Are Wall Tiles Needed In A Bathroom

[JayceTrayne]

I've moved into a house (as you will all know) and the bathroom is a problem area and needs a fair few DIY projects done. The main one I'm not sure about if I need to tackle straight away is the shower tiling.

The shower is over the bath, and the bath tiles only come up half way on the wall. The rest of the wall is painted and not water resistant from what I can see. Does anyone know the damage of water straight onto a wall, especially one in a bathroom. I need to re-tile the whole wall as the existing tiles are old and dated.

I can't imagine any other alternatives out there for making the wall waterproof without tiling? Does anyone know of any solutions?

 

[bugs183]

Most tilers know the damage that water causes and it's sneaky, it doesn't appear obvious at first, it'll wick it's way behind a gap somewhere and run into the boards, these act like a sponge and the problem gets worse without you really knowing until it's to late.
In opinion and i'm sure others will share it is if the tiles are dated and you don't like them, then retile all the walls. This will mean removing all the tiles AND plasterboard that hold the tiles in the shower area at least.
Trying to remove tiles off plasterboard is a waste of time and the chances are that damage has already been done from the previous tennant.
It's an easy job to do, and then reboard with cement board such a Marmox, tape all the joints and onto the bath with water proof tape, and tile on to this with cement based adhesive.
This will give you the shower you want.