Hi all - relatively new tiler...

[tilerstart]

Firstly great forum! Really helpful info on various threads stopped me from buying ready mix adhesive for my large porcelain tiles!

As stated in my title, quite new to tiling - managed to tile upper half of bathroom in new build home (builders had done bottom half!) using a leaflet from a well known DIY store - but that was 7 years ago! However, as I quite enjoyed it thought I better have a go in my new house. This time not a new build. Period property so high ceilings and walls not quite square!!

Small bathroom - walls plasterboarded and skimmed with base coat of watered down white paint so all ready for tiling prep.
Floor - Old wooden floorboarded sanded and levelled. Plywood now covers the entire floor.

Found this forum by chance when browsing for tile trim and adhesives onlone - completely overlooked the fact we had bought porcelain tiles so need some advice on best adhesive for floor and wall as so far I've worked out my initial plans would have resulted in disaster!

Do we need to prime the walls 1st?

Also having some trouble sourcing a transition strip from tile to wood floor on landing - any ideas?

Any help fully appreciated!

 

[Gazzer]

Hi and welcome to TF.

Why the base coat of watered down paint ?

Dont tile direct to ply wood flooring IMO!
Just how thick is this ply anyway ?

Transition strips easily available from any good tile store.

 

[tilerstart]

Hi and welcome to TF.

Why the base coat of watered down paint ?

Dont tile direct to ply wood flooring IMO!
Just how thick is this ply anyway ?

Transition strips easily available from any good tile store.

Hi,
Cheers for the reply!

Was advised that we needed to seal the fresh skim...sounds like we got it wrong or at least that piece of advice does not apply to bathroom where we going to tile!

Not sure how thick ply is - will tiling onto ply affect durability of the tiles? We have screwed it down in a tight grid format and thought it would be fine as long as we prepped the wood properly. Any suggestions on an alternative? The wooden floor underneath is not great TBH which is why we sanded to level it up.

Tried a couple of tile places today and they said that tile to carpet was most common type of transition strip..one guy seemed to think I had gone mad when I asked for a transition strip! Did try and explain what it was but he said they didn't do them!! :yikes:

 

[Gazzer]

Transitions > Ranges

 

[tilerstart]

That's great - thanks for the link!

 

[Alan.P]

You'll have to remove as much paint as possible, nearly all of it, but what tiles are going on the walls firstly ?

If the floor is not sound you risk cracking tiles, best bet would be to remove the floorboards, 15mm minimum WBP ply and a backerboard on top of that.

 

[tilerstart]

Porcelain tiles 30mm x 600mm - only tiling small area round a bath.

Could I sand off the paint? Don't want to ruin my lovely new skim as the rest of the bathroom is going to be painted!

 

[Gazzer]

Either sand off the paint or try wetting it with a sponge then rub. You might find that it comes off easy like this did ....

 

[Alan.P]

Porcelain tiles 30mm x 600mm - only tiling small area round a bath.

Could I sand off the paint? Don't want to ruin my lovely new skim as the rest of the bathroom is going to be painted!

Yes you could sand it off, it may even wash off !! When you say a small area, what does that entail, I only ask as you're going to be borderline if not over the weight limits for skimmed walls.

As for the floor, any thoughts on my earlier comments ?

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

:welcome:to the forum

 

[tilerstart]

Will probably wash off as used 50/50 paint and water.

Tiling round window and bath - bath under window, tiling ends of bath to ceiling, L-shaped so 850mm one end and 750mm the other, window takes up most of the wall behind bath so tiling reveals too.

As for floors, floorboards are original and had only ever been covered with vinyl so great condition and have now levelled off with floor sander. Not sure whether worth getting backerboard for such a small floor area 2m2 - tiles are 45cm x 45cm??

Thanks for all your replies so far - really helpful! Perhaps I won't have it finished by the end of half term after all!

 

[Bubblecraft]

Hi & welcome to TF

 

[Ian]

Welcome along to TF.