Hi all, I have built a feature wall/ chimney in my living room. The surfaces are mainly OSB (front) and general timber (sides). Please see the picture to understand better. Now, I was initially planning on using lightweight cladding to cover the chimney breast; hence didn't consider the materials I was using to build the wall to begin (OSB). In the last few days I have found some split face tiles which I really like the look of; but the question is; have I used appropriate materials to tile onto?
Ideally I'd lay tiles on ply but given there should be no moisture isssues, OSB migt be alright. Seal it first though.
Getting one side of any wood based board wet will tend to cause it to bow. I made this mistake years ago when I boarded a fireplace with chipboard then wallpapered it with vinyl paper (one with lots of horses on bet you can't guess what my little girls were in to!) the fire place looked pregnant for about 6 months till it more or less dried out! At least seal the surface with something suitable for tiles (Not PVA) to stop the moisture penetrating and prevent the adhesive drying too fast, although the sealant on one side only might still cause slight bowing. I would avoid tiles and stick with the original idea of cladding. You could of course over board with thin tile backing board but that will bring it out a bit more.
Thanks for the response Hans, any tips as to which Sealant to use; or would they all be equal for what I am doing? Thanks for the friendly reply! I definitely don't want to end up with a 'pregnant looking ' wall LOL. The only downside I am finding with the cladding idea is the edging. I consider that I will be able to get natural edges using tiles as they tend to be staggered and I may be able to cut them similar to a normal brickwork corner edge; however as far as I can work out, external corner edging (for the cladding) only comes in very limited colours (mainly white and silver) and I am going for a brown slate look finish on the cladding, which I feel will stick out like a sore thumb Thank you so much!
Not sure really, either a sealant suitable prior to tiling (ask at tileshop) or may be SBR. My tiler used a blue coloured sealant but no idea what is was.
I have just read the details on the link above which state; "tiles cannot be directly applied to the bonding agent so it is essential that the surface is skimmed before any further work takes place." Any further ideas? I will be popping into a couple of hardware stores on my way home for advise I think; however any suggestions here are also much appreciated
If I dont get much joy with this- does anyone have any suggestions as to a better material to use instead of OSB? I dont want to replace the OSB to have a similar problem. MDF any good?
Use plasterboard - untreated, this will hold up to 32kg of tiles per sq m (no need to prime before putting the tiles up, just use a decent bagged tile adhesive). I put some split tiles on my chimney breast a few years ago and they look great. I fixed them to plasterboard and haven't had any problems.