can you tile onto brick?

[Krazeekat]

We have a conservatory thats been tagged onto the house. the exterior of the wall has now become the interior wall of the conservatory. on occasion the rain can be blown under the flashing of the roof so we do get some water on this wall - as such I don't want to plaster it and as its the kitchen window it pretty much only 20cm gap under the window, above the worktop that is exposed.
The previous owner painted it but I hate painted brick so I'm wondering if we could put tile up on the external wall to hide it and it also being fairly resistant to any water that does splash in.
before
Can you tile onto plain brick? Given its been painted is it the case that it would all need to be sanded for the adhesive and grouting to stick?

[ultimatehandyman]

You can tile direct to the brick using a cement based tile adhesive but it is extremely difficult even for professionals, so most people use some kind of suitable boarding such as plasterboard or tile backer board first.

[Krazeekat]

Ok. thanks. In that case I will ask the professional when all the units get fitted out there as we're having it done at the the same time as the kitchen. I'll let them decide how best to approach it as it sounds like it won't be as easy as putting 2 rows of tiles up aboce the worktop.

[Crooksey]

Why dont you just fix the leak?

[Krazeekat]

We can't pinpoint the leak precisely and it happens only very rarely - only happened once since moving in so it has to be very heavy, directional rain - but because it has happened once then it could well happen again so tiling it seems like a reasonable way to ensure any future leak that may occur will not then result in getting sodden plaster etc.
In order to stop the leak would mean a complete rebuild of the roof and then the UPVC cladding that runs behind the roof so that a proper join could be placed to allow the cladding to come down over the roof, rather than behind it which I think is where the leak lies.