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A bathroom floor in plan: honed terrazzo tiles, charcoal, white, steel-grey and a few jade chips in a pale grey matrix, set out from a laser cross on the waste

Every floor starts at the waste.

Bathrooms, ensuites and powder rooms across Adelaide's eastern suburbs, designed and renovated from Payneham. One project lead runs your room from the first measure to the last bead of silicone. The waste is the drain in the floor: we set the tiles out from it and lay the floor to fall towards it.

Book a measure

Every tile is laid from one cross, so the cuts at the walls are shared out and none of them is a sliver.

Arrow keys move the cross 10 millimetres, 50 with Shift. B or Enter sets the floor out from the waste. You can also click or tap the floor to put the cross there.

Bathrooms, ensuites and powder rooms.

A double vanity with a thick timber top, two white basins and grey drawers, square to the wall in daylight
Ensuites. Two basins, one timber top, and drawers built round the waste pipe, not a cupboard with a hole in its back.
A narrow powder room tiled in deep green glaze, a round stone basin on a pale limestone ledge
Powder rooms. The small room by the front door where guests wash their hands. Every tile is seen up close, so the set-out matters more, not less.
A white freestanding bath under a timber-framed window, pale porcelain walls and floor in daylight
Main bathrooms. Room to stand the bath off the wall and clean behind it, a shower you walk into without a step, and the window left where the light is.

Your room, your tile, set out before the first cut.

A set-out is where the first tile goes. Start in a corner and whatever is left over lands at the far wall, often as a sliver by the door. Start from the right line and the cuts can be shared out, none under a third of a tile.

Drag the cross.

A shower recess 1500 by 900 millimetres in 600 millimetre tiles, set out from a cross 448 millimetres from the left wall and 449 from the back wall, with no cut under 444 millimetres.4444474464444454451500 × 900 mm, open at the front

1500 × 900 mm

Every tile is cut, 6 pieces, none under 444 mm. 3.3 m of grout joint and 3.3 m of silicone round the edge. From the open front to the waste the floor drops 14.5 mm, at 1 in 60. With tiles this big, a point waste means cutting them along four folds. A linear drain lets them lie in one plane.

Worked out as you drag. On site, the tiler checks it against the room before the first cut.

Arrow keys move the cross 5 millimetres, 50 with Shift. B finds the best set-out.

What's behind the tile is most of the job.

You'll look at the tiles every day. The layers under them are the part you'll never see, so it's where we spend the longest.

1 of 10

Frame

We open the wall to the studs and check it for plumb with the laser. Short cross-pieces called noggings go in now, behind the niche, the rails and the screen, while it's easy.

Pass the trowel across the wall.

Frame Sheet Screed Bond breaker Membrane, first coat Membrane, second coat Adhesive Tile Grout Silicone
Enter or Space lays the next coat; Backspace strips the last one off.
  1. Frame. We open the wall to the studs and check it for plumb with the laser. Short cross-pieces called noggings go in now, behind the niche, the rails and the screen, while it's easy.
  2. Sheet. A wet-area board, screwed off at the spacing it asks for, with its joints taped.
  3. Screed. A bed of sand and cement laid to fall: one millimetre down for every sixty across, towards the waste.
  4. Bond breaker. A flexible strip in every inside corner, so the wall and the floor can move a little without tearing what goes over them.
  5. Membrane, first coat. The membrane is the waterproof skin under the tile. The first coat goes on up the wall.
  6. Membrane, second coat. The second coat goes across the first, so there's no thin spot where a roller lifted. In the shower it runs up to the line: 1800 millimetres.
  7. Adhesive. Combed on with a notched trowel so every tile beds in full contact.
  8. Tile. Laid from the set-out, not from the corner, so the cuts land where we planned them.
  9. Grout. Pressed into every joint and washed back level with the tile.
  10. Silicone. At every change of plane, floor to wall and wall to wall. A room moves a little at its corners, and silicone gives where grout would crack. It's the last thing we do.
A gloved hand rolling grey waterproofing membrane across a wall sheet above a sealed inside corner

One lead from the first measure to the last bead of silicone. One waterproofer on every wet area, in every room. One tiler for every set-out and every joint.

The lead is the person you call. The waterproofer and the tiler are the same two people on every room we do, so whoever lays the membrane knows what the tiler will set onto it.

A linear stainless drain at the foot of a tiled wall, the floor falling to it, a few beads of water on the tile

Where the water goes is settled before the first tile.

The floor falls to the waste at one in sixty. That's about 17 millimetres over a metre. You won't see it. The water follows it.

When the membrane has cured, we plug the waste, flood the shower floor and leave it overnight. If the level hasn't moved by morning, the tiler starts.

A linear drain runs along one wall, so the floor falls one way and big tiles lie flat. A square waste in the middle means the floor falls four ways and the tiles are cut along the folds.

A section through a frameless shower screen: the glass stands plumb from the top at 2000 millimetres into a steel channel, set level on packers over a floor that falls to the waste, with a bead of silicone along the top of the channel. 10 mm glass,standing plumb Drawn below atthree times full size Steel channel,set level Bead of silicone Setting blockand gaskets Packers takeup the fall The floor falls to the waste
Drawn with the fall four times steeper, so you can see it.

The glass goes in last, into a channel set dead level.

It waits until the grout has cured, so nothing presses on a joint that hasn't set. The floor under it falls to the waste; the glass has to stand plumb. We set the steel channel level on packers, stand the glass in it, check it with the laser and run the bead.

Payneham out to Magill, down to Glen Osmond.

  • Payneham
  • Felixstow
  • Marden
  • Royston Park
  • St Peters
  • College Park
  • Norwood
  • Kensington
  • Beulah Park
  • Tranmere
  • Magill
  • Rostrevor
  • Burnside
  • Toorak Gardens
  • Beaumont
  • Glen Osmond

We work from Payneham across the eastern suburbs. If you're just past the edge, ask.

What people ask at the first measure.

How long is the room out of use?

Mostly it's drying and curing times, not waiting on trades. Each coat under the tile has to set before the next goes on. We give you the dates at the measure.

Can you tile over the old tiles?

Not in a wet area. The membrane needs a sound sheet under it, and the only way to know the sheet is sound is to see it.

Linear drain or square waste?

One plane or four folds. A linear drain lets the floor fall one way, so big tiles lie flat. A square waste makes the floor fall four ways, so the tiles are cut along the folds.

Can we keep the bath or vanity?

Often, if it's sound and suits the set-out. We'll look at it with you at the measure.

How high does the membrane go?

In the shower, the whole floor and up to 1800 on the walls. Outside it, the floor and a strip up each wall.

Can we stay in the house?

Usually. We close the room off with sheeting and a zip door, and clean up as we go.

Tell us about the room and we'll come and measure it.

Which room
When would suit