Help! Need to prep walls prior to tiling. Complete newbie.

[helpinmancheste]

Hi, okay, so in order to keep costs down I agreed to prep the walls of my bathroom prior to a proffessional coming in to tile them. However when I was taking off the original tiles it's removed patches of the skim coat underneath. (This has mainly happened on the brick walls, the plasterboard ones seem fine.) Now I'm not sure what to do in order to get the walls ready to tile onto? I've heard varying advice about using PVA or primer or tanking walls of the bath/shower, but I'd really appreciate some step-by-step instructions as to what to do.
Should I remove all of the skim coat and try to re-skim it? Or can I just patch the areas that have come off? Once the skim coat is sorted out do I now need to prime the walls?
I'm so confused, any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[peteablard]

How much skim has come off, is it small areas or a lot of it?

 

[helpinmancheste]

How much skim has come off, is it small areas or a lot of it?

Lots of little sections (less than 5x5 cms) have come off. The only large section is around 10x20cms

Thanks!

 

[Alan.P]

What tile type and size are you having ?

 

[beanz]

I've got to the point where i have to insist on doing the prep myself. Whenever the customer does it, it always costs me time.. How flat are the walls? Have you put a straight edge/level on them? The holes sound pretty small, but how many are there? Might be easier if you put pics up.

 

[kilty55]

hi there,first of all can you plaster? the answer is probs going to be no why dont you call the tiler whos doing the job and ask his opinion on what the prep should be,might be a good 1st port of call