Help, my tiles fell off!! Advice and information on tiling and fixing tiles to a variety of surfaces

[DIYMisfit]

Ok, so i took them off but they were on their way. The walls were skimmed first, then PVA'd. I have read some articles for the process, some against, but anyway. After a few months, i finally got round to cleaning them, and found that the tiles were infact away from the wall. They were merely held in place by each other.
These are big tiles, about 9mm thick, and about 2ftx1ft in size. Porcelain.
'A friend' tiled the walls (in the Bathroom) and he has spotted them, each corner and the middle. The adhesive has come clean away from the wall, and i am having to chip the tiles clean before i re-use them.
Can anyone suggest why they came away from the wall, and what to do to ensure they stay on when i attempt to do them next time.
The wall is around the bath, not shower, so i dont think damping or wetness was an issue.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

[stoneyboy]

DIYMisfit,
If the wall was not scored to provide a key then this combined with the pva is the probably the cause of not adhesion.
Try deep scoring the wall before you refit the tiles.
end

[comanche]

never ever spot fix tiles especially ones of this size and weight, wall tiles should have at least 90% coverage of adhesive and never ever pva walls use a proper tile primer like bal APD u'll see the difference straight away also if the walls were skimmed with a polished finish all ur sticking to is the fine layer of the polished surface which u should now see attached to the adhesive when u take the tiles off which is less than a mil thick , you gotta rough the walls up first i use a wire brush on the end of my grinder its messy and dusty but gotta b done

[chris_on_tour2002]

they haven't stuck because they haven't been stuck properly. not only shoddy but potentially dangerous. if one of those tiles had fallen on someone in the bath or shower then serious injury could result.

dot and dabbing is not the way to hang tiles particularly in moist areas and acrylic or latex primer should have been used in place of PVA.