Shower Tanking & Waterproofing in Tunstall
Specialist wall and floor tiling — including large-format and stone.
Tiles and grout are not waterproof. They're the wearing surface. The waterproofing is the layer behind them, and it's the part nobody sees — which is exactly why it's the part most often skipped on a Tunstall bathroom.
We tank as a separate, deliberate stage: board the substrate, tape and seal every internal corner and junction, collar the pipe penetrations, then two coats of membrane with the second at right angles to the first.
Bathroom & Wet-Zone Tiling in Tunstall isn't a one-template job — every house we walk into reveals something different.
Waterproofing questions from {town}
- Do I need tanking if I'm only tiling one wall in Tunstall?
- If that wall takes direct shower spray, yes. Outside the wet zone in a normal Tunstall bathroom, a sound boarded substrate is generally sufficient.
- Can you tank over plasterboard?
- Standard plasterboard isn't the right base for a wet zone. We replace it with a suitable tile backer board in the shower area, then tank that.
- What about the joint between wall and tray?
- That junction gets sealing tape bedded into the membrane before tiling, plus a silicone movement joint afterwards. Two lines of defence, not one.
- How long before you can tile?
- The membrane needs its full cure between coats and before tiling. On a Tunstall job that normally means the tanking stage occupies its own day in the schedule.
- How quickly can you start a job in Tunstall?
- Lead time is usually two to five weeks from a confirmed quote, depending on the spec and our current schedule across the Staffordshire side.
- Do you tidy up at the end of each day?
- Yes — dust sheets stay down, the room is hoovered daily and we leave your Tunstall home liveable while the work runs.
Our tanking stages in {town}
What we commit to on every shower tanking & waterproofing job in Tunstall:
- Tanking photographed at completion of both coats before tiling (standard on every Tunstall shower tanking & waterproofing install).
- Every corner, junction and penetration taped or collared as a separate stage (standard on every Tunstall shower tanking & waterproofing install).
- Tiled thousands of square metres across Staffordshire — proven across Tunstall.
- Specialists in 1200x600 large-format and 1500x750 slab tile on every install we run in Tunstall.
- Stone-care trained — sealing before and after grouting, every Tunstall job.
Tanking shortcuts we find in {town}
Anyone tiling a wet area who wants it waterproof behind the tiles in Tunstall hit a recurring set of issues with shower tanking & waterproofing:
Membrane rolled over standard plasterboard in a full wet zone — flagged regularly on Tunstall jobs.
Internal corners painted rather than taped, so movement splits the membrane — flagged regularly on Tunstall jobs.
Pipe penetrations left uncollared — the one place water always finds — flagged regularly on Tunstall jobs.
Wrong adhesive on porcelain leaving slow cure and edge cracks, particularly in Tunstall properties of this age.
Around Tunstall this shows up as floors not level, causing lippage between large-format tiles.
About Tunstall
Tunstall (ST6) falls under Stoke-on-Trent City Council in Staffordshire. Tunstall is densely terraced Victorian stock around the High Street, with later semi-detached estates toward Goldenhill and Chell Heath. It's reached easily via A500 and A527, putting it inside our regular daily route.
Our regular Staffordshire routes
Nearby places we cover within roughly a 15-minute drive of Tunstall:
Service radius is approximate and based on our regular weekly routes.
Tank it properly before the tiles go on
Free Tunstall survey of the substrate, plus photos of the tanked walls before tiling starts so you can see what you paid for.
- Specialists in large-format and natural stone
- Tile-only or supply-and-fit options in
Shower and wet-room tanking in Tunstall — backer board, taped junctions, collared penetrations and a two-coat membrane before any tile.