Sealing around bath - silicone or trims?

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pbyrne

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103
Hi,

I am tying myself up in knots as I have been getting differing opinions on the best method for sealing around our bath during a refit job. When purchasing the tiles we were recommended to buy trims like this:

http://www.trimlux.com/pdf/Trimlux Product Training Guide.pdf

However when talking to a tiler friend of mine over the weekend he said that these are unreliable and that these days everybody just uses silicone to seal around the bath.

Then I proposed the bright idea of using both trims and silicone on top which has not received a warm welcome!

Certainly reading the info on the trimlux stuff makes me think it is the way to go but I was wondering if anybody had use it or just the silicone before and what the experiences were?

Thanks for any tips in advance!
 
we just had a refit done in the bathroom and the tiler used the trims which you showed. he said that if we want we could put on a sealant after but it wouldnt be necessary. we have a sealant left over from the kitchen tiling and its transparent so i might just run it around the bath ...no harm
 
Did this myself a few years ago. Plumber fitted the bath etc. but I was tiling the bathroom myself. I actually used two trims (to be sure!) and the sealant. I put one trim behind the tiles (directly onto the wall) and flush with the bath - I used the sealant to stick it. Then I tiled the wall and put another trim over the tiles - again using the sealant to stick it. Probably went a bit overboard alright but it was a bedroom we were converting to a bathroom so didn't want any sign of a leak - better to do it properly first than having the hassle of fixing any leak damage! It worked fine and never had any leaks. In your case pbyrne I would use the trim and the sealant.
 
I'd use both...a plumber friend of mine did a nixer for me recently and recommended using both.
 
Just an aside. I was advised to fill a pvc bath first before tiling to it as when a bath is filled it might move a ml or 2 down with the weight.
 
Thanks for the replies everybody - consensus seems to be no harm in using both - which sounds good to me.
 
Some silicone sealants go off colour after a few years and look bad. White silicone can get black marks and the clear stuff can go a yellowish colour.
 
I'd recommend using a 100% silicone product. There are numerous sealants out there that are silicone based but I've found them all useless except for the 100% silicone ones.
 
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