DIY Fun

[Tom]

I had the walls in the hall taken back to bare brick, drylined and then skimmed the other day, the result is very good but is not yet fully dry. I have read a lot on web forums about the prep needed before painting. Some say use a PVA mix, other unibond watered down and other people say 4 parts water one part emulsion. I am swaying towards the watered down emulsion method, what is the general consensus in here?

Another project i will be doing the next few weeks is tiling the kitchen and WC floor. I bought the ceramic tiles today as there was an offer on. In the kitchen under the existing laminate flooring there are quarry tiles that i do not really want to rip up, they are sound and even with no movement but what adhesive should i use to lay ceramics on top of them? In the WC under the lino are vinyl tiles, again the floor is level and even, what adhesive should be used for this application as lifting the tiles looks to be a very messy job!

Thanks for any help given.

Tom

[ericp]

Get a huge roll of heavy guage lining paper from Wickes and line the walls. Then you can do whatever you like to them.

[NT]

quicker

NT

I'm sure regular floor tile adhesive would work fine.

I was surprised to find waterproof walltile adhesive stuck well to vinyl tiles, but I'm sure its not meant for that.

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

This probably came from a TV makeover programme. However, it's wrong advice, and can make the walls impossible to paint, so much so that some paint explicitly advises against it on the tin..

Unibond is PVA.

Watered down matt emulsion is the easiest and cheapest way to go, even if the final paint finish is something else. However, you are suggesting watering down way too much. It will say on the side of the tin how much to water down, but it's typically 10%, and you will want to increase this if the plaster surface has been overly polished. Any more than about 30% and the paint becomes vert messy to apply, and you'll end up splashing it all over the place.

[Tim S]

Tom coughed up some electrons that declared:

I haven't bothered with any of that and the paint I put up seems to have stuck perfectly well.

I have however wirebrushed and SBR'd some polished new plaster in preparation for tiling (because BAL Greenstar adhesive recommended it).

[geraldthehamster]

Seconded.

Definitely don't use PVA. No need to use lining paper either - that's for rough surfaces, not new plaster.

Don't you like quarry tiles? ;-)

Regards Richard