Tile over existing tiles

[Merlin]

What prep work apart from cleaning do you have to do when tiling over existing bathroom wall tiles?

[Malc]

I just tiled over some tiles on a hearth and have done no prep other than a thorough clean. I'd buy a good tile adhesive though, B&Q's own brand does stick quite well but I think Polycell may be a bit better.

[Marvin]

Why would you tile over tiles???

[Malc]

A. It's a nice flat surface B. I don't like the existing tiles C. It really is too much work to take the old tiles off, flatten the surface and retile. D. The new tile are perzackerly the same size as the old ones so I have a ready made cutting guide. E. A proffessional tiler living a few doors down from me recommends it as a labour saving device and he does bloody good work.

Next?

[Paul Andrews]

I think our tiler scored the tiles first to help give a better key. He did a great job - the tiles didn't comeoff. The only thing that was a pain was that with the extra tile thickness, we had to chose bath taps that could be turned without touching the wall - clearance was that tight.

[Paul Andrews]

Our tiler was wary that we may need a plaster skim if the tiles were removed.

[Uno-Hoo!]

About eight years ago I re-tiled my bathroom over the top of the existing tiles. The bathroom was already fully tiled from floor to ceiling but in nasty cheap small tiles. Apart from giving the old tiles a thorough cleaning with a slightly abrasive kitchen cleaner to remove any traces of soap or greas (particularly in the shower area) I did nothing else. I cannot remember what brand of tile adhesive I used but it was nothing special. The job was entirely successful and the new tiles have remained in situ without any problem.

I'm now contemplating another bathroom make-over and am just wondering if I dare tile over the existing tiles again! As you have already pointed out - removing old tiles is a very messy job and invariably removes huge chunks of plaster as well.

Kev

[Paul Andrews]

Further to my earlier post about having our tiles retiled over some old ones because we thought the plaster would be damaged:

On our bathroom makeover last year I decided we would strip back the tiles to the plaster, simply to get back some of that room the double layer of tiles and tile cement was taking. I was expecting a replastering job, but decided to try and avoid that if I could. I bought a heavy-duty scraper with a re-inforced handle (you can hit it on the end of the handle with a hammer) to remove the tiles. The tiles came off beautifully and in two days I had cleared the bathroom of two layers of tiles, taking care not to dig into the plasterwork. There were a few small holes to be filled but nothing much - the tiles came off really well using this tool (basically put scraper at edge of tile and use hammer to wedge scraper between tile and plaster, edging the tile away from the wall). I was really impressed by my job and how good the walls were.

We could have tiled straight onto the cleared walls, except that... ..the new tiles were larger than the old ones and were poreclain requiring a particular tile cement and very flat walls, so clean as they were, the smallimperfections that wouldn't have bothered other tile/cement combinations forced us to have a skim put on after all. Our tiler showed me that with one tile placed on a particular wall, the curvature of the plasterwork caused the tile to rock like a see-saw and with the very precise fitting requirements, he couldn't correct for this by having a thicker layer of tile cement.

Lastly, a small heads-up for the OP. I know he was planning to use the original tiles as a guide. He'll be able to do that for vertical levels, but horizontally he won't be able to make that work because the increased wall thickness will mean that at the corners he will lose some room because of the thickness of the new tiles and cement. You can't just tile one tile over another and get exactly the same result.

Paul

[Uno-Hoo!]

You've convinced me to remove the existing double layer! I wasn't entirely happy at the prospect of having three layers of tiles and, as the bathroom is not a particularly large one, it was reducing in size with each layer!

Uno-Hoo!

[John]

Possibly Agree, but I would check it all over with a known straight flat edge.

OK

OK again

Wouldn't do that if it were me, I would make the new grout lines different from the existing.

Why ask on here then if you have a pro' on hand?

Next!

HTH

John

[Paul Andrews]

Yes, I understand what you mean. A particular probl;em for us was that our replacement bath was very slightly bigger, so it was really important to get as much space as we could, otherwise the tiles would be a big problem around the bath. I can't guarantee as good an outcome for stripping the tiles as we had - it's all down to the plasterwork underneath.

In my case I struggled to remove the first few tiles - they were a devil to get off. once I had access to an edge so that I could slide the scraper under the edge of a tile, I was off.

Just to convince you it's probably a good idea - the first retiling we did was as a result of installing a power shower. Within two weeks our tiles started falling off - revealing tiles underneath! We tiled over these with waterproof cement and there was no problem. When removing that area that had originally come off I discovered that the tiles nearest to the wall were no longer attached to it and that a significant area was two layers of tiles and tile cement standing without attachment to the wall. It was a surprise..

The scraper I used came from Wickes. They have metal ends to the plastic handles. I chose the strongest I could find - it's about an inch or so wide at the end and very strong - the blade is pliable but quite thick.

Good luck,

Paul

[Malc]

I didn't! I was replying to the OP, try to attribute things properly next time.

[Malc]

Bad form but I was replying to a response to the OP.

[Merlin]

Thanks for all the replies but I had started to remove some tiles from a wall which had to have them removed and they nearly fell off themselves. It seems the original tiler (the contractor who built these houses) used as little adhesive as they could to lay the tiles on the wall. I have now decided to take them all off rather than tile over them as I have no confidence on the existing tiles will stay on.

[Uno-Hoo!]

Thanks for that Paul - I'll obtain a similar scraper to the one you used.

Kev