Re-tiling bathroom walls

[luckylucy]

Hi - I have started to remove an old bathroom suite, and all the old bathroom wall tiles.

In a lot of places, the grout/tiles, have taken the thin layer (2mm) of finish with it, exposing (roughed-up) rendered wall.

My question is - can I put new tiles on that surface, after applying PVA, or do I need the walls re-skimmed first?

Thanks in advance,

Lucky Lucy.

 

[Richard C]

You need to get the tile base level/flat again before tiling or your new tiles will most likely look awful, especially large ones. The best way to do this is to use a powder based tile adhesive to fill/level out (which you will need if your new tiles are larger than around 250mm anyway). This can be tiled over next day, if you re-skim with plaster, you will have to wait 10-14 days for it to dry. If your hanging large format tiles, it may not be suitable anyway as plaster will only take 20 kg/sqm including the addy/grout weight.

Read the tiling Forum Sticky & the Forum Archive posts before you do any more or buy any materials, it may save you making disastrous & potentially expensive mistakes, come back if you need further advice.

NEVER EVER use PVA when tiling, use only an acrylic or SBR based primer/bonding agent.