by diylearner »
Wed Mar 25, 2009 12:17 pm
I have stripped my bathroom and intend to tile some areas and paint others. When i removed the existing wall coverings and tiles I found that the walls were quite rough and bumpy with chunks of mortar missing in some areas, especially where the old tiles were. With this in mind I've spoken to a plasterer about skimming the entire bathroom so that I would have nice smooth walls to tile and paint on. However, I have also spoken to an experienced DIYer and he has suggested that it would be better to only skim the areas that are to be painted, and just unibond the areas to be tiled and then tile straight onto the existing surface as it will provide a better key. Also it will save me money by having less of an area skimmed. He also said that tiling over a thin layer of skimmed plaster could result in tiles popping or falling out over time. All of this seems to make sense to me but I'm a bit concerned about being able to get the tiles level if I lay them on the existing rough walls. I guess I'd have to just make sure they are level and flat as I'm going along but as this is my first attempt at tiling I'mthinking that a nice smooth flat new layer of plaster would make the job easeier for me! Can anyone offer me some advice on this?