Do I need to re-skim bathroom before tiling??

[fluff29]

Hi all

Looking for some advice. I have taken the old tiles off my bathroom which unfortunately has taken alot of the white top coat of plaster off the walls (brick with a layer of grey plaster on top).

Do I need to get a plasterer to skim the walls before fitting tiles or will a tiler be able to tile straight onto a wall with uneven plaster?

Any advice would be greatly accepted.

Fluff

 

[jrplastering]

as long as your not down the brick work you can tile straight on to if you have a few holes then just a bit of bonding will do the trick glue the hole mix your bonding and go to town on the hole then just rule it flush you can do that or your tiler should be able to but thats just a guess on how bad your walls are if their worse then you need a plasterer in if not then the above answer should be adequate

 

[keighern]

I'm just re-tiling a kitchen that's recently had its old tiles hacked off. Personally I would consider who is doing your tiling. If you leave as is (don't skim or bond) then the tiler will have to apply more adhesive in places and less in other places to achieve an even/level finish. If he's a decent tiler this will be OK but may take them a little longer. If your doing the tiling yourself, definitely get a plasterer to level the surface first. This way makes the whole tiling process easier and gives you a better chance of achieving a decent finish.

If in doubt and the plastering isn't going to cost too much, get the whole area bonded/skimmed 1st so your starting from a good level surface.

 

[jrplastering]

diddnt even think about if he was doing the tileing on his jack haha well yeah then there you go then that should cover your problem either way

 

[fluff29]

Thanks for the answers guys.

I normally tile myself but I have always had a good surface to work with. I am considering knocking off all the white top coat of plaster (well my husband will) which will leave the bumpy type plaster underneath (hoping that this is relatively flat), I will then attempt to tile directly onto it if it looks not too bad.

If it is beyond me, then I will get a tiler in to do it.

Thanks for all your advice

Fluff

 

[Alastairreid]

pva the wall before attempting to tile it.

 

[Richard C]

pva the wall before attempting to tile it.

I wouldn't do that in wet areas, PVA is water soluable.

 

[roy c]

Just go over it with some tile adhesive and fill out your holes and if they are too deep put an old bit of tile in to bring it out flush. No need to bond and skim the wall ,you will get a good enough surface to tile on if you do this... If you want to "bond" the wall before you tile use an acrylic primer not pva....Good luck

 

[KevDIY]

I'm a DIYer rather than a pro, and I personally find it far less time consuming (and easier) to tile on a flat surface, and not too difficult to fill holes with plaster, so I'd favour that approach - and probably even have a go myself.

Normally I'm pants at plastering, but if its being covered in tiles the plaster doesn't have to be smooth and nice looking - just flat (particularly without any convex bulges). It does help if you have sound plaster either side of your holes, though, as you can scrape a long bit of straight wood across the patches before they set, to level them to the height of the sound plaster.

Something like 'one coat' or 'patching' plaster could give you a reasonable working time, deal with varying depths and a make fairly hard/tough surface to tile onto. I'd also wet the holes with a sponge or something so that the moisture doesn't instantly get sucked out of the wet plaster when you first put it in, and so cause the plaster not to stick properly.

But if any professionals say otherwise go with them - this just works for me as someone who couldn't plaster a normal wall to save their life - it may not be the 'best' approach.

(BTW, I understand that you can 'sometimes' also tile over existing tiles, if the originals are flat, soundly fixed and if the total thickness of tile layers wouldn't be too heavy for the supporting plaster/wall/adhesive. But personally I've never tried it - when i might have done the extra thickness was inconvenient or the existing tiles weren't quite where I wanted the new ones etc. and it sounds like thats not an option in your case anyway)

Cheers
kev

 

[Richard C]

BTW, I understand that you can 'sometimes' also tile over existing tiles, if the originals are flat, soundly fixed and if the total thickness of tile layers wouldn't be too heavy for the supporting plaster/wall/adhesive.

Don’t you let Jefoss hear you say that

 

[KevDIY]

Don’t you let Jefoss hear you say that

Ha! Yes, well I did kind of mumble it quietly with a big 'sometimes' at the start and a few conditions afterwards too, so hopefully there won't be any very large explosions..