General DIY Tiling advice

[Salt_aug]

Hello, i hope someone can give me some advice please.

I’m planning on tiling our bathroom walls when we renovate it soon. The walls are all block and will be skimmed by the plasterer once we’ve knocked all the old tiles off. The tiles we’ll be using are 300x100mm ceramic, and will be around a standard shower over the bath layout.

What I’m not sure about is:

- Would the right way to go about it be to first of all prime the skim coat beforehand using Bal Prime ADP (or similar)?

- Do I need to tank/waterproof around the bath using a tanking system before tiling? Or would that be overkill?

- Would ready-mixed or powdered adhesive be best? I know we’ll have some boxing that will need to be tiled too (not sure on material yet) could I use the same adhesive on both the plaster and boxing?

- BAL white star plus recommends grouting after 3 days if using on a primed surface, is that fairly standard? As it seems like a long time?

Thanks all!

 

[parkerfresh]

I would definitely prime everything and also tank the shower area, mapei aquadefense is good and is ready mixed.

I’d also opt for powder, Bal flex one is a medium setting gear so can grout the following day with no issues. If you must use tubbed gear, Ardex D20 is good for wet areas and has better grab than white star.

3 days seems an excessive drying time as ceramics will pull the moisture out in no time. Do yourself a favour and avoid ready mix altogether.

 

[Salt_aug]

I would definitely prime everything and also tank the shower area, mapei aquadefense is good and is ready mixed.

I’d also opt for powder, Bal flex one is a medium setting gear so can grout the following day with no issues. If you must use tubbed gear, Ardex D20 is good for wet areas and has better grab than white star.

3 days seems an excessive drying time as ceramics will pull the moisture out in no time. Do yourself a favour and avoid ready mix altogether.

Great, thanks for the heads up. Will definitely avoid ready mix.