Painting over tanking

[newreno]

I hope this is the right section... It's not about a wet room (or even tiling directly...), but hopefully someone here will know the answer.

We're renting a place that gives us free rent in exchange for renovation work. The owner remodelled the bathroom on a structural level before we came in, so we had a basic plasterboard canvas. They also tanked around the shower and bath, including up the walls with those units.

I've now finished tiling the walls and would like to paint above the tiling, but the tanking above the bath goes above where the tiles end. I guess I can't paint directly onto the tanked area? What would you suggest as a workaround? Lightly sanding off the tanking material? Putting a very fine layer of finishing plaster over the top and then painting on that? Something else?

Thanks lads...

 

[White Room]

Why not tile to the ceiling ???

 

[newreno]

It's not my place and I'm doing the work myself. No need to run up extra cost and time investment on someone else's account... The landlord is happy to have only the minimum done around the bath and shower, i.e. a good amount of tile above both topped off with a neat trim. The rest will be painted in a clean white.

 

[Qwerty]

What make of tanking? Any photos?

 

[newreno]

It'll almost certainly be a German brand. It's like a muddy brown in colour. That's really vague I know... I'll see if I can get some shots if you think it'll be useful?

 

[Qwerty]

Only to see the texture really. My choice as Mark said would be to tile it to ceiling, but failing that you may be able to skim over it.

 

[newreno]

It's quite grainy. It almost feels like sandpaper when you run your fingers over it.

Sanding it down lightly isn't an option then? I could probably do a very light skim myself but it wouldn't be my first choice unless essential! But much quicker and cheaper (for me) than tiling to the top. There are also tiles on two other walls for the toilet, sink and towel rail (it's a strange shaped bathroom) so it'd look strange to tile to the ceiling on the bath and shower walls but not on the others, as well.

 

[White Room]

If it's got texture like sandpaper then you maybe better giving it a skim over but just noticed your in Berlin so don't know any products they use over there.

 

[newreno]

Great, thanks for the help. Will the plaster stick to the tanking, or will I need to prepare it in some way first?

I'm still not 100% on why the sanding wouldn't work though because the tanking seems almost like a layer that could be rubbed off... If I can get back to the original plasterboard then I'll be laughing... But I'll go with the wisdom and consider the skimming option as the next best thing!

 

[White Room]

You could try some very course sand paper first and see if that would break down the surface of the tanking...