Prepare Lath And Plastered Walls For Tiling / Tiles

[Spare Tool]

Had an enquiry for a bathroom doing, its half tiled at the moment onto plaster and lats, bath out and shower going in and will be tiled to cieling. The lady is adamant she cant stand the thought of the mess of ripping the lot out down to the brickwork and dot n dabbing. Cleanest plan I can come up with is remove tiles and leave the plasterd walls as they are then find the studs holding the lats and secure moisture board screwing into studs..sound feasible or any better suggestions?

 

[Dan]

Lath and plaster you mean?

Not sure the stuffing for that was meant to carry that much weight. And you might find the wood is a bit brittle now. Must have been there 20 maybe 30 years? Plaster starts to degrade after about 20 years so it won't be strong at all.

 

[White Room]

Got to be honest when that lime mortar goes there's no holding back, obviously an old property...time to rip out IMO.

 

[Spare Tool]

Lath and plaster you mean?

Not sure the stuffing for that was meant to carry that much weight. And you might find the wood is a bit brittle now. Must have been there 20 maybe 30 years? Plaster starts to degrade after about 20 years so it won't be strong at all.

1950's house Dan so its been there a long time, I thought the plaster was bonded onto lats then skimmed over and the lats were secured to 3x2" that were fixed to the brickwork. See what you mean about the wood drying out though, any other ideas rather than stripping the lot off, tbh the job won't happen if that is the only answer but id really like to help the lady out as she's getting to the point she struggles getting out of the bath and really needs a walk in shower area..

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

well with these kind of walls i would drill holes every 150mm at the top put a tube in with a funnel atached the mix unibond 40 60 with water then pour in this soaks in to the back of the plaster and conbines with the laths and seeps through to the plaster surfaces when this drys its hardens you can give it a whack with a hammer no problem it will hold up
was show how to do this by old time plaster .when we had to save a few ceiling in a victoran house took up the floor boards soaked the ceilings they dried up as hard as nails so they could now be replastered .used this on a few bathrooms over years always worked

 

[Spare Tool]

well with these kind of walls i would drill holes every 150mm at the top put a tube in with a funnel atached the mix unibond 40 60 with water then pour in this soaks in to the back of the plaster and conbines with the laths and seeps through to the plaster surfaces when this drys its hardens you can give it a whack with a hammer no problem it will hold up
was show how to do this by old time plaster .when we had to save a few ceiling in a victoran house took up the floor boards soaked the ceilings they dried up as hard as nails so they could now be replastered .used this on a few bathrooms over years always worked

Interesting Ray, what's the mix made up of exactly?

 

[White Room]

usually find the 3x2 were independent, never seen them fixed to brickwork/blockwork...over boarded a few over the years, again to save on mess but the studs were usually all over the place just the lime mortar that straightened the walls.

 

[White Room]

well with these kind of walls i would drill holes every 150mm at the top put a tube in with a funnel atached the mix unibond 40 60 with water then pour in this soaks in to the back of the plaster and conbines with the laths and seeps through to the plaster surfaces when this drys its hardens you can give it a whack with a hammer no problem it will hold up
was show how to do this by old time plaster .when we had to save a few ceiling in a victoran house took up the floor boards soaked the ceilings they dried up as hard as nails so they could now be replastered .used this on a few bathrooms over years always worked

In 43 years I have never seen or heard of that....

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

Interesting Ray, what's the mix made up of exactly?

40% unibond 60% water if its realy dry up the water to 70%

 

[Spare Tool]

40% unibond 60% water if its realy dry up the water to 70%

Sorry if it's a stupid question but unibond??

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

In 43 years I have never seen or heard of that....

we learn some think new every day.well i was young and foolish and decided i would by a 5 floor vitorian town house to renaivate and wanted to save as many ceilings as i could with all the coveing and ceiling roses but the ceiling were to loose to try to plaster in places so the plaster said dont worry this is no problem every ceiling saved and replasterd

 

[Spare Tool]

usually find the 3x2 were independent, never seen them fixed to brickwork/blockwork...over boarded a few over the years, again to save on mess but the studs were usually all over the place just the lime mortar that straightened the walls.

