How to prep painted walls for tiling...

[simbob]

I know you can't tile painted walls, but what would be the best course of action?

Sand it back to plaster?
Key the surface?
Is there a treatment you can apply?
Or something else?

PS reason for question, my belt sander just broke!

PPS Would you use a bag of self mix adhesive if it's been opened for about 6 months (even if kept dry)?

 

[Deleted member 9966]

Hi Simbob

I sanded my bathroom walls as much as I could before tiling them. I didn't get all of the paint off but did get the majority of it. Sanding is however a very dusty, horrible job. I then cleaned the walls down with soap and water, left them to dry, tanked the walls, primed the tanking, and started tiling once the primer had dried.

I'm not aware of any treatments that can be applied to painted walls, but technology moves fast nowadays and maybe somebody else has come across something. Best to get the prep correct now so that you don't have to rectify anything later.

You could always hire a belt sander rather than buying a new one.

Take a look at the adhesive bag and see if there is an expiry date on it. If it's past it's expiry, don't bother using it. It it's still in date, and is still dry, I see no reason why not. I found 2 bags of opened grout in my garage last week, both kept in sealed containers, but both bags were solid as a rock. I'm sure they've been in the garage for 2 years though

 

[simbob]

Thanks for the advice, you think sanding is dusty, i decided to try the planer on a low setting instead, hell of a mess, but cracking on fine. The bag of adhesive is still dry and powdery to the eye, but i'm not sure how it degrades

 

[Del W]

There should be a date on the bag of addy.

 

[Ceramico tiling]

Scrape as much of the paint off as you can(proper scraper blade) without damaging the substrate. If you manage to get allot off, the remaining paint you cant remove will be properly bonded and wont pull off. However on rendered walls you can score with a grinder and diamond blade for good luck. If you are using stone or heavy tiles I would loose the gypsum plaster or overboard

 

[Ceramico tiling]

O and throw away readymix it is absolute rubbish IMO

 

[redlee]

A wallpaper steamer and good scraper also works most of the time on the paint.

 

[White Room]

Don't keep the steamer on the wall to long otherwise the plastered finish may blow as well.....

 

[Burslems finest]

Dependent on how long the paint has been on there, i spead tile adhesive on very thinly with the back of my trowel ( and i mean very thinly) leave it 10 mins then scrape off. Gets most of it off no mither!

 

[Dan]

Dependent on how long the paint has been on there, i spead tile adhesive on very thinly with the back of my trowel ( and i mean very thinly) leave it 10 mins then scrape off. Gets most of it off no mither!

That's a new one for me! Nice trick there.

 

[Peter]

Heat gun works well on vinyl paint.