Wall prep advice gratefully sought. - Tile Advice

[DodgyRog]

Hi,

Am about to prep an old bathroom wall for a small bit of tiling - only a couple of m2 and using 200 x 100 bevelled / metro tiles.

As per photos below, the wall is generally straight and level but has a number of shallow (only up to 3 mm max depth) craters where the old tiles were removed. The remaining plaster is very stable and although there is some old paintwork on there it does appear to be stuck like the proverbial to a blanket - and the existing tiles took a lot of force to get them off.

I've some Easyfill and then Bal acrylic primer and Bal White Star Adhesive and was going to Easyfill in the craters, sand smooth, then prime and then tile.

First question is whether to prime before Easyfill-ing the craters, then prime again once filled ? - or only prime once filled?

And then just to double check that is the best approach - for a moment I wondered if due to the shallowness / size of the craters whether the easy fill process could actually add more unevenness in to things (the bulk of the wall is actually quite smooth and the crazy paint pattern makes it look worse) and maybe I could get away with just using the adhesive to fill the craters as I go and just bridge them with the tiles. My commonsense-ometer is telling me not to be so daft but thought I would check just in case.

There will be a bath seal with upstand going in behind the tiles - although the bath has never been and will not be used as we only shower.

Appreciate any advice.

 

[Waluigi]

Easi-fill isn’t a great surface to bond tiles to. You might be better filling these little craters with tile adhesive.

 

[Albert]

Tile adhesive will fill those small craters, but I would
try to remove the paint.

 

[DodgyRog]

Thanks chaps. Yes I'll get to work with a scraper and sander to get the paint off.

I've far more adhesive than I need as the large tub was on offer so no probs at all to use the adhesive instead of the Easyfill.

Would you recommend filling craters first as a separate job, letting it dry and then start tiling ? - or would I be ok to just fill the craters as I do the actual tiling itself and just ensuring I spread the adhesive properly?

 

[Albert]

Second option if you are able

 

[DodgyRog]

Just to say thanks very much for the advice - followed it as above and seemed to go very well. It's the first time Ive used metro tiles / brick pattern which I had bought without realising the extra implications - I've got away with it though.....well.....using white grout..... I'm glad the missus didn't want a dark / contrasting grout otherwise I might have had to put an extremely low wattage bulb in there .

Thanks again, and have a great Christmas !