Tiling Prep

Hello,

I am in the process of re doing our bathroom and trying to do as much of it myself. I will be plumbing the bathroom myself but will be getting a tiler so the finish looks good. My question relates to repairing the walls so they are good/true enough to be tiled on to.

I have removed all the old tiles but unfortunately the plaster has come off in huge chunks along with the tiles. I had the tiler out for a quote and he recommended scraping the walls (to get rid of any debris and old tile adhesive) and then apply unibond PVA to the damaged areas. Once dried he said to fill with Hard wall plaster.

Does this sound like the best approach? Do I dilute the PVA or can I apply it straight on? He said applying multi-purpose filler would shrink and dry and I would run the risk of the filler leaving the wall and the tiles falling off.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Attached are a few pictures to emphasise the state of the walls. Nightmare.

Thanks again.

I'm currently doing the same as you but I'm also tiling. When I took my tiles off, I also had chunks of plaster coming off and the walls looked like yours. I decided to get the walls re-plastered. In my opinion it's the only way to do it and your tiler will thank you for making his life easy. I paid £140 to get the walls plastered so not too bad. With super smooth walls you could prob tile it yourself too.

In the photos quite a lot of it looks loose - not sure if thats just my eyes! if it is then chop it back and dry line it with a tile backer board or MR plasterboard (dry areas only). if you do this, you dont need (or want) to skim it.

If you do fill it, hardwall isn't great. its not really suitable to tile straight onto. Look at using patching plaster or cement render.

Once patched DONT use PVA. thats a bit of a red flag coming from a tiler. it used to be all the rage but most adhesives now specifically state that it shouldnt be used. Use an acrylic or tilers primer.

tpt said:

In the photos quite a lot of it looks loose - not sure if thats just my eyes! if it is then chop it back and dry line it with a tile backer board or MR plasterboard (dry areas only). if you do this, you dont need (or want) to skim it.

If you do fill it, hardwall isn't great. its not really suitable to tile straight onto. Look at using patching plaster or cement render.

Once patched DONT use PVA. thats a bit of a red flag coming from a tiler. it used to be all the rage but most adhesives now specifically state that it shouldnt be used. Use an acrylic or tilers primer.

Click to expand...

Thanks tpt...yes, some of it is loose, im reluctant to chop it all off back to the breeze block. I will remove as much loose debris as possible and fill using patching plaster, etc.

The bit about PVA was applying the PVA in the holes before filling rather than after, if that makes sense...basically to give the filler something to grip too and prevent shrinkage.

Thanks again.