Removing Wall Tile Adhesive

[Ro]

hi,

I know this has been dealt with on previous occasions, but I wondered if there were any new perspectives.

I have removed tiles from my partition walls (plasterboard) of my kitchen, but am left with ridges of adhesive. I had thought of tiling over the adhesive, but it's likely that some I may be tiling both previously tiled areas and new areas, so there would be an uneven finish.

I have heard of various options including steam, heat guns etc. Which of these are suitable for plasterboard, and which tends to be the most effective?

Thanks,

Ronan

[PoP]

I did this a couple of days ago. I used a wallpaper steam stripper, and it does the business because it turns the adhesive into a more jelly-like substance (it softens it enough to come off cleanly).

However I've got some more to do soon and I've just invested in a Bosch electric scraper to see if that might help matter along. The steam stripper was a very slow option to use, and required 24 hours afterwards to allow the wall to dry out thoroughly.

A heat gun might do the job, but I was slightly fearful of it catching the paper on the paper wall alight so I didn't go down that route.

PoP

If you really must use the email address provided with my newsreader please be aware that the email is processed with spamcop. As a result your email to me might be treated as spam!

[Christian McArdle]

I did a plasterboard bathroom wall in about 10 minutes with a belt sander. It was waterproof adhesive. No damage to plasterboard, unless you count torn paper. The wall was previously only half tiled, so I had tiled and non-tiled areas to cover. Getting it smooth was a priority.

Christian.

[PoP]

A long time ago I used a belt sander for this purpose, and I recall being inundated with very fine dust that got literally everywhere.

Did you use a dust extract facility on the belt sander by any chance?

PoP

If you really must use the email address provided with my newsreader please be aware that the email is processed with spamcop. As a result your email to me might be treated as spam!

[Christian McArdle]

No. Open window, dust mask and masking tape on the door/frame join. It settled pretty quickly. It wasn't like using an angle grinder on concrete blocks or anything.

Christian.

[Toby Maxwell-Lyte]

I had to do some chasing out in old lime mortar walls for light switches with an angle grinder, that was horrible...

[Charles Gregory]

I found that the wallpaper steamer that I was using to take the wallpaper off the top-half of the wall seemed to work well in softening the tile adhesive on the bottom half. Then I just scrapped it off with a scraper.

Got to be careful not to lift the plaster off too though with the steamer...

[Marc Lee]

I've had pretty good results with the Bosch power scraper, have to be careful that you don't take chunks out of the wall! I found it was pretty good at fetching off the blown plaster as well!

It leaves a tingling sensation in your hands by the end of the day though.

Good luck Marc