en suite tiling - TilersForums.com

[booner]

hi, can anyone help me on a couple of points:
1/ i aim to board over existing tiles on solid wall of shower, just wondered if any special screws/plugs are required?( i dont want to batten first)
2/ i have 'keyed' painted solid walls with hammer in prep to tile over, just wondered if this was a suitable method for plastered painted stud wall, and if not what would be best way forward? cheers booner

 

[Alan.P]

Hi booner :welcome: to Tilers Forums.

1st off is there a reason you can't remove the existing tiles, you can then see if the substrate is sound, you say its a solid wall, is it brick, blocks or other.

2nd You say you've keyed the solid wall with a hammer !! how exactly do you mean?

In both cases of solid and stud, you should sand off the paint down to the substrate before priming, if needed.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Hi booner,

I'm about to embark on a similar job in my bathroom and I have two walls that are coated with paint, right where I want to tile and put a shower in.

You need to remove the paint as best you can otherwise the tile adhesive will stick only to the paint and not the wall behind. And if you're fixing heavy tiles, you have to take into account the tile weight, adhesive weight, plus how much weight the paint and plasterboard can take. So it's best to remove the paint if you can. try the duck tape test. Stick a length of duck tape on the paint where you want to tile, leave it for 5 minutes and then tear off. If the paint comes away easily then you need to remove it!

As for boarding over existing tiles... it will be much more fun and satisfying to remove the tiles and see what the boards are like underneath :hurray:

If you get the prep right, you'll be less likely to have problems in the future.

Let us know what tiles, adhesive, grout and primer you're planning on using also.

GRR :driving:

 

[booner]

thanks for the quick replies!! it is a solid wall behind tiles, tiles barely overlap lip of shower tray, so 12 1/2 mm mrb plus tile would put me well into the tray. i thought say 50mm screw fix mrb over tiles would be easiest solution, house only 8 years old! reason for retile is leaks onto downstairs ceiling at the mo.
2nd, rest of en suite is emulsion, where i live(ireland) have seen solid walls 'keyed' by brick hammer creating hundreds of dents well into finished plaster, surely this would be a great surface to tile on?
ps what about plasterboard with emulsion on, do i really have to remove paint??!!!:yikes::yikes::yikes: cheers booner

 

[Olz]

You need to sand the paint back, else the paint is the only thing holding the tiles and adhesive onto the wall. If youve already had leaks then the plasterboard behind the existing tiles is probably in a bad state, my advice would be to remove the existing tiles, and plasterboards behind them then reboard, tank then tile.

I wouldnt recommend tiling onto plaster youve gone at with a hammer, its probably not stuck to the wall very well anymore.

 

[Alan.P]

Exactly what Oli, said

 

[booner]

thats ok, but why cant i overboard the solid wall with tiles on, as i already said current tiles are barely over lip of shower tray and this extra 12 1/2 mm plus new tile will get me nicely past lip. please advise why this is not suitable as long as i screw fix well into wall. if ok to do any special fixings advisable.( if i strip tiles that leaves me further from lip, original job was poor enough):incazzato::incazzato:

 

[booner]

ps, another problem, i want to remove skirtings but ceramic tiles are fitted to,not under skirting:mad2::mad2::mad2: so they are butted to the skirting board and are stopping me from easing the boards out. please please please dont tell me to try and cut along board at ground level

 

[White Room]

A fein comes to mind for that job, had the same with the skirting after the customer changed their mind about tiles on top.

QUOTE please please please dont tell me to try and cut along board at ground level, I did, not what you wanted to hear though.

 

[Olz]

reason for retile is leaks onto downstairs ceiling at the mo.

thats ok, but why cant i overboard the solid wall with tiles on

Water has been seeping through onto the ceiling below, how do you know that your solid wall isnt cacked with mould underneath the existing tiles, they might be soaked wet where water has been leaking throught onto it.

What are you planing on overboarding the tiles with?

If you want to do the job right then rip the tiles off and start with a blank canvass, it wont take you very long to smash the tiles off the wall, its the belt and braces way, do you really want to risk having damp problems on the solid wall just so you can cut a corner and leave the tiles on?

My opinion is that the tiles should come off

 

[doug boardley]

thanks for the quick replies!! it is a solid wall behind tiles, tiles barely overlap lip of shower tray, so 12 1/2 mm mrb plus tile would put me well into the tray. i thought say 50mm screw fix mrb over tiles would be easiest solution, house only 8 years old! reason for retile is leaks onto downstairs ceiling at the mo.
2nd, rest of en suite is emulsion, where i live(ireland) have seen solid walls 'keyed' by brick hammer creating hundreds of dents well into finished plaster, surely this would be a great surface to tile on?
ps what about plasterboard with emulsion on, do i really have to remove paint??!!!:yikes::yikes::yikes: cheers booner

why not strip it all off and put 12.5mm plasterboard strips down the studs and then overboard it?

 

[grumpygrouter]

thats ok, but why cant i overboard the solid wall with tiles on, as i already said current tiles are barely over lip of shower tray and this extra 12 1/2 mm plus new tile will get me nicely past lip. please advise why this is not suitable as long as i screw fix well into wall. if ok to do any special fixings advisable.( if i strip tiles that leaves me further from lip, original job was poor enough):incazzato::incazzato:

Apart from the reasons already given by the other members, you have weight issues to consider too, A plastered wall will only SAFELY accept a weight of 20kg/m2 you already have tiles and adhesive fixed to the plaster which will go some way to approaching the weight limit. If you want to add additionel plasterboard, board adhesive, tile andhesive, tiles and grout, I would suggest you may well find your plaster pulling away from the wall, even if it is perfect condition!

 

[booner]

ok ok, am gonna take off tiles, will then need to make up 30mm cos job not done right first time, i can sort that, but if i cant cut that corner surely there must be handy way of scoring painted plasterboard for tiling(not in shower unit- just rest of en suite). sanding sounds like a nitemare:yikes::yikes:.
ps. thanks for bein so tolerant of my corner cutting suggestions:lol::lol:

 

[Alan.P]

LOL, your getting there, good decision to remove the old tiles as for an easy way to clean the boards, don't score the plasterboard as you will ruin the integrity of the board, the paint will sand off easily enough either by hand or an orbital sander.

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Have you done a tape test on the paint yet booner? The sanding might not be as bad as you think if the paint is fairly loose to start with.

The paint in my bathroom is stuck fast to the walls and the tape test only managed to pull a 10mm square off even tho I stuck at least 15cm of tape in 2 different places! But I will sand the paint off as it's bathroom paint rather than just normal emulsion. if you know that it's just normal emulsion on the walls, you might be able to get away with damping down an area and using a bladed scraper to scrape the paint off.

I agree with Alan about scoring plasterboard. You'll be messing with the integrity of the board if score too deeply and then you won't have a perfect base for your tiles to attach to.

If you take a look in my photo album, you'll see the recent pics from my parents bathroom. The "professional" tiler they had in to re-tile their bathroom 15 years ago just tiled straight on to the painted walls in the bathroom, after PVA-ing them first. Even though the tiles have been up 15 years with no problems, my parents might just have "got lucky" that the adhesive and grout hasn't failed. Not everybody is that lucky and there are plenty of threads on the forum where poor preparation has caused failure months down the line.

Preparation is the key to a quality job