The Brief
The client wanted a dramatic wet room in their loft conversion. The room had a vaulted ceiling that peaked at just over 3 metres, and they wanted the marble to run from the floor to the apex on all walls. The stone was a veined black marble with white detail. No shower tray, no screen -- a fully open wet room with a linear drain against the far wall.
The Challenge
Three things made this job technically demanding. First, the vaulted ceiling meant every wall tile above head height was cut at a different angle to follow the roof line. There is no straight edge to work to -- each course of tiles narrows as the ceiling slopes inward. Second, natural marble at this scale needs careful adhesive specification. Black marble shows adhesive bloom (white mineral deposits that migrate through the stone) if the wrong product is used. Third, the wet room tanking had to be continuous from floor to the full ceiling height -- not the standard 1800mm. Water from the shower rises as steam and condensation runs back down the upper walls. Any gap in the membrane above the standard height would allow moisture into the roof structure.
The Solution
I tanked the entire room -- floor and all walls to the full ceiling height, including the vaulted sections. The corners where the walls meet the sloped ceiling needed custom-cut fleece tape reinforcement because the angles are not standard 90-degree junctions. The floor was graded to a linear drain with a fall of approximately 1:60. For the marble, I used a grey flexible adhesive rated for natural stone to prevent bloom. Each tile on the upper walls was individually measured and cut to follow the roof pitch. The marble was pre-sealed before grouting to prevent grout haze absorbing into the stone face. Grout colour was matched to the darkest vein in the marble so the joints disappear into the pattern.
The Result
The finished room looks like a single continuous surface of black stone from floor to ceiling. The vein pattern in the marble runs unbroken across each wall. The linear drain sits flush with the floor tiles. The tanking is invisible but comprehensive -- the entire room is waterproofed to the apex. The client described it as the best room in the house.
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