brick wall in the bathroom

kjco · 05-09-2009, 08:41 PM

We replaced old tub in the bathroom and will be tiling two walls. The wall across from the shower is uneven brick. We removed ugly plastic liner and cleaned it up. I'd like to keep it just waterproofed and painted but we are not sure how to attach the tub to the brick wall and waterproof it. Right now there is 1/4 inch or so gap between the tub and the wall.

Any ideas?

thanks

Blondesense · 05-09-2009, 10:27 PM

We also have a brick bathroom. Our tub/shower is not used often, only by occasional house guests. I didn't want to worry about sealing the brick or soap scum build up so I installed a full loop shower rod that is used for clawfoot tubs. It's a lousy pic but it gives you the idea.

jomama45 · 05-10-2009, 12:02 AM

I would think mortar would do just fine, especially if your subjecting the existing brick & mortar wall to the same moisture with no problems. If the brick is painted, you may need a different approach.

kjco · 05-10-2009, 11:14 AM

Thank you, that's a good idea with the shower liner. I will look for one. How did you attach the tub itself to the wall? From the picture it seems you don't have that edge sticking out from your tub. Your wall looks more flat then what we have, we can't push the tub flush against the wall. We now have a gap between the wall and the tub we need to seal somehow. Will have the same problem in the corner where the tiles will join with the bricks.

Blondesense · 05-10-2009, 11:51 AM

Ours was an existing tub so it was already in place.

I gave up trying to seal the edge of the tub completely. We do have gaps around our tub. I covered the tub flange with metal trim and caulk to pretty it up, but it is far from sealed.
Like I mentioned, this shower/tub is seldom used so I rely on the liner when the shower is in use, and I'm just careful when I bathe the dogs.

I really wanted to keep the brick and the window, otherwise I probably would have gone with some sort of solid surface walls.

Have you considered tiling the brick too?

edited to add: BTW, I got my shower rod on ebay.

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kjco · 05-10-2009, 12:32 PM

We did consider tiling the bricks. The wall is very uneven with some bricks sticking out and the mortar recessed. So we figured trying to level it and attach durock would be quite difficult. And I like the look of the brick wall. We got something called drylok to waterproof masonry so I thought that would be fine. But now the gap by the edge of the tub is pretty big. So we may revisit the tiling idea again. Thanks for your input