Wall tiles/tiling

En Français
1

I seem to have hit a bit of a problem when asking for/talking about tiles and tiling for the shower room wall.

Dictionaries seem to use the word carrelage (and carreaux?) only for floor tiles. One shop I was in referred to wall tiles as faience but the dictionaries I’ve been using seem ambiguous and I’m not at all sure what word to use for the activity of tiling.

Any hints/explanations would be most helpful as tiling seems to be what I’m doing a lot of at the moment and I like to get things right when talking to neighbours!

2

Carrelage mural is what Castorama calls them.

Edited: this is what Leroy says: Carrelage mural pour la cuisine ou faïence de salle de bains,

1 Like
3

I’ve asked for advice concerning ‘carrelage mural’ and the people in the shop seemed to understand! I’m sure there’s a better weird or phrase though…

1 Like
4

In my experience, carrelage mural are ceramic wall tiles, faience are also wall tiles, but not totally ceramic, more of a softer, lighter (and cheaper) earthenware type under the ceramic coating and much easier to cut. Both are fine for bathroom walls. Carrelage is just generic for tiling (AFAIK :thinking:)

1 Like
5

First question is are you doubg the job yourself or employing an artisan?

1 Like
6

I’d certainly used carrelage generally for the activity of tiling - floor or wall- but I seemed to be corrected in the last couple of shops I was in. The batchroom lady corrected me, when talking about tiles, to faience and the general place talked about carrelage mural (for the activity?) but I wasn’t clear on what they called the actual tiles. :thinking:

7

Yes, I’m doing it as I really like tiling. I’ve always tiled bathrooms and kitchen myself!

3 Likes
8

Crikey :astonished:

1 Like
9

Ok, so what is the current wall surface?
Is it a walk in, level access shower?
Are you considering ceramic coated tiles or a natural marerial?
You don’t mention floor tiles so have yiu had a shower tray installed?

10

Yes I’m tiling the shower. I have the tiles and all the bits. We’ve put the (sunk) shower tray in and all is ready. The shower room will not be completely tiled so where the washbasin is is a new green plasterboard wall, coated with that waterproofing stuff and will just have a splahback. The only problem we have at all is fitting the washbasin!

11

and, of course, finding the right terminology with which to talk to the neighbours!!!

Yes but it beats painting in my view - almost zen-like the way I do it :rofl:

12

I say carrelage/carreaux/carreaux de faïence/carreaux de verre depending :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
13

Thanks @vero - very useful!

1 Like
14

Seems like you have sourced all the materials, hopefully proper adhesive to suit the tiles and wet area. Grout too needs to be the right type. Proper stuff is not cheap but saves job failure.
I’ll step back and leave you to it.
Always here if you need experienced advice.

2 Likes
15

Thanks @johnboy - much appreciated! I do indeed have the right adhesive and grout as we have a (rather expensive) tile supplier up the road from us who has advised us in the past (and even told us there was special adhesive for fixing floor tiles on top of heating cables for our kitchen). As you say, cheap is not a good idea for something like this :roll_eyes: :rofl:

16

Indeed there is. We have underfloor heating and you must use the correct, unfortunately quite expensive adhesive.

1 Like
17

Yes indeed, always important to adhere to the regulations… :wink:

3 Likes
18

Me too. - and floors.

I got to like it so much I almost did a pro course run by the pro tiling supplier but when I looked at the prospectus I found I was doing all the right things already - including tiling on suspended wooden floors.

But then I bethought myself that doing it for other people for money would mostly involve carting very heavy stuff - tiles and adhesive - up stairs to bathrooms and then spending hours on hands and knees laying them.

But it’s hands and knees time again. The dopes who laid the tiles on my ‘patio/yard’ used interior tiles. These are lethally slippery when wet, esp when they had that green slime on them.

WhatsApp Image 2024-04-18 at 16.32.40_c3b7face
WhatsApp Image 2024-04-18 at 16.32.40_c3b7face1204×1600 416 KB

Bricomarch had a stock of nicely ridged Italian exterior tiles on remainder at 1/2 price. The problem is carting 40 of them - 70x30cms - up The Precipice from The Grotto. I can do that a few at a time. The 25kg bag of cement … :roll_eyes:

19

There are anti slip coatings available

20

Decant into small bags! We do that sort of thing all the time… bought a Billy bookshelf for the storeroom the other day and unpacked it in the car in order to bring it inside a bit at a time :smiley: (Got a neighbour to help bring in the shower screen though…)

1 Like