Removing tiles before re plastering

[TonyWarrington]

This is probably a stupid question and one that I would have asked my plasterer had I been able to contact him before he went on hols !

I am removing tiles from the kitchen walls between the worktops and wall cupboards prior to having these skimmed. Obviously the tiles come away leaving traces of adhesive on the wall or pull the plaster skim off in places.

My question is should I leave these sound island of top plaster or cut back all to the undercoat. My thinking was that it may make levelling of the surface with rest of the wall easier for the professional.

 

[Richard C]

Remove any proud blobs of adhesive as these will make it more difficult for your plasterer to skim but as long as the rest is sound, there is no need to strip it back to the base coat. Any larger areas or holes where the finish plaster has come away with the tile adhesive should be rough filled so they are level with the surrounding finish; I usually use Bonding plaster for this. Don't worry about minor scrapes & digs as these can be easily be accomodated as the skim coat is applied. If you’ve got large areas where it’s stripped back to the base coat I would leave it until your plasterer has a look, if you fill it & don’t get it flat you’ll just make his job harder. He may decide to fill or skim flush with the surrounding area & then skim the whole wall again.

 

[TonyWarrington]

Thanks Richard. Will follow your advice and make sure adhesive removed back properly and will leave the large areas where stripped back to base for the plasterer to have a look.