removing old tile adhesive from plasterboard

[MrsPondy1955]

Help!!! I'm only a girl
I have removed 20 year old wall tiles from plasterboard walls in my kitchen. The remaining adhesive is like granite! In some places some of the skim and plasterboard paper has come away with the tiles. What I have now is a wall with lots of old adhesive which is stuck hard and patches of 'bald' plasterboard with the paper showing. I have tried scraping and chiseling the adhesive off but it hardly budges.

I guess what I'm asking is can I tile over the old adhesive as long as I've removed anything loose?

Thanks.

 

[jctilingservices]

firstly you need to get the walls as flat as possible before tiling, whether you scrape the old adhesive off or get the walls re-skimmed. You could try either sanding the adhesive or even using a wall paper steamer to soften it then scrape it off, UNLESS the walls are NOT TO BUMPY, in which case a tile fixer could do it for you, i do not know your capabilities with tiling, but a bit of thought and care should see you make a decent job of it

 

[Richard C]

Help!!! I'm only a girl

So what’s the relevance of being “only a girl”? Are you expecting special allowances or sympathy for being stupid & you might even get suspected as being a Troll!

As for the advice; you can’t tile over old tile adhesive it needs to come off. It can be very difficult to remove from plasterboard walls & if it takes bits of the plaster board with it & you will probably need to replace that as well which is often the easiest & quickest approach. The tile base needs to be flat, either read up (tiling sticky & archive posts) on what you need to do or get someone in who knows what to do. Have a read of the tiling sticky & archive, then come back with specific questions on what to do.

I’ll help you all I can but take some advice, don’t pull the “girly” trick; it’s a complete turn off, won’t do you any favours at all & you’d probably do better masquerading as a complete half wit of a bloke! It really doesn’t matter to most what gender you are as there are both intelligent & stupid examples of both sexes!

 

[MrsPondy1955]

firstly you need to get the walls as flat as possible before tiling, whether you scrape the old adhesive off or get the walls re-skimmed. You could try either sanding the adhesive or even using a wall paper steamer to soften it then scrape it off, UNLESS the walls are NOT TO BUMPY, in which case a tile fixer could do it for you, i do not know your capabilities with tiling, but a bit of thought and care should see you make a decent job of it

Thanks very much for your reply.

 

[Richard C]

I think I've upset MrsPondy

 

[roughcaster]

I think I've upset MrsPondy

She seems "dispondent" with your reply Rich,,,,,