Tiling over wallpaper- is it a bodge?

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:35:03 -0800 (PST), Jim Walsh hurriedly dipped his quill in the best Quink that money could buy:

I would do a proper job and get the wallpaper off. When you think about it, if you leave the paper on, that is all that is holding the tiles on.

Mike P the 1st

Mike P the 1st wibbled on Friday 26 February 2010 08:41

And paper fails when damp. This is a bathroom...

Go on, you know it makes sense...

Given tile adhesive is usually water based there's a good chance it will loosen the paper when you apply it. So remove it first.

tiling is just a thing wall of bricks, that uses the wall behind to stop it buckling.

If the paper is sound, then it will be fine. If its not, or water could get behind, and lift the paper, then its should be removed.

No their actual weight holds them where they are. That's all that stops the thing buckling, but the Euler* loads are very low.

• google Euler slender column, Euler buckling etc. One of the few times when eigenvalues have some practical use.. :-)

So what? it will dry out again.

I've done it on the past. Works fine. Just be careful. Its not ideal, but its not a huge problem.

Since you can never really tell if the paper is sound without taking it off, it's best to do just that

No surprise there, then. ;-)

What's the huge problem about removing the paper?

If the tiles are over a bath, shower tray, or a wash hand basin, I would go right back to the plaster.

I didn't have the tools and experience to do our bathroom renovation and the plumber went through 3 baths. First one was chipped and only discovered when my wife cleaned it after initial instalation, the second was chipped by a tile not sticking to the wall and the third one is still in the bathroom. :-)

Dave

Wet the paper with a sponge and leave for ten mins, then wet it again and leave it for another ten mins.

If the paper has bubbled or come loose then it will need to come off, if it hasn't, it doesn't.

tiles are stuck to paper all the time - plasterboard is just 2 sheets of paper seperated by 12mm of plaster.

Dont upset the assembled masses with facts..

Yes, but it's not held on by a paste that goes all soft and squishy when it gets wet.

If this were true, why would you bother using tile adhesive? Surely you'd just lay consecutive layers on a thin line of grout. Is this how you did it? Did you at least use stretcher bond?

On Sat, 27 Feb 2010 10:01:02 +0000, Mike Clarke gently dipped his quill in the best Quink that money could buy:

True.

It is scary the "advice" one gets on here sometimes. If a job is worth doing and you want it to take the rigours of everyday life and time, do it properly ! Why do people try to convince themelves there is a shortcut to everything. Probably they are the ones who are the first to point their fingers and cry" cowboys" when they see a bad job done that they would not attempt..

Mike P the 1st

And the adhesion is uniform, unlike most wallpaper I've ever stripped.

On Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:57:32 +0000, stuart noble gently dipped his quill in the best Quink that money could buy:

Quite .... so best get the paper off.

Mike P the 1st

That's stupid advice, again, from the world expert in stupid advice. Wallpaper will, in the majority of cases, part company with the wall when tiles are applied using tile tile adhesive because the water in the tile adhesive will soften the paste holding the wallpaper in place. If the wallpaper is a vinyl or other water-resistant paper then the tile adhesive isn't going to provide a good bond anyway.

It's only laziness that stops people removing wallpaper, so the OP should simply get on with it, remove the wallpaper and do a proper job.

And you've tried this technique yourself have you?

Plasterboard is designed to have wet finishes applied to it. The adhesion between the "paper" and the gypsum is much stronger than that of wallpaper to plaster.

It cant be. You hold that title.

How many times have you actually tried it?

If it were that easy to get wall paper off a wall, how come the standard speedy way is a steamer and a scraper. not just a wet sponge and pull it off?

Have you actually tried it?

Why not rebuild the whole house while you are at it?