Andy Hall wrote:

For a wall mount pan, I am wondering whether to go for ply or plasterboard
(ply seems to make more sense as less risk of crushing) and again whether to
tile behind or up to the pan. For neatness, I am thinking about behind the
pan, but again wonder about crushing. I suppose that there is not a lot
of difference conceptually to placing a floor standing pan on tiles.. Or is
there?

You may get a slightly higher point load at the base of the pan due to
its leverage effect, but I can't see it being much of an issue as long
as the substrate is absolutely rigid and the tiles are fully bedded on.

I am going for a wall mounted tap for the basin

This does not have the plate escutcheon and so I will need to cut tiles
carefully to fit.

I have an electric disk type tile saw for cutting straight pieces.

You can cut some curves with these - semi circles etc. Mark the required
line on the face of the tile, and then cut perpendicular towards it
stopping on the line. Move the tile a little to the side and repeat.
Eventually the waste piece of tile should have been reduced to a comb
like arrangement of "fingers" of tile all stopping on the line. These
can now be knocked out and a gentle lateral pass made with the edge of
the cutting disc to clean up the curve.

The question is how to cut the curved shapes or drilled holes for the tap.

I want to try to avoid cutting in little bits of tile and spoiling the
natural continuity. Depending on the tiles selected, this may mean
drilling large holes (about 50-55mm) or arranging the tiling to have a join
along the centre line of the tap and cutting in from the edge.

Grit edged tile/hole saws will do it. Much depends on the hardness of
the tiles as to how difficult it is. For normal pottery ones the coping
saw style tile saws, or grit edged blades for a jigsaw work fine. The
corner of a diamond segment blade in a multimaster can also be used to
take out a "curve" in a series of short straight cuts.



--
Cheers,

John.

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