - Travertine
Post by CadmannUK on Sep 24^th, 2007, 1:45pm

Hi Guys,

We are about to have our bathroom tiled with a nice square cut travertine and all the walls are brick and plaster apart from one 2.5m length that is a stud wall. At the moment this stud does not have a plasterboard skin as we have use this wall to get most of the services into the room. I was going to put up 18mm thick marine ply, but one of the tilers who came to quote said that he had heard that the resin in the ply can leach into the natural stone and advised us not to use marine ply.

I was not there when he came round, but he didn't give the wife any other suggestions. What would you guys use. This room is 7m2 and has a free standing bath without any sort of shower in it, so the walls do not get wet directly. What would you suggest we should use, bearing in mind that we have the 10mm thick travertine already sitting in our garage.

Also on another issue, what other options do I have for a light switch, apart from the normal pull cords, any IR or proximity switch suitable for bathroom use?

Thanks

Cad

Title: Re: Natural Stone - Travertine
Post by jasonB on Sep 24^th, 2007, 5:47pm

With 10mm stone you will just be below the weight limit for plasterboard, use 12mm board screwed to the studs and tile straight onto the board- no skim.

Next step up would be moisture resistant plasterboard which will be less affected by the moist enviroment of a bathroom.

Best option is a tile backer board such as Aquapanel, Wediboard, Hardibacker, etc. Again screwed to wall and tile straight onto it.

Ply is not really suitable as it will expand & contract with the changes in humidity which can weaken the adhesives bond.

Jason

Title: Re: Natural Stone - Travertine
Post by CWatters on Sep 29^th, 2007, 5:13pm

Our builder used hardibacker board behind our travertine tiles. I gather it was hard to cut (the carpenter used a lot of blades in the jigsaw) but seems much more solid than plasterboard. I'd go with that.

I used wediboard to build a wash stand. It's light weight and dead easy to cut but it essentially a foam core with thin fiberglass mesh either side stuck on with what looks like plaster. It needs special fixings for things like towel rails if the studs aren't in the right place.