Bathroom Tiling in Taunton Full bathrooms, showers and wetrooms, tiled to last.

Bathroom tiler, Taunton

A bathroom is the hardest room in the house to tile well

It is the one room where every wall meets water, every corner is on show, and every cut has to work around a basin, a bath, a window or a shower tray. It is also the room you look at every morning. Those are the reasons bathroom tiling is most of my work, and the reason customers recommend me for it.

Whether you are having the whole bathroom redone, converting a bath to a walk-in shower, or just want the splashback behind the basin replaced, the approach is the same. The walls and floor are checked and made flat first. The room is set out so cuts land where they are least visible and the pattern lines up through corners and around the window. Wet areas are tanked. Then the tiles go on, the joints are kept even, and the grout, trims and silicone are finished so the room looks as good up close as it does from the door.

Showers and enclosures

Shower areas get the most water and the most attention. The enclosure walls are tanked with a waterproof membrane before tiling, the tray or former is set level and sealed, and the tiles are planned so you get full tiles at eye level and the cuts sit low or in the corner. Niches for shampoo bottles are built in and tiled with mitred or trimmed edges, and the glass screen is fitted to a tiled surface that is flat enough for it to seal properly.

Wetroom tiling

A wetroom is a bathroom with no step and no tray: the floor itself is the shower. That makes the groundwork everything. The floor is formed with falls towards the drain, usually with a preformed wetroom former, then the entire floor and the lower walls are tanked so nothing can get through to the timber or screed underneath. Floor tiles are chosen and cut to follow the falls, which is why smaller formats and mosaics are common around the drain, with the same large tiles as the walls elsewhere. Done this way a wetroom stays dry underneath for decades. Done badly it leaks within a year, so this is not a job to give to a general builder.

Full bathrooms, walls and floors

Floor-to-ceiling walls in one tile give a bathroom a calm, finished look, and large format porcelain, like the stone-effect bathroom in the photos, has very few joints to clean. Half-height tiling with a painted wall above is cheaper and still protects everywhere that gets wet. Floors are laid flat on a prepared base, with underfloor heating mats or cables where you want them, and matched to the wall grout for a seamless look or contrasted on purpose.

Window reveals, niches and edges

The details are where a bathroom either looks professional or does not. Window reveals are tiled with the sill pitched slightly so water runs back into the room, and the edges are finished with a metal trim or mitred tile so there are no raw ends. Internal corners are grouted or siliconed depending on movement. External corners get matching trims. Pipe holes are cut with a core drill so the escutcheons cover them completely.

Tiles that work in a bathroom

• Porcelain: the default choice. Hard, dense and almost waterproof. Stone and marble effects give the look without the sealing.
• Ceramic: lighter and cheaper, ideal for walls. Metro, patterned and handmade-look ranges.
• Natural stone: limestone, slate, marble and travertine. Beautiful, and I seal them before and after grouting so they stay that way.
• Mosaic: shower floors, niches, borders and feature walls. Slower to lay but hard to beat for a wetroom floor.

What happens on a bathroom job

1. Visit and quote. I come and see the room, talk through the tiles and layout, and send a written quote with no obligation.
2. Preparation. Old tiles stripped if needed, walls and floor made flat and sound, boards or backer boards fitted where they help.
3. Tanking. Showers and wetrooms waterproofed with a membrane system before any tile goes on.
4. Setting out and tiling. Centre lines, level lines, then the tiles, with the cuts planned so they stay hidden.
5. Grout, trims and silicone. Grout colour agreed with you, trims fitted, all junctions siliconed neatly.
6. Clean down. The room is left clean and ready for the plumber or for you.