Wall problem behind tiles - Urgent Please Help

Bettyboop

Hello Everyone,

We have started the task of removing old tiles, wooden panels and basically the entire bathroom to replace it with a new one. However, this morning the section of the tiles behind the bath revealed a completely rotten portion of the wall. It smells terrible and the previous owners seem to have covered this up by using expanding foam and masses of silicone. It looks absolutely terrible! How do I go about drying this out? what can I use to treat the wall? after this is it just a case of plastering it all again? There are gaps/holes on this bit of the wall and because it has got wet it looks like rotten hay!.

I would appreciate your expert help with this.

Thank you all.

Canucklehead

Good morning: You have possibly uncovered strawboard. It is compressed straw, 3-4 inches thick...we have seen it in a 60s bungalow...in fact most of the internal walls were made from this material. If this an internal or external wall? More investigation needed:think:

HTH

Canucklehead

Bettyboop

Hi, thanks for replying. It is in fact an internal wall and this house was built in the early 80's.

What do I do?

Canucklehead

Hi again...As it is an internal wall and if it is a partition wall, I would remove the board and replace with ply (or you could use aquapanel http://www.aquapanel.com/ )...makes a sound surface for tiling and aids structural integrity. Strawboard (aka Stramit) is still manufactured today...see more here http://www.stramit-int.com/index.html

HTH

Canucklehead