Split Face Tiles - wall prep?

[AndyMc78]

Morning all,
I have a wall to tile with 600 x 150 split face tiles. At two local tile shops, I was told to remove as much of the paint that was on there as possible and then score the surface to allow for the adhesive to bond well. I spent yesterday sanding it down (what a job that was BTW!) and will score it before I wipe it all down, sugar soap and prime it using the recommended primer for the BAL fibre flex us we have. Then we plan on slowly tiling the wall over a period of days.
Am I missing anything? I was told I didn't need backer boards as it is a block wall and not a stud wall. We were planning to appoint someone to do it for us but since the lockdown and with time on our hands, we are going to do it.
Any final bits of advice would be very welcome.

 

[Boggs]

Are the tiles ceramic or porcelain?
If they are porcelain there is a good chance they will be too heavy for a skimmed wall.

If they are porcelain then over boarding with a thin backer such as Deltaboard, they make one at 4mm thick, or Wedi etc 6mm.

But either way you are going to need to remove more of the paint than you have, I find the easiest way by far is to use a wallpaper stripper, just don’t leave it on one spot for too long as the plaster will blow.

 

[AndyMc78]

Are the tiles ceramic or porcelain?
If they are porcelain there is a good chance they will be too heavy for a skimmed wall.

If they are porcelain then over boarding with a thin backer such as Deltaboard, they make one at 4mm thick, or Wedi etc 6mm.

But either way you are going to need to remove more of the paint than you have, I find the easiest way by far is to use a wallpaper stripper, just don’t leave it on one spot for too long as the plaster will blow.

Thanks for the reply. The tiles we have a these ones....

Sheera Multicolour Split Face Mosaic Tiles - Medium

Our exclusive sheera multicolour split face mosaic - medium is a fabulous undulating 3D natural stone mosaic, which comprises of 6 rows of rustic sheera natural slate in beautiful Autumnal colour tones of rust, ochre, chocolate and black. Perfect for creating an on-trend feature wall in your...

www.stonetilecompany.co.uk

 

[Boggs]

Oh I see, you will need to overboard with tile backer then.

 

[faceman]

Make sure you have some plastic tile wedges and if possible a laser level. If not mark a few level lines on the wall at intervals. Split face tiles aren't perfect in shape and size so you can lose the level easy, hence the wedges here and there.

 

[Cris]

if overboarding with backer board make sure they are mechanically fixed as well as bonded with adhesive…. or you are just adding to the weight on the skim
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….but I think if you get about 90% of that paper off it will be fine to tile on once u have sealed with sbr or similar

 

[faceman]

I've tried a million ways to remove paint and I always end up with my trusty stanley knife at the end scratching the hell out of it to be safe. Sweep then prime.

 

[AndyMc78]

Thanks for that info. We have been hard at it again today and got alot more plasterboard on show now. Keyed the area and will be able to get some more off again tomorrow (God it is messy work and I'm not popular with the wife!). Then we have some sbr to seal it. We are using BAL fibre flex plus as the adhesive as well.

We have discussed only going up 2/3 of the wall as we think it might look quite nice having the contrast and also means the wall won't be carrying quite so much weight.

 

[Cris]

I've tried a million ways to remove paint and I always end up with my trusty stanley knife at the end scratching the hell out of it to be safe. Sweep then prime.

I use a flap abrasive disc on a variable speed grinder...…..with windows open and mask on

 

[AndyMc78]

I've tried a million ways to remove paint and I always end up with my trusty stanley knife at the end scratching the hell out of it to be safe. Sweep then prime.

That is exactly what we have been doing this afternoon 😂. It does a right job on it 👍

 

[Cris]

there wont be a problem with weight on a skimmed block wall....just get as much paint off as u can.

 

[J K Tiling Cornwall]

Just my two penneths worth, but try to do the split faced tile in a random bond so as not to draw the eye to individual tiles. The small wedges are good to take up variation as they can vary in width and being square. But if you haven't got any then use some thin cardboard. Goodluck with the project. All the best

 

[Perfect Tiling]

Those tiles are 8-18mm thick slate....there's NO way I'd be putting them onto that wall without mechanically fixing a backerboard such as Hardibacker to it. A plastered wall will only take 20kg per sq mtr....thats for tiles and adhesive etc. You could have mechanically fixed these without scraping back all the paint. If the tile boxes don't have a weight printed onto them...stick a couple of boxes onto the bathroom scales.

 

[Cris]

20kg max on a skimmed plasterboard wall. No prob on skimmed block

 

[hmtiling]

I'd be mechanically fixing backer boards too. Skimming plasterboard or render ruduces recommended hanging weight 20kg per m2. These tiles are much heavier