updating my artexed bathroom with tiles

drummer_666

my horrible bathroom is artexed.

I'm going to update it, doing all the work myself.

I thought about getting a plasterer in to skim all of the walls, and for me to tile two walls, but it will cheaper for me to skim myself and to then tile all of the walls.

For the area where the bath will be I am planning on screwing batons into the walls and then fixing the moisture resistant plasterboard and tiling directly onto this.

I won't be to do this for the whole room because otherwise it would protude above the door frame etc and also eat up the space - the room is only 2 x 2.2m

Does anyone have any better ideas? In terms of what is going to do a solid job and also bearing in mind time.

I'm having conflicting advise on whether I can skim over the artex, just knock off the high spots and tile directly onto this or whether I have to steam and scrape all of the artex off, which I fear will take a long long time.

thank you people

daveyjp

Some artex contains asbestos. Unless you know yours doesn't don't go attacking it. Far better to skim and tile over.

drummer_666

hmmm from what I have found online so far is that it is such a minute amount of asbestos that it may contain, it isn't harmful unless you dry sand it.

and that artex that's been skimmed may not support the weight of tiles properly especially in a wet environment

any tilers our there?

southcoastrgi

it all depends on what tiles you will be fitting ?

nickcc

Had similar problem with bathroom so steamed then scraped off as much artex as possible then tiled on top using waterproof tile cement, no problem since doing it 5 years ago.

drummer_666

i'll be using most likely ceramic tiles prob somewhere in the region of 20 x 40cm

thanks nickcc - did that mean you had to use the cement quite thick if you still had fairly raised edges?

nickcc

No, when I applied steam to the original artex it was easy to scrape the surface until it was level, it also removes the possibile exposure to asbestos dust.

A.Penny.Saved

My sympathy goes out to you for the artex. I've got the damn stuff in 6 places in my house. More rooms have it than those without it.

drummer_666 wrote: »

hmmm from what I have found online so far is that it is such a minute amount of asbestos that it may contain, it isn't harmful unless you dry sand it.

and that artex that's been skimmed may not support the weight of tiles properly especially in a wet environment

any tilers our there?

I asked my local council asbestos disposal department for advice and they told me that it was very low risk and no problem and as long as I keep it damp it wouldn't be an issue.

nickcc wrote: »

No, when I applied steam to the original artex it was easy to scrape the surface until it was level, it also removes the possibile exposure to asbestos dust.

It depends upon the type of artex, how easy it is to remove. The prominent textured stuff comes off quite quickly and easily but the smoother type is a lot more difficult to get off in my experience.

I used a wallpaper stripper to remove some of the artex in my bathroom and it didn't take that long.

Seeing as your bathroom is so small, it shouldn't take that long to get it off.

GreenSheep

If you are very lucky the artex might come off with a steamer.
Lots of heat, gentle peel but no ripping, more heat, gentle peel.

There are products that claim to remove it. Seen it in Screwfix but not used it.

Other than that I would skim the lot but when I had the problem I didn't want to go straight onto the artex as I was worried about it bonding well so I removed loads.

drummer_666

well i have to say i wasn't looking forward to the skimming, as i've patched up in another room and its tricky and takes a while, but as it'll be covered with tiles i wasn't too bothered

having said that, scraping the artex could be more time consuming, but less skilled. at least one and 1/3 walls will be boarded, so that saves some hassle

i guess its a matter of get in there with the steamer and hope it isn't too much of a pig.

it is very textured stuff, very rough so fingers crossed it will not be too bad...

tpt

dont skim over it unless its absolutely solid. if you can get it off with a steamer\hammer and chisel then do so as if it comes off that easily it'll be a bad base for tiles. Save yourself the time and expense if you can.

plasterboard or backerboard (6mm) is a much better base for tiles than skim, in the wet areas make sure you tank first even if you use mr plasterboard.