Tanking A Shower

To avoid leaks and to keep shower and wetroom area watertight you should tank the area before tiling. There are a number of solutions but BAL waterproofing kits are widely available on the Irish market and are easily available at most tile stores or building providers.

There are 3 parts to the tanking solution:

• An APD acrylic primer is first brushed onto the wall to reduce porosity and dust.
• All corners and joints are reinforced with the polyester tape
• WP1 coating is trowelled onto all surfaces to form a flexible, seamless waterproof coating which can be tiled after 24 hours.

Detailed application instructions are available on the BAL website

The BAL tanking kit covers about 4.5m² but since I need to cover close to 6m² I bought the larger separate components. Shop around for the best price. I was quoted €95 for the 4.5m² BAL tank kit at a well known tiling stored in Dublin!!!! I walked around the corner to Chadwicks Building Provider and bought separate WP1 coating, APD primer, enough to cover 8m², for total of €60. Got the polyester tape free from Heat Merchants (they will get it back in future business).

Here is a handy video explaining how to apply the BAL tanking solution.

Next job is to pick out some tiles, install shower tray and tile.

Materials:

• BAL 2.5L APD Primer, €17. Enough to prime up to 25m².
• BAL WP1 tanking coating 8Kg,  €43. Enough to cover 8m².
• Polyester tape.