Hi all, Just a quick question, Im in the process of preping a wall before the tiler comes to do his magic The bathroom will be tiled floor to ceiling on all 4 walls, and on the floor too. I've taken the old tiles and skirting off. The tiles came off quite clean leaving a fairly good wall behind. I want to prep the wall so its nice and easy for the guy to tile on, and so I dont have tiles falling off. Floor will be covered with no-more-ply. 4 questions really: 1) As you can see by the picture, I need to fill in the places where the skirting has been removed, and where the plaster has come off. What is the best stuff for this? 2) The putty knife is currently going in between the wall and plaster quite easily in a few places (as can be seen by the pic.) does this mean i need to remove this plaster up to where the plaster is solidly stuck to the breezeblocks? 3) You can probably see the PVA marks from the old tiling. Might explain why the old tiles came off very nicely (though they were on for a number of years with no prob. i might add, but then this wall didnt have any water exposure). Do I need to wipe / clean the old PVA off?, and if so.... how 4) Once all this is done, whats best for sealing the walls, Screwfix have Mapei Tile Adhesive Primer for £5.60, would this be ok? I think thats all my questions so far thanks in advance, any help would be appreciated. Best wishes, S.
Hi Bazza, here is what I would do; 1.These patches don't look too deep, prob about 3mm I guess. Brush down surface to remove dust. PVA just the patches, 1 - 5 water mix, PVA will be runny so go easy, a little run here and there is ok but you don't want to splash it over whole wall. Fill patches with either 1 coat plaster or bonding plaster, get reasonably smooth and blended in with existing plaster but it don't need to be perfect 2. You need to remove all loose / blown plaster. Your lovely new tiles will be bonded to this plaster, not the solid wall behind it. Any loose plaster may cause areas of tiling to fail in the future. You will probably end up removing more plaster than you was betting on but, do the job properly and just the once is the best method 3. Tiles were just dot and dabbed on the wall which has helped you remove them, should be stuck with a full bed of adhesive, using a notched trowel. You can either rub the walls down with course paper just to scratch them up a bit, especially on the painted section or score a criss cross pattern with the corner of a scraper or old chisel. Brush the walls down again then give a good wash with a hot sugar soap solution, then a wipe over with clean rag and water 4. Not convinced the walls will need sealing before tiling Apart from the above, has the tiler seen the condition of the walls and quoted accordingly ? With you carrying out the prep work If not, it may be worth him seeing the walls first and he can advise what prep he would like doing before he starts - he may have his own way of working and fixing these faults He may be happy to just bond out the patches with tile adhesive whilst he's spreading, especially if only 3mm deep or so Good luck with the project
Thanks for taking the time to explain everything so clearly Dave. Truly above and beyond. Another question (sorry), do people still use browning then plaster on top? for the bits where the breezeblocks are explosed i mean. How about hardwall then plaster on top? any good?. Also, I guess for the breezeblocks i also have to PVA before putting the next substance on?
hack that horrid plaster off, it looks like it won't need much persuading - cover entire area to be tiled with backer board then rest easy knowing your tiles will never fall off or crack
No need to plaster on top of the bonding / browning coat, as I said, you don't need a perfect plastered finish if your tiling Bonding plaster is cheap to buy, easy to use and you can level it to existing wall surface with a trowel or straightedge. Make a few passes over it as it begins to dry and set and you will get it nice and smooth. Although the wall doesn't need to be perfect for tiling, its good to have it pretty level Bonding plaster is even easy to sand down once dry if needed Yep the breeze blocks need a coat of PVA before the plaster otherwise they will suck the water out the plaster too fast. You can just wet down with water but I've always used PVA 1-5 mix with good results. You can slap the plaster on when the PVA is tacky and not fully dried Sean - the door frame (hinge side) looks tight against that wall and might not give clearance for board, tile adhesive and tiles ?
When I'm installing bathrooms or kitchens for my customers, I would approach the problem you have in exactly the same way that diy dave has described above.
II took your advice diy dave, and asked the tiler. He recommended the same as you i think he said use wickes one coat plaster. reading about it, it seems like the same thing as bonding plaster?.
Cheers guys, pleased that you're in agreement with my prep method I'm just a diy'er but have plenty of experience and try to comment on work that I've actually carried out myself and gives a good end result The one coat plaster and bonding plaster are two differant products Bazza One coat is a finishing plaster, has a fine texture and dries smooth, the main benifit is that you can apply it a lot thicker than normal plaster, hence the name "one coat" Bonding plaster you can slap on really thick, it's easy to work with but once dry you would then float a coat of finish plaster over it for a smooth finish Obviously in your situation the finish is not that important as the wall will be tiled so use either
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