Getting tile adhesive off a plaster wall

[Keefiedee]

I suspect the answer is no, but is there an easy (ish) way to get tile adhesive off a plaster wall? The tiles were removed in a bathroom rearrangement before we bought the house, and it would not be appropriate to re-tile over the same area.

I have tried a steamer, and an orbital sander with coarse paper, but am wondering about using Nitromors. Can't think of anything else - so am becoming resigned to a long job, but this group often surprises me with answers I've never thought of, so any ideas?

TIA

Keith

[stuart noble]

The hd scraper can be pretty effective for that sort of thing. It's the impact rather than the amount of pressure, so a tap with a hammer often helps.

should work in principle since it will dissolve the resin that holds the adhesive together, but it might take an awful lot of it to eat through ridges of the stuff

[Tabby]

No, plaster over it.

NT

[Jonathan]

You can get tile adhesive off old tiles by soaking them in water and scraping. It might be possible to sponge it and let the water soak into the adhesive and then scrape it off.

Jonathan

[Andrew Gabriel]

It will depend how modern a tile adhesive it is. There's pretty much no chance to get modern adhesive off as it's much stronger and more resilient than plaster, so the plaster will break away. Very old tile adhesives were not as strong, but mostly they were still stronger than the plaster. You will probably need to reskim (unless you are tiling again, in which case small bits of missing plaster won't matter, although large areas might).

[The Natural Philosopher]

It simply is not worth even trying.

Hack it off as best you can (or leave it) and re-skim.

[The Natural Philosopher]

What resin wiould that be?

Most wall tile adhesives are cement or gypsum based.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Only some cements are water soluble.

Many are not.

[Andy Dingley]

Depends on the adhesive. Old adhesives are fairly water soluble, sufficient that you can soften them with a wet sponge and scrape.

More modern adhesives are often somewhat water resistant (and these won't soak off old tiles either, unless you use weak acid). These need to be shifted mechanically. Tile setter's abrasive mesh is quite good, but you need to make a wooden sanding block for it. Also a "brick stone", a coarse abrasive block with teeth cut across its face. Your problem here is that the plaster substrate is softer than the tile adhesive.

Try soaking. Most tile adhesive is still usefully water soluble (it's the grouts that are really waterproof).

[John Rumm]

>>>>>> Nitromors should work in principle since it will dissolve the resin

Yup - dry mix professional adhesives will be cement based, the ready mixed ones (and the so called tile'n'grout abominations) may be acrylic.

[John Rumm]

The sharp HD scraper may help, failing that the flat carbide rasp on a multimaster type tool is very good at this sort of thing - although will be quite slow for a large area.

[stuart noble]

>>>>>> Nitromors should work in principle since it will dissolve the resin

Whatever resin it is that binds the aggregates

I think most of the pre-mixed products are based on microspheres but, whatever the aggregate, it still needs a binder of some kind or it ain't an adhesive.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think you are talking rubbish.

Whether cement and sand is an adhesive or not, its perfectly capable of sticking bricks together and tiles to plaster.

I've seen all sorts of adhesive, from essentially polyfilla type water soluble junk, through waterproof acrylic style glues plus filler, right up to real chemical set cements. And even I suspect epoxies.

Decent grouts are usually some form of cement base.

Only the polyfilla style rubbish is really soluble. Polymer style stuff acrylics mainly - soften but don't dissolve. cement and epoxies bases stuff dont even soften.

AND enough water to dissolve the glues that do, will play merry hell if there is plasterboard, not brick, behind.

[The Medway Handyman]

6" one is a better bet, thicker blade & longer handle - requires elbow grease & plenty of spare blades.

[stuart noble]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'll try that method next time I'm doing some overhead tiling in a window reveal, and we'll see how good an adhesive it is

[David Robinson]

If you are tiling again, if you're using a cement based tile adhesive (i.e. powder in a bag, add water - not ready mixed in a tub) then it's never going to come off cleanly next time either. This means, if you have a plasterboard wall, you might as well just put new plasterboard up and tile straight onto that. Skimming it, just to tile over it, buys you nothing.

YMMV. But for a DIY-er, putting up plasterboard is a lot easier and quicker than putting up plasterboard _and_ skimming over the top. One argument for skimming is that tiles could never come cleanly of plasterboard so next time you'd have to re-board. Guess what? You probably will anyway even if you _do_ skim it! ;-)

Cheers, David.

[ruthbowyer100]

A sharp, wide chisel worker for me getting old tile cement off plaster wall.

[Muddymike]

Scraper blade in multi tool worked well for me.

Mike

[tabbypurr]

Maybe that'll finally spur Keith into action after 4 years 5 months

NT

[spuorgelgoog]

I'm still waiting for my father to finish the bookshelves he started when I was five.

That was a few decades ago though.

Owain