Tiling bathroom walls with travertine...

[pavsideris]

Hi all,

I've ordered some travertine tiles 610 x 406 x 12mm, to tile our bathroom floor & walls.

How can I ensure they will stick to the walls properly? How do I know the walls are good enough to take the weight?

They are thermalite block walls, rendered with a 12-15mm thick layer of mortar, with a mm or two of plaster skimmed over the top. They were previously tiled, but i've removed those already. Here's a photo...

 

[Andy Allen]

Walls would have to be re boarded with either plaster board or cement boards depending on the weight of the tiles..

 

[White Room]

Have you tapped the walls to see if the render is hollow...thermolites joints are susceptible to cracking and show through to the finished plaster.

 

[pavsideris]

Hi, sorry for not posting back, not sure what happened.

I ended up boarding the walls with hardiebacker - very good decision there, as would have been a disaster otherwise! Take note anyone else reading this!

Only problem was that the boards weren't completely level, as in they didn't lie completely flat and flush against the wall, partly due to uneven walls, but also as the backer boards aren't 100% flat. This in turn made tiling very difficult in some areas - any tips on how to overcome that?

Other regret is not putting levelling compound down on the floor before laying waterproof matting. I assumed the floor was level enough to not bother - big mistake! I've managed to work round it, by building uneven areas up with tile adhesive,but not an ideal job, and not a perfect finish.

 

[Time's Ran Out]

How did you fix the Hardibacker boards?

 

[pavsideris]

With 9x 80mm fasteners per board and three lines of Gripfill on the back to act as a filler.

That was as per instructions. Also phoned tech support who confirmed.