Tiling Over Old Plaster Walls

Concrete plywood drywall or painted surfaces tiling requires appropriate preparation.

Tiling over old plaster walls.

Firstly check the condition of the plaster skim it should be fully dried out and a light pink colour. Or flatten walls with a latex modified skim coat product. If plaster is any way compromised you should tear out to studs and start over. Add a diverter and shower line in the wall.

Bring plumbing to code. Fresh plaster takes up to 30 days to dry and wooden surfaces can use a layer of polyurethane paint. You should not tile over wallpaper glossy surfaces lead paint or plywood. Tiling over damp plaster causes the wall to fail because the plaster won t become strong if it can t dry out.

Holes or cracked plaster requires patching. If you have a tiling job to do in your bathroom and the walls have been skimmed with plaster you have to follow a few guidelines when installing tile to make sure you do not have a failure resulting in all the tiles coming off the wall. I took a tile scraper the. Don t try to use the tile setting adhesive or drywall joint compound to patch plaster walls.

If you re not sure if you have lead paint test kits are available. If you re tiling the wall doesn t need to be super smooth it just needs to be smooth enough that it won t interfere with the tiles as you site them on into the adhesive. Then rinse the wall with a water dampened. The adhesive and tile will block moisture from evaporating.

Mix degreasing cleaner with water in a bucket using a dilution recommended by the cleaner manufacturer. You may tile over existing tile painted or unpainted drywall plaster and textured walls. Cover with cement board tape off. Layer newspaper on the floor across the bottom of the tiled wall.

Bear in mind that raw brick blockwork and cement are mostly uneven. Scrub the wall tiles with diluted degreasing cleaner and a nylon scrub brush.