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British Standard BS5385 is the code of practice for fixing wall and floor tiles and is the basis for all tiling works carried out. In part 1 where reference is given to tiling to a plaster background it states
"The plasterwork should be firmly bonded to its background and be sufficiently strong to support the specified tiling. The maximum weight of tiling which should be supported by a dry, firmly adhered plaster background is 20 kg/m2"
This statement should clarify the matter in terms of what is included in the weight restriction. There has been discussion over the definition of "tiling" in the above phrase, and it has been agreed that this refers to the tiles and adhesives.
TTA has published a guidance note on tiling to gypsum plaster. Click here to read full details.
The point that tilers need to understand is that the use of a skim coat will reduce the weight limit on plasterboard, for example, from 32 kgm2 to 20 kg m2. I agree that the comment in the Thistle sheet could be seen to be ambiguous, so the advice to any tiler is to use British Standard BS5385 as their "bible".
We would suggest you also let your forum readers know about the guidance document we published, which is freely available on our website
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