Tiling the bathroom floor- plumbing nightmare?

[Goosegettingfat]

House renovation being planned. Is it daft to tile the bathroom floors on basis that if there's a plumbing disaster you have to rip your floor up? Or am I being over cautious?

Plenty of people do. I wouldn't tile the whole floor - you want to be able access the pipework under the bath, etc.

you mean it's a wooden floor?

I suppose take it up and examine all the plumbing very carefully for any sign of leaks. Let the bath panel be removable so at least you can repair under there.

The floor will most likely need to be replaced with thick WBP ply anyway, to make it rigid so the tiles don't crack. Especially if it is chipboard, which is complete rubbish.

If there are any ball-type stopcocks, replace them with Peglers, which cost a few pounds more. The cheap ball valves often found, are liable to start leaking for no apparent reason. I have even known one start leaking from the vibration of taking up the floorboard above it.

Any pipe, unless exposed to prolonged freezing temperatures, will only leak from the weakest part. The joint.
Whether it is soldered or compression, that is the weakest part.
The best way to tile your floor is to check that it is one long pipe running from the elbow under your sink, toilet inlet and radiator. By doing this, if anything happens, you won't have to rip everything up.

Also, do not tile straight onto your floorboards. You will need to board the floor first before tiling. Failure to do so and your tiles will crack with the movement of the floorboards.

Ok... maybe I'll consider Lino. No idea how well that works with the electric ufh we've planned. It's a 70s house, but will be re-plumbed, so I'd hope the new plumbing will be safe.... but I'm pretty cautious about such things!

if there's copper piping under there, concrete under a tiled floor can rot it but it's not worth ruling flooring out simply for the vague chance that this might happen. If the pipes do leak, the flooring will probably lift of its own accord, first! Make sure the pipes are sound, before you cover them, and wrap them well in plastic membrane.

If you put vinyl or lino down, you'll need to make sure there's a layer of self levelling compund underneath, anyhow, or else it'll look shit. It is a cheaper option, but definitely not less work!

I have just had bathroom redone with a fully tiled floor. I had all pipework redone first! My pipework was old and a bit crappy so wasn;t worth the risk.

Depending where your bath ad toilet etc is sited you might be able to have most pipework under bath and down/out and box in along the side to sink. My old bathroom had no pipework underfloor but it was a VERY small bathroom. I was bath under window taking the whole of room width then toilet and sink in a line so pipework was just boxed behind toilet and sink and then went out under bath. Water cam up from room below under bath.