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Hi All,

Just joined the forum as I want to double check that I am doing the right thing after doing loads of searching...

I am about to re-do my bathroom. I am a fairly competent DIY'er, but never tiled before. While pulling off the old tiles (which i soon discovered had been placed on top of some older tiles!) I have managed to take off some fairly large (1m+) sections of the skim plaster - behind which is the rough coat plaster attached to breeze block solid wall (sorry if terminology is wrong!). Time is not on my side, so I need to quickly repair the wall before starting to tile - my plan is to use Bal Bond SBR primer straight onto the rough coat plaster, then Bal Quickset Render to re-skim the areas that i have pulled the skim coat plaster off. Then, I believe the wall is ready to tile (after 24 hours), using just normal adhesive straight onto the skim coat plaster / new Bal Quickset Render - is this right?

I was wondering if I am missing a stage - for example do I need to prime the existing skim plaster before starting with the adheasive/tiling?

Cheers,

Chris

Wouldn't bother with the rapid setting render just use rapid set tile adhesive to patch in instead. that will set in 3 hours and you can start tiling. Whether you will need to prime the walls is entirely dependant on what it says on the bag/tub of adhesive that you buy. Follow the instructions and you have come back if there is anything wrong with the product

I haven't used the rapidset render.

You can't use rapid set adhesive to patch the wall in though. Backing plasters are not a suitable background for tiling onto. So in theory what you would do by building the wall out with adhesive is exactly that, tiling onto backing plaster. It doesn't have the strength to hold tiles. You may get lucky, you may not. A few small areas here and there are ok to get away with it, but not over 1M2.

before tiling onto finish plaster you will have to follow the adhesive instructions. Some have added polymers and can be applied direct whilst others need the plaster to be primed with a suitable primer. (Not PVA)

Thanks for the replies!

I am starting to wonder if i can actually strip the rest of the skim coat off, then tile directly onto the 'rough coat' behind. The problem is that I am not sure exactly what the 'rough coat' is - I understand that normally browning or bonding plaster, but its the colour of sand so I am wondering if its a sand and cement mix (which I think you can tile directly onto). Probably a daft question, but how can I tell if it is a sand and cement surface or a browning / bonding coat? Its about 2cm thick, with the breeze block wall behind, and a yellow sand colour.

If this is a no-go, i guess I am back to the rapidset idea.

ChrisCTK1 wrote:Thanks for the replies!

I am starting to wonder if i can actually strip the rest of the skim coat off, then tile directly onto the 'rough coat' behind.

You may try that or using adhesive straight onto the backing plaster "only" if you find an adhesive that says it can do that. As it has been mentioned tiles won't stick on backing plaster.