Very quick tiling question

[David WE Roberts]

If anyone can respond before I commit:

I am redoing a half tiled wall.

The original wall had the lower half rendered and then tiles were fixed with big dabs of mortar. The upper half was skimmed with plaster. The tiles were proud of the plaster.

At a later date the upper plaster was skimmed again to bring it level with the lower tiles, and the whole lot was tiled over floor to ceiling.

I have cleared back to the original render (lower half) and plaster (upper half).

I intend to tile floor to ceiling.

My quandary is now if I should skim the lower half to match the upper half before tiling, or if I can make up the few millimetres with a thicker layer of tile adhesive.

With tile cement at £25 for a bucket, the plaster could work out a lot cheaper, but I will have to wait for the plaster to cure before I tile, and I need to get this done this weekend.

Anyone else solved this problem recently?

TIA

Dave R

[.]

if you replaster then the wall will be flat which will give a better end result. if you don't replaster you'll have to make as good a job of it as you can. personally, I'd prefer to start with a nice flat surface. the time 'lost' waiting for the plaster to dry will be offset by the comparative speed you'll be able to tile at and the overall finished result will be better, imo.

[David WE Roberts]

Thanks - however flatness is not an issue because the original render, although not at the same level as the plaster skim, is still flat albeit a bit pitted.

The choice really is between a thick layer of tile cement and a thin layer of plaster then a thin layer of tile cement.

I think I will experiment with a thick layer of tile cement, but be prepared to rip it off again if it doesn't work.

Cheers

Dave R

[Dave Liquorice]

Depends on how consistent you can be when squidging the tiles onto the thick cement. It will quite tricky not to have them a bit higgly 'd piggldy.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I agree. Re skim it..using battens as a guide. You don't need a perfect smooth finish, just and even flat one.

[Phil L]

1 bag of drylining adhesive and as many p-boards as you need, wait a few hours for the adhesive to set, tile directly onto the p-board, it flatter, faster, cleaner, cheaper and better than any other method.

[Stuart Noble]

Using adhesive as a leveller can get pretty expensive if the walls are pissed, and you don't usually find that out till you start doing it