What Is My Wall Made Of???

[cheesecake]

Hi there

I'm hoping some of you lovely people can help me.

I'm wanting to tile 3 walls in my bathroom, above the bath. I have bought a tanking kit, as I intended to do a belt and braces job. The trouble is, I don't know what my walls are made of/covered in. Sounds silly, but I always believed it to be woodchip paper, which I had planned to removed, but when I began removing it last night, it appears it isn't wallpaper at all!

I rang the manufacturer of the tanking kit and he advised to not use it. Fair enough. But I still would need to know what on earth my walls are covered in so I know how to prepare them for tiling.

I will add a picture, but to describe too; the walls look like woodchip paper, with irregular bumps and lumps all over. The lumps are hard and no regular size or patterning. Behind the bathroom radiator I had a sneak peek and it is very brown/red colour, but much rougher texture and almost spiky.
One of the pictures shows what happened when I got through the white layer of paint and then assumedly the 2nd layer (blue underneath)

Hopefully this all makes sense to you

So, how would I be best to go about preparing this for my tiling?
It's a bathroom so I'm assuming waterproof adhesive and grout?

Thank you very much for any help. Very much.

 

[Dan]

Not sure what that is and can't tell easily on my phone I'll have a look via a laptop later.

As for adhesive and grout. Use cement based.

Why did the manufacturer say not to use the tanking? Because we don't know what the substrate is?

 

[cheesecake]

Not sure what that is and can't tell easily on my phone I'll have a look via a laptop later.

As for adhesive and grout. Use cement based.

Why did the manufacturer say not to use the tanking? Because we don't know what the substrate is?

Hi lovely and thank you. They said they would need the walls back to plaster or you know, what the wall was made of, as, if the tanking kit is on 'something' other than the very wall-wall if you get me, then if that 'layer' fails then the whole tanking membrane and all my tiles would fail in one go and sort of slip off. They want it back to the bare material the wall is made of I mean. Sorry, a) it's early and b) I'm a woman, thus, useless

 

[Dan]

I see I see.

We have some awesome women tilers on here. Don't knock yourself ;-)

If you jab a screwdriver through the lot can you get to plaster or plasterboard? Any screws you can unscrew to take a look?

 

[cheesecake]

I see I see.

We have some awesome women tilers on here. Don't knock yourself ;-)

If you jab a screwdriver through the lot can you get to plaster or plasterboard? Any screws you can unscrew to take a look?

Well, when I got through the blue paint, I 'think' the pinky/beige layer is possibly what you are after. It feels very hard and is similar to the stuff behind the radiator which hasn't been painted.
Aha! Genius Dan!! Just the toilet roll holder was screwed in, so I just undone that..... seem the pinky layer is the last one, looks a bit like brick? Does that help? It's definitely solid under the last paint layer though looking at it.
You're a star!

 

[cheesecake]

Well, when I got through the blue paint, I 'think' the pinky/beige layer is possibly what you are after. It feels very hard and is similar to the stuff behind the radiator which hasn't been painted.
Aha! Genius Dan!! Just the toilet roll holder was screwed in, so I just undone that..... seem the pinky layer is the last one, looks a bit like brick? Does that help? It's definitely solid under the last paint layer though looking at it.
You're a star!

Sorry, I don't know what plaster or plasterboard are

 

[Dan]

I think you've found plaster.

Sounds like it probably is chipboard wallpaper that's very old and had a few layers of glossy emulsion that's gone hard.

Might be wrong I can't see the pics very well.

You might need to remove the lot. How hard is it to get off?

 

[cheesecake]

I think you've found plaster.

Sounds like it probably is chipboard wallpaper that's very old and had a few layers of glossy emulsion that's gone hard.

Might be wrong I can't see the pics very well.

You might need to remove the lot. How hard is it to get off?

WooHooooo yeah plaster! (ahem) Not too hard to be honest, take a while but then I don't work due to illness so I have the time If that's the case then I imagine I'd be good to use the tanking? I'd much rather take a month and do a good job than rush it and do a carp one
Thank you sooooooo much,

 

[cheesecake]

WooHooooo yeah plaster! (ahem) Not too hard to be honest, take a while but then I don't work due to illness so I have the time If that's the case then I imagine I'd be good to use the tanking? I'd much rather take a month and do a good job than rush it and do a carp one
Thank you sooooooo much,

Hey again,

Well, the wall is bare. Have attached a pic again, but it appears to be concrete? Is grey. Is that ok to tank on or tile on? Best advice? Thank you.

 

[Dan]

I think that might be render or something that's had plaster on top of it.

You could do with getting anything loose off the wall, and getting all the wallpaper off, then assessing the situation. You might end up over-boarding the walls with plasterboard so you have a good surface to tile onto. If you're only tiling a couple of walls and not all the way up, you might want to get a plasterer in to skim the walls once you've got a good surface for them to plaster.

 

[White Room]

Looks like render to me....

 

[Dan]

Am I right in thinking you can't tile straight to render like that?

 

[White Room]

I would just tap around to see if there is any hollow spots and if solid would tile directly to the render after priming as it's old.

 

[Dan]

Fair enough so it's alright tiling to it. I thought it was too crumbly/dusty as a surface to tile to. I guess priming it solves that.

 

[White Room]

If it is crumbly then no, some walls were rendered with soft sand which has no surface strength.

It needs to be removed.

 

[Spare Tool]

Hey again,

Well, the wall is bare. Have attached a pic again, but it appears to be concrete? Is grey. Is that ok to tank on or tile on? Best advice? Thank you. View attachment 73167

I'm guessing money may be tight but just get a tiler in, if nothing else to advise..

 

[Just Rizzle]

don't like to alarm you but it could be artex which years ago this was used to texture walls and in the artex ASBESTOS was some times used. I hope im wrong but you may want to get it tested

 

[Dan]

Never thought of that.

 

[cheesecake]

Never thought of that.

Hey lovely people
It appears it was some kind of textured paint, something the housing associations use to cover up the fact the walls are lumpy bumpy I'm told We got one wall down to the original material and it was what looked like breeze block material, grey and coarse.
In the end my health has dictated I can't really be up for a huge job at the moment so am going to save the pennies and get 'a man in' hehe, a professional, once I have saved enough.
Thank you all for your help, ideas, support and concern, I shall certainly use this forum to see if there is a local who can price me a job once I'm in the situation to do it.
Thank you Thank you Thank you
All superheroes!

 

[Dan]

Glad we helped.