I am tiling my shower/tub. The walls are plaster and are in good shape except for a small area under the faucet where the wall meets the tub. Is it OK to repair the damage area with backer board and then tile the wall? I would rather not tear out the whole wall if it is ok to tile over plaster. What was done before backer board? The previous covering was a fake formica type. Anyone with experience doing this? Any help would be appreciated.
C.
I woulnd't recomend it in a bathroom due to the mositure and humidity, but before I remodeled my kitchen there was tile on the old plaster. I guess it held up well cause I was hell to remove.
Plaster is not good for tile, the life may be 10? -15? yrs. Concrete board is best.
Lemme guess, bathroom originally didn't have a shower, and a previous owner added one on the cheap?
Before backer board, a wet-area tile job was done on a mud bed. Basically like plastering, but with materials similar to outdoor stucco, including the chicken wire. Tile was set in the final coat of mud, over the chicken wire. Tile over plaster was rare, simply because tile was seldom used in non-wet areas back then, other than by rich people.
As long as you have wall open and bathtub out of commission anyway, I'd strip the entire surround and get it over with. Odds are the plaster isn't quite flat, which will make the tile look funny, and a tile wall will be more prone to leaks than the nasty sheet-good stuff you tore down. It'll only be a few hours more work, and a few bucks more (Backer board and mud is cheap), but it will look better, and you will never have to mess with it again. And if this is an outside wall, stripping to studs will also allow you to add/upgrade insulation behind/under the tub, which makes January baths a lot more pleasant.
aem sends....
And another option would be to waterproof the walls to above the shower head. As long as the plaster is sound and strait you'll be ok. You can get a product called RedGuard from Home Depot or another product from Schluter.
Thanks for all of your responses.
C.
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