wall tiling kitchen splashback

[garyslater]

I am about to tile my kitchen splashbacks and have two questions:
Firstly some of the walls were reskimmed but where old tiles were removed along the existing splashbacks the plasterer didnt finish the wall to a smooth pink finish as I just needed a flat surface to tile over. This was left with a rough grey finish - he did mention something about using PVA prior to tiling but cant remember exactly what he said - any ideas?
Secondly I have five tile types that need to go up in a random way. Is there a good way of ensuring that I get the same proportion of tile types in each section. My fear is having too many of one style on one side and not enough on the other.
Thanks for any help you might be able to offer

 

[maneira]

firstly mix some pva glue in a bucket of water.. 20/80 a weak mix and brush it on the area... this is to help with a porous surface which I imagine you have.
secondly, make piles of 25 tiles and cover an area... this will make sure that you don't have too many tiles of one colour in any area!

 

[Moz]

garyslater

NEVER use builders pva with tiling mudmix/adhesive as it doesnt bond to the substrate an tiles are stuck to the thin pva mix ...

check your adhesive mix ,
with bal its Bal APD ....
hope this helps