On 2006-07-30 16:06:47 +0100, John Rumm said:

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 was thinking of 18mm ply, but perhaps something thicker should be used?



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.

These are all good ideas, John, thanks. There is a little leeway with
the holes. They need to be about 52mm for the mechanical parts of the
tap to clear, but the escutcheons for the spout and tap lever are 68mm.

I hadn't thought of the Multimaster, but I know the blade you mean.

I didn't know about grit edged jigsaw blades.

I suspect that a lot will depend on the tiles chosen by SWMBO