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Hi all

I've just had my bathroom walls entirely dot and dabbed with 9mm plasterboard, my ceiling has been skimmed. My plasterer however has now bunked off the job and hasnt skimmed the walls.
I was wandering if its ok to tile the walls directly rather than skimming them?
I am going to tank the bath and shower area before I tile them?

I am asking this question because I was in B & Q today and they told me under no circumstances should I tile onto plasterboard, because it should be skimmed first or the walls would 'fall to bits'!

Thanks

tiling onto plasterboard is better as the board will carry more weight thana plaster skim coat, just DONT use a ready mixed addy/grout! use BAL addy and a seperate grout! (dearer but better)

As above..........but watch your tile size and weight

BigRik wrote:Hi all

I've just had my bathroom walls entirely dot and dabbed with 9mm plasterboard, my ceiling has been skimmed. My plasterer however has now bunked off the job and hasnt skimmed the walls.
I was wandering if its ok to tile the walls directly rather than skimming them?
I am going to tank the bath and shower area before I tile them?

I am asking this question because I was in B & Q today and they told me under no circumstances should I tile onto plasterboard, because it should be skimmed first or the walls would 'fall to bits'!
Thanks

just reread this bit was it a housewife or spotty teen that told you this!

plaster skim will carry aprox 20kg Per msq
plasterboard carries approx 32kg PER msq (but i think thats based on 12.5mm board check out the Gypsum site under technical tab to find the exact weight to size boards!

Thanks for the replies so far, the guy that told me this in B&Q was responsible for the tiling dept!

I thought his advice was questionable, thats why I came here.

I've been on the gypsum website but can't fing the load bearing wait for 9.5mm board per sm, can anybody direct me please?

thanks

http://www.british-gypsum.com/PDF/wb_tiling_04_06.pdf

Should be in there somewhere!

Thanks all, I'll go ahead and tile.
Any recommendations for treating the board prior to using the separate addy and grout as you suggested?
I was originally going to use PVA but seems to be a bad idea after reading some of the posts on this site.

thanks

Get some proper primer

Tile Adhesive Primer

Read the instruction before you mix the adhesive, they may recommend their own bonding agent which might not be a bad idea. Agree that mixing your own would be best. Readymix is OK but good adhesive mixed yourself is easier to work with and sticks better.

The only advantage with skimming first is that if you take the tiles off you don't need to reboard.

Thanks all