Bathroom refurb?

[MattW]

Hi All,
Just over from the plumbers forum - I've done some tiling but could do with some advice.

I'm helping my sister in law refurb her bathroom (8 year old newbuld with stud walls). It doesn't currently have a shower - just a standard suite, so I'll be adding an over bath shower. I'll be tiling it floor to ceiling (just decent ceramics - nothing fancy as her budget isn't huge).

I've stripped off the old tiles (the whole room was tiled to dado height and the rest painted). While taking the old tiles off, it took big patches of skim off the plasterboard, so I ended up scraping all the skim off to leave bare plasterboard (what fun that was!) - at least this has also removed the paint which failed a duct tape test . I'm going to tank the side and rear walls of the bath where the shower will be - I've only used BAL stuff in the past so I'll probably use their tanking kit.

However given that the plasterboard has been skimmed (even though the skim has been scraped off), I'm going to prime the other walls with BAL APD too - is this over the top?

I'm intending to use BAL Goldstar adhesive and Superflex grout.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

cheers
Matt

 

[AliGage]

Hi Matt,

You seem to have most things covered. But to answer your questions:

If removing the tiles have just removed the skimof plaster in places then your walls should be good to tile onto with a standard ceramic. Just ensure there's no loose or broken skim/plaster still on the walls. You also need to make sure there's no paint remianing or other foreign objects.
Your primer is perfect. BAL APD is exactly what i would use. Use it undiluted and allow 30 minutes to an hour to dry before tiling.
Bal Goldstar would be ok for your walls but i'd recommend SPF instead (single part flexible). A few reasons, you get greater coverage at an extra couple of square metres per bag. But more importantly: With the property only being 8 years old the building is still, settling and drying out. There will be movement in years to come. This is perfectly natural. The SPF will allow a little more grace for this to happen. And to be honest homes aren't built like they used to be.

Your grout will depend on the type of tile you're fixing IMO. If it's a neutral, stone replica ceramic tile i would use superflex only for the colour options (limestone/sandstone etc) I gather it'll be a 2/3mm grout joint? I'd personally spend the extra and get microfex instead.
But i can give you a better opinion/advice once i know what tile your planning to fix.

Good luck, hope this helps.

 

[MattW]

Ali - thanks very much for the reply - very helpful advice which I'll definitely follow.

I'll post back when my sis in law has chosen her tiles.

cheers
Matt