Flooring Tile - adhering to fiberglass
Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.View Full Version : adhering to fiberglass
Michaela521
12-26-05, 10:41 PM
I am installing a marble floor in a bathroom and I have a fiberglass tub/shower that I would like to put a marble baseboard on instead of the usually vinyl cove base that they use. Do you think that I could at the base of the fiberglass tub sand the tub about 4" up with a 40 grit sandpaper and adhere the small marble tiles to it with latex modified thinset and then use grout inbetween the tiles and on the top but as I have read where the small marble tiles meet the floor tiles I should use caulk. If not thinset I am sure epoxy would adhere just fine to the fiberglass but I would prefer not to use epoxy incase I want to remove the marble in the future. Thanks for the help.
Tilebri
12-27-05, 05:42 AM
Hey, I know you!!! I just posted this response on another board. Never seen cove base installed along a tub. Along walls, sure, but a tub!? The marble should be cut to the profile of the tub with a small gap for expansion and then caulked. The inherent flex in the fiberglass as well as the differential in expansion would result in cracked marble and grout.
Bullnosed or polished square or canphered edge marble along the walls or square edged marble with rondec would look very nice though.
So to prep this floor, you have a double layer of plywood, the top layer is screwed to the first layer only with no glue and the top layer is not screwed to ant joists either. Then you topped it with backer set in thinset, not dry laid or set with construction adhesive and did not screw the backer to the joists, only to the subfloor, right? No vinyl or vinyl underlayments in the subfloor sandwich as well.
What about your joists? What size, how long do they span unsupported and what is spacing oc? Stone needs a floor 2x as strong as ceramic.
Ofcouse, if this is a slab, you can ignore the later 2 paragraphs, but were there any sealers, paint or slab cracks? Any old adhesive residues were scraped on;y without solvents which are big time bond breakers/inhibitors? :)
Bullnosed or polished square or canphered edge marble along the walls or square edged marble with rondec would look very nice though.
So to prep this floor, you have a double layer of plywood, the top layer is screwed to the first layer only with no glue and the top layer is not screwed to ant joists either. Then you topped it with backer set in thinset, not dry laid or set with construction adhesive and did not screw the backer to the joists, only to the subfloor, right? No vinyl or vinyl underlayments in the subfloor sandwich as well.
What about your joists? What size, how long do they span unsupported and what is spacing oc? Stone needs a floor 2x as strong as ceramic.
Ofcouse, if this is a slab, you can ignore the later 2 paragraphs, but were there any sealers, paint or slab cracks? Any old adhesive residues were scraped on;y without solvents which are big time bond breakers/inhibitors? :)