Tile bathroom with Travertine

[Peterc2609]

Hi all,

Bought a load of travertine to tile my bathroom Walls and floor.

I've taken all Of the old cheap ceramic tiles of the wall and underneath is the tile adhesive on plasterboard.

In some areas the plasterboard has come away exposing the brick.

If I was to just get a mate to skim the Walls to make them straight and smooth would it be ok for the tiler to tile the travertine straight onto, or would I need to ply the wall or something?

 

[Peterc2609]

Ok, bathroom half gutted.

Glad really as the boards were coming off in my hand!

Can I attach backer boards straight onto brick? Do I just screw in with Rawl plugs?

Can I buy backer boards in b&q or somewhere similar? Do they come in different thicknesses?

I'm trying to keep price down so don't want to pay someone for something I can do, I.e. Prep the Walls.

Peter

 

[PHG Dave]

You could use Marmox boards and stick them straight onto the brick using cement based tile adhesive - easy to apply,fully waterproof, insulating and capable of carrying 62kg per m2

 

[kilty55]

dot and dab the walls peter with plasterboard is a cheaper option that tile backer boards

however if you havent done it before maybe your tiler could help you out have you discussed any of this prep work with him

 

[Peterc2609]

I haven't yet no, I wanted to get it all ready myself and get it sorted in a big bang!

I don't want that big bang to be all my travertine in the bath in a few weeks though when it falls off!

So I think I will stick with the backer boards... Just need to make sure the boards go on straight though, or can the tiles be straightened with adhesive when they are put on... The bricks are not exactly tidy.... It's an old house.

 

[kilty55]

hi peter,if the walls are badly off the tiler with end up using more adhesive....

adhesive is expensive

dot and dab the walls is my option as its a cheaper installation for you and the walls can be striaghtened by doing this method

you cant dot and dab backer boards on im afraid

so imo paying a plasterer or a tiler who are competent in this will actually save you money

its really only a days work to dot and dab a room

or you could of course set a new thread on how to dot and dab a room and im sure you will get lots of good advice on here if you are to do it yourself

 

[Daz]

I've only skimmed this thread but IMO unskimmed plasterboard will still not be strong enough for natural stone plus 4kg / sqm for adhesive & grout. Overboard with tile backer boards including mechanical fixing before continuing.

Good luck,

Daz

 

[Peterc2609]

Daz,

Will it be ok putting the backer boards onto uneven brickwork?

What are mechanical fixings?

I did think about plasterboards, but the fact that someone said they could support 32kg and the tiles would be 31kg scared me a bit, so think I would prefer the backer boards.

 

[Daz]

Hi Peter,

My preference would be to "solid bed" fix the backer boards, i.e. trowel the brickwork with rapid set flexible adhesive using a 12mm square notch trowel and fully bed the backer boards. Then plug and screw the boards at 150mm centres to be sure.

Daz