Hi all

I'm tiling the kitchen, and am pondering how to best prep the window
sill.

After removing the current window board I'l looking at the top of the
inner leaf of bricks, and the plastic cavity filler. I'm wondering
about the best way to level this, make it a sturdy suface for tiling
onto, and possibly including some insulation to prevent an overly cold
feel or a cause of constant condensation.

Current ideas a

1) Trim window board to match rising wall, and secure with screws and
Gripfix. Board has sound gloss paint, which I'd hope would offer some
moisture penetration protection, and hold the tiles if I give it a rough
up with medium glass paper. Hoping wood will offer some insulation.

2) Add sandwich of plasterboard, polystyrene sheet and plasterboard.
Each layer would be around 12mm thick. Combinations of PVA and Gripfix
to keep it all in place.

3) Same as 2, but with a base layer of plaster into cleaned out and
PVAed frogs on brickwork.

4) Plaster with polystyrene beads in it (50/50 mix by volume?) to build
up an all-in-1 semi-insulated surface.

5) Just plaster. Its warm enough for walls, so why not window sills?

Any thoughts or stories from the trenches would be appreciated.

One final question: How long would 3/4" or so bed of plaster need to be
left for before tiling onto?

IanC

In article ,
Ian Clowes writes:
Hi all

I'm tiling the kitchen, and am pondering how to best prep the window
sill.

After removing the current window board I'l looking at the top of the
inner leaf of bricks, and the plastic cavity filler. I'm wondering
about the best way to level this, make it a sturdy suface for tiling
onto, and possibly including some insulation to prevent an overly cold
feel or a cause of constant condensation.

I put a sand and cement bed on the top of the bricks, leveled
and smoothed off. Later (about 3 years later in my case), I
got round to tiling it. You can actually lay the tiles directly
in the sand and cement, although they bond better if you do it
separately afterwards with tile adhesive and it's easier to get
a good level finish if you're not familiar with using mortar
and laying bricks level.

--
Andrew Gabriel

Andrew Gabriel wrote:

I put a sand and cement bed on the top of the bricks, leveled
and smoothed off.

Thanks Andrew

So you reckon not to worry about the condensation aspect?

And was that astandard bricklaying mortar mix (although for this small
amount I'd probably just get a bag of ready mix repair stuff and go with
whatever is in it)?

IanC

In a similar situation I would either (as you suggested) fix the old
adjusted board with screws or use plasterboard

Cement is a good idea, however if it is a reasonably large area say
over 6" wide you can have problems with adhering the tiles if you don't
let the cement dry for at least a couple of weeks before tiling (due to
cement shrinkage).An alternative I use somtimes,is to use diy type
filler eg Tetrion which only takes the night to dry. Regarding tiling
on the window board you could screw some 12mm wpb ply to it then tile
on top. This will lessen the chance of the board going rotten over time.