Toyed with the idea of just dabbing over boards but it was obvious the plaster skim wasn't fit to take the weight

 

[White Room]

we learn some think new every day.well i was young and foolish and decided i would by a 5 floor vitorian town house to renaivate and wanted to save as many ceilings as i could with all the coveing and ceiling roses but the ceiling were to loose to try to plaster in places so the plaster said dont worry this is no problem every ceiling saved and replasterd

The trouble with lath and plaster ceilings is once you start to remove a small section the rest wants to follow.

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

Sorry if it's a stupid question but unibond??

well in them days that what you used as it is a wood glue drawn into the plaster by its dry ness combining with the laths when it drys out it hardens and pulls it all toghter

 

[Spare Tool]

Ah right so basically pva?? Christ how much would it take to fill a wall.. can you buy it in 100 ltr drums? how longs it take to cure?

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

The trouble with lath and plaster ceilings is once you start to remove a small section the rest wants to follow.

thats why you dont take bits out .

 

[White Room]

Ah right so basically pva?? Christ how much would it take to fill a wall.. can you buy it in 100 ltr drums? how longs it take to cure?

I'd be trying sbr thinned out...

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

Ah right so basically pva?? Christ how much would it take to fill a wall.. can you buy it in 100 ltr drums? how longs it take to cure?

will cure over night .you dont need to go mad you dont want to flood the place a bucket of water 6tl 4 lt pva will cover 2400mm x1000m

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

I'd be trying sbr thinned out...

should do the same sbr i would go 20% sbr to 80% water as sbr is more dence

 

[Dan]

I can see that going horribly wrong really easily.

What stops it just carrying on down the will to the floors below?!

 

[widler]

i don't really know what to add andy , apart from i think ive walked through the looking glass and stepped into wonderland
To me its either
A- find the studs, sbr the wall, use screws and drywall addy
B- knock it off and redo .

Ray, im not slagging you off mate, your a top bloke who knows his stuff but that sounds plain crazy, gotta be a southern cider drinking thing

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

I can see that going horribly wrong really easily.

What stops it just carrying on down the will to the floors below?!

ok so you work your way along the wall 2 lt at a time get to the end go back to the begining and see if the wall is going darker if not wait a while the dark will show you how far you have gone and what more you need to do

 

[Spare Tool]

i don't really know what to add andy , apart from i think ive walked through the looking glass and stepped into wonderland
To me its either
A- find the studs, sbr the wall, use screws and drywall addy
B- knock it off and redo .

Ray, im not slagging you off mate, your a top bloke who knows his stuff but that sounds plain crazy, gotta be a southern cider drinking thing

So were full circle then...back to where we started, that's an hour of my life I won't get back...cheers Craig, fancy prepping a bathroom for me

 

[Dan]

Is there a bit of a void though? I can imagine water just rushing down the back and never really having time to soak in. I can see how it might be possible on a ceiling (from above it) but can't see the wall being too safe for it. If it runs to electrics somewhere that could be risky.

Might be worth checking this out with the plasterers on plasterersforum.com maybe. See how they'd rescue this old stuff.

Personally I'd rip it out.

 

[Rizzle from the Portizzle]

i don't really know what to add andy , apart from i think ive walked through the looking glass and stepped into wonderland
To me its either
A- find the studs, sbr the wall, use screws and drywall addy
B- knock it off and redo .

Ray, im not slagging you off mate, your a top bloke who knows his stuff but that sounds plain crazy, gotta be a southern cider drinking thing

no problem .cider is for girls anyway .i am very lucky that i worked on many sites .with many diffrent trades and i would often ask a good trades man would you mind if i watched
how you do that .in them days trades were more laid back and would be happy to show you there tricks .spent many hours watching the old timers onsite .and even showed them many things .diffrent world today .