Housetruck bathroom advice!

[HoFFdOg]

Hey everyone, just a quick hello as new to the forum. Myself & my girlfriend are from England and are in the process of converting a bedford TK truck into our home. We have little DIY experience except what we have picked up along the the last few months so hope to use this forum for advice...if thats ok with you lot!

Q) SHOWER ROOM DILEMMA?
We hav constructed a shower/toilet cubicle using a frame work of 2''x1'' batterns and paneling with 9mm ply. In hindsight should have built this cubicle to accomodate a shower tray but alas we did not. So we have something of a dilemma as how ensure this cubicle remains water tight as a functional shower room. Ideally we would like to tile the walls, floor & ceiling. As long as what we're tiling onto is 'SOLID', would it remain water tight and trouble free (i.e no tiles dropping off)??! Is there an alternative adhesive/sealant to standard tile cement & grout that would ensure this??

A friend says we're wasting our time with tiles, that they'll all fall off & water will leak. He says we should use Vinyl on the walls and fibreglass the floor, tho i have a feeling this will look shabby!!

Basically, is there a way we can pull this off with tiles??? Any help/advice muuuuch appreciated!

Thanks.

Dan&Jane

[Sharkey]

Welcome to the forum, good to see some Truckers from the UK making an apperance!

Tile floors and bath surfaces are popular in the big commercial coach conversions, and I understand from talking to the manufacturers that a latex additive is used in the grout to allow it to flex without crumbling. What the addtitive is and where to obtain it, I have no idea, but I was assured that done properly, there will be no leaks and no loose tiles.

[Mark R. Obtinario]

You will need to install the tile in a way in which it will be able to flex as the vehicle moves without cracking or breaking.

Once you have done that, the tile shouldn't leak any less or more than any other kind of material.

Good luck.

Mark O.
Castle Rock, WA

[Phil Feinstein]

In hindsight, I would say frame it out with steel rather than wood since steel will absrorb more force before flexing.

9mm ply is strong stuff, but it will still flex more than "Backer board" or "Hard backer". I suggest getting some cement backer board and laying it on over the ply and sealing the joints with a high quality silicone sealer reinforced with fiberglass tape.

As for the tiles themselves, my first thought is to use some sort of epoxy rather than grout and seal the grout lines with silicone sealer. I don't have an epoxy to suggest, since I've never had to tile in something moving. The best type of epoxy to use would be for ceramics or cement materials and would be flexible or "Non shrinking". You'd want to keep the grout lines as tight as possible: more grout line means more surface to seal and a higher likelyhood of leaking. You might look to a pool supply to furnish an epoxy for tile.

Good luck!

[HoFFdOg]

Great advice there guys, thanks for your help. From further research ive done it seems a backer board and showerlay approach seems to be the way for successfully tiling the shower room.

thanks. Dan