Bathroom tiles plasterboard or ply

[Eric12]

Hi hope your enjoying the long weekend so far. I had a quick look at a job today for a replacement anti-fog mirror in a bathroom. customer wants the existing ant-fog with charger- light ect replaced for a bigger, and much heavier one which doubles up as cabinet.

The property is a new build of not too bad a standard (about 2 years old) and the wall in question is tiled; I assume the tiles are onto ply but not sure. Is there any building regs for new builds, or anyone know the norm for bathroom tiles nowadays for newbuilds ? onto ply or plasterboard ?

 

[SJD]

Could be cement board perhaps.

 

[Pretty Mouth]

I don't know about any relevant building regs, but from experience, I would expect the tiles to be onto plasterboard. Sometimes, on stud walls in bathrooms, you drill through the tiles and plasterboard and there's OSB or similar behind, perhaps to aid with hanging of fixtures etc.

 

[brianmoooore]

There's no reg, and since new builds are usually specced to save every penny possible, I would be surprised to find anything other than 9.5mm plasterboard on 3 x 2 studs.

 

[Eric12]

I thought the weight of the tiles alone would necessitate ply or something similar, just theres so many sheet materials around now its an unknown. I want to fix a heavyish mirror to the tiled wal; if its ply then no problem but otherwise im in the dark a bit. Possibly could use spring toggles but could end up drilling into a metal stud and leaving hole in tile !

 

[MJPD29]

New build, I’d presume plasterboard. Preferably cement board or ply in bathroom but being a new build I doubt it

 

[Pretty Mouth]

I thought the weight of the tiles alone would necessitate ply or something similar, just theres so many sheet materials around now its an unknown. I want to fix a heavyish mirror to the tiled wal; if its ply then no problem but otherwise im in the dark a bit. Possibly could use spring toggles but could end up drilling into a metal stud and leaving hole in tile !

How heavy is the mirror? Fischer universal plugs UX6 are good for this sort of thing. If you hit a metal stud, you have options. You can drill through it with a thin hss bit, then screw direct with a screw 1mm thicker in diameter. Or just drill the steel stud the same as the hole through the tile, and use a universal plug

 

[OnlQQker]

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[nicebutdim]

Decent thickness of tile and you'll probably fix the cabinet with red plugs & #10 screws.

 

[littlespark]

Definitely not brick???

Failing all that, suction pads and Command strips.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Nearly All new builds that I have had the misfortune to work on in the past 20 years use normal 1/2 inch plasterboard for bathrooms. The rare occasion working on a posh a one off £5,000,000 house they might stretch to cement board or ply in the shower area but everything else will be standard plaster board everywhere

 

[pirate]

Unlikely to be ply...tiles don't like the movement that ply can cause if it gets damp...
However, if the "fitter" only had ply on the van...

 

[Eric12]

Thanks for responses guys. I think I will use spring toggles on this one and will soon find out if theres ply while drilling through!