Tanking in bathroom - should I insist on it?

[fred2]

I've had a quote for installing a shower and adding to the existing bathroom tiles so that the tiles go all the way up to the ceiling (different house to my other post).

I've read the "sticky" and it says tanking should be done. This seems simple as it is apparantly just painting the plaster surface of the wall with a waterproof coating.

The quote does not mention anything about tanking. Should I insist on it?

The house is about twenty years old. Currently only the lower part of the wall around the bath is tiled, with plaster above.

I wonder what the chances are of the builders using waterproof 'plaster' around the bath? Would building regs of the time have required it, do they now?

Is there any clear or nice-looking tanking coating that I could paint over the plaster without needing to tile it?

Thanks.

 

[Bon]

You definitely need the shower area and the area above the bath tanking.

It should only add a couple of hundred quid to the job and will give you piece of mind that tiles aren't going to come off in the future.

As for the appearance, I don't think tanking solution was designed with aesthetics in mind, unless you like the colour of grey primer! It's job is to maintain a waterproof barrier that remains flexible, not provide a decorative finish.

If you're removing the existing tiles from the walls then there's no reason why you can't tank and then re-tile the whole lot as the atnking membrane is quite thin.

Finally, there's no such thing as waterproof plaster as far as I know.