Tiling over old tiles?

[flyingsparks]

Hi, I am about to be ripping out an old bathroom and turning it into a utility, re tiling the walls. The exsisting tiles are good and firm, and flat. I have heard its possible to tile straight onto exsisting tiles, is this OK? Where I may be running cables above the new worktops, I will remove the exsisting tiles, and then perhaps one coat over to rebuild the level up to the level of the rest of the tiles, is this a correct way of doing it?

Also, around the window I think I will have to remove the old tiles, or else the new ones will be proud of the window surround.. Thanks for your help

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

You can tile over tiles.
You must make sure the tile you are fixing to are secure and not loose, clean and de-greased.
Also your plaster/plasterboard wals will have a weight limit they can carry.
That would mean that the plasterboard/plaster will have a maximum weight of tiles you can fix to it, which if exceeded could cause structural failure.

 

[jctilingservices]

as said by PBOD, your walls will hold a maximum permissable weight, this weight will include the old tiles and adhesive as well as the new, why not just do it correctly and take the old tiles off

 

[Richard C]

It can be done with the correct prep & adhesive but, unless there is no alternative, it’s a total bodge. There have been situations where I’ve had no choice (never on a complete room) but really all you’re doing is creating grief for some poor soul in the future who wants to refurbish &, presumably, this won’t be you; take em off & do it properly; you know it makes sense

 

[flyingsparks]

Yes your all correct, I will rip them out! Do it properly! This will be my first tiling job, whats the best way to get the wall back to a condition ready for re-tiling? Obviously scraping the old adhesive off, but where plaster gets ripped off? If its only a small difference in thickness, say 5 mm or so, can you get away with just a little bit more tile adhesive? Thanks.

 

[Richard C]

Yes your all correct, I will rip them out! Do it properly!

That’s my man.

This will be my first tiling job, whats the best way to get the wall back to a condition ready for re-tiling? Obviously scraping the old adhesive off, but where plaster gets ripped off? If its only a small difference in thickness, say 5 mm or so, can you get away with just a little bit more tile adhesive? Thanks.

Don’t worry about it for now; bolster & cold chisels at a shallow angle to get them off first & see what your left with & then come back; don’t just go in there with a SDS or you can do a lot of damage! Cement tile adhesive is usually best for various reasons, which you may need anyway depending on the size of your tiles. But, please, read the tiling sticky & forum archive posts to avoid making potentially disastrous mistakes.

 

[flyingsparks]

Will Do Richard, thanks. Will get reading...

 

[drdr]

Hi, I have a similar problem, the walls are currently tiled and are reasonably flat - but it is on a lath and plaster wall. I had planned to tile over as am terrified as to what might happen if I try to remove the old tiles. So I checked with this site. Now I have the additional weight to consider, which I had not thought about before (new tiles are heavy).
So what do you think - take all the lathe and plaster down replace with plasterboard and tile that?
It is just not a perfect world!

 

[Richard C]

Hi, I have a similar problem, the walls are currently tiled and are reasonably flat - but it is on a lath and plaster wall. I had planned to tile over as am terrified as to what might happen if I try to remove the old tiles. So I checked with this site. Now I have the additional weight to consider, which I had not thought about before (new tiles are heavy).
So what do you think - take all the lathe and plaster down replace with plasterboard and tile that?
It is just not a perfect world!

If you need advice, you really should start your own thread rather than hijack someone else’s, it can cause confusion & breaks forum rules.

In answer to your question; laying large format tiles on top of existing tiles on a lath wall may be asking for trouble. Difficult to asses condition without seeing it but if the condition of the lath is at all suspect, the whole lot may fail. You will also have problems with both initial & final adhesion with large/heavy format tiles. You should also be aware that plasterboard will only accept up to 32kg/sqm (20kg/sqm when plastered), including up to 4 kg/sqm for the adhesive/grout. For the largest tiles, you need to use a suitable tile backer board which will go up to around 50 kg/sqm.