Is it necessary to remove old adhesive?

[adgog]

Hi guys,

Apologies in advance if this has been done before but I've had a look through the forums and can't find a great deal on this.

I'm re-tiling my bathroom. Two walls are external, tiles came off ok, down to plaster, filled in a few small patches, no major trauma. Two walls are plasterboard, old tiles came off easy enough but the old tile adhesive remained. This stuff is rock hard, I've tried scrapping it off but it isn't easy and seems a little unpractical to proceed with this given the surface area. So i popped into my local Topps today to get some advice, the guy suggested just tiling straight over it.... 'you can get away with a lot nowadays with modern adhesives' and all that kinda stuff. Initially I though that sounded pretty good but I'm a little uneasy about it. Is this ok to do? or should a really try to remove all the old adhesive? or even replace the plasterboard?

I'd really appreciate some advice as I'm just getting into tiling.

For info, these plasterboard walls are not where the bath is, the bath is on an external wall. I've got 300 by 400 ceramic tiles, was going to treat the walls with BAL primer and use bal single part flex.

Advice most welcome..

kind regards,

ad

 

[White Room]

How thick is the old adhesive on the plasterboard and is it a dispersion or powdered cement based

 

[adgog]

Old adhesive is between 1 and 2 mm. I'm not sure how to tell if it is dispersion or powdered cement based.

I do know it is about 30 years old though, and held up 6inch ceramic tiles.

 

[doug boardley]

as whitebeam, it really depends on what type of adheive has been used. If you have a wallpaper steamer, you could try steaming a patch off. If it comes off with the steam it'll be dispersion adhesive imo and not suitable to tile over. If this is the case, rather than faff about trying to remove adhesive, I'd quite simply replace the plasterboard

 

[aqua blue]

Personally, I couldn't bear tile over old adhesive, right or wrong.

Perfect job perfect substrate. Plasterboard or Backerboard.

Cut tiles, not corners! :yikes:

 

[adgog]

Thanks for the advice doug. Think i'll replace the plasterboard.

 

[marke]

If youir gonna replace mate think i would be advising replace with backer boards rather than plaster board, better in long run and no more hassle to do , good luck

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

As above, I would recommend backer-board if in wet area. But if you use plasterboard, don't skim it just sbr primer. Good luck