I am taking a week off to tile the en-suite starting tomorrow. My question is can I tile staright onto plasterboard without it being skimmed first? I presume this will make the tiles more difficult to remove if necessary in the future but if that's being done then the whole room will be being redone and the problem doesn't really exist.
TIA
John
A tub of PVA Glue and water mix is an ideal primer for bare plasterboard and it allows you to put many different coatings on top. The mixture seals the porrous surface and lets adhesives and paints dry normally, rather than have the moisture drawn out to quickly by the board and causing cracking or blistering. It's ideal to stop your tile adhesive from drying to quickly and making the tile edges sink in to far and going out of alignment with each other.
That's about it. Seal the surface of the bare plasterboard before fixing the tiles.
Yes. lots opf people say you shouldn't, but its often done and provided the area doesn't get totally soaked and the grout and tiles are waterproof(ed) it works OK.
"John" snipped-for-privacy@idontlikespam.co.uk> wrote in news:blpj8o$ntj$ snipped-for-privacy@sparta.btinternet.com:
John,
I am assuming that the tiling will be prone to splashes or at least condensation?
If you go to the British Gypsum or Kauf sites you will find the advice is to use their moisture-proof board (for which it is probably too late) or to apply a suitable sealer (each has their own) - and this is categorically not PVA. Despite the universal approval of PVA here :-)
As their owns brands are only sold in large quantities (something like 10 litres or more) I was a little stuck and so called both companies. BG were pretty unhelpful. Kauf sort of said, cough cough, Artex sealer if you are not buying their own. So that is what I have used.
Unfortunately, we have not yet put the tiles on - so I can't really say whether it is any good - but it certainly seems to have sealed the board.
Rod
Thanks for that I will seal first. What proportions of PVA/water is needed?
TIA
John
Usually half and half Waterproof PVA to Water mix is enough. Don't let the waterproof bit put you off, it still works. I normally give it a couple of coats with a couple of hours in between each application and then leave it until the next day before beginning the tiles.
I made a shower cubicle this way and tiled direct - including the ceiling
- with no sealer. The tiles have stayed in place for the best part of twenty years. It does have an extractor fan to dry it out after use, though, and the room it's in is always warm.
Just in case anybody hasn't taken this advice to heart, I'd like to reinforce it.
We kept having tiles fall off the walls of the loos at work. The cause was diagnosed as failure to seal the plasterboard. So it's worth making sure you do this step properly.
Barbara
Wonder if the rooms are permanently damp, or an inferior adhesive was used? I've got several plasterboard walls tiled without using PVA and I've not had any trouble - indeed when I removed some tiles in the kitchen when fitting a new window, the cardboard came away with them.
Not, of course, that it will do any harm to use a sealer - I'm just curious.
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