DIY - Filler or Plaster - Old Walls

CNSam

Hi folks,

Im after a little advice. We've started renovating our old stinky shower room and ripped everything out. The walls used to be tiled up about halfway, these have since been removed and the adhesive has painstakingly been removed too.

As we are on a bit of a budget and it's not the biggest room, we are trying to do this ourselves. With this in mind i'm at a bit of a halting point with the walls. So the walls have a number of holes in and some of them are quite substantial, it's a 1907 built house so expected it to be honest but have taken the plaster back where it sounded hollow behind (debonded?). You can see the images here:

My answer is, what's my next step, do I use filler across the whole of the wall such as "Easi-Fill" or do I go down a bonding plaster route and then a skim finish? We are wanting to retile the walls so the finish doesn't have to be amazing, just somewhat reasonable to apply adhesive too. Also where (if at all) does PVA glue/priming come into it?

There seems to be a lot of conflicting ways of doing what we are trying to achieve so just trying to ask directly.

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated!:beer:

-taff

I had a few holes in the flat walls when I did something similar, I filled with exapnding foam, then skimmed over the top. Pain to cut it semi flat though.

jk0

That doesn't look too bad to me. I would just fill any holes with the new tile adhesive when applying to the wall.


Apply maybe 1sq metre at a time and comb with 10mm trowel. Do similar to backs of tiles, then press down on face of tiles with a spirit level when you have a few up.

FreeBear

You have a mix of gypsum plaster (the pink stuff) and cement render - It looks a right mess, and I'd be tempted to knock it all off back to bare brick.

As this is a bathroom and subject to high moisture, forget PVA. Use either SBR of acrylic primers such as https://www.toppstiles.co.uk/tprod3072/bal-primer-apd-25ltr.html - Give the walls a good coating, and then skim with a cement compound with added fibres. Slap it on to the walls and then run a straight bit of timber across the surface to remove the high spots. It just needs to be flat & level rather than dead smooth & polished. Alternatively, fix some Hardibacker boards to the walls and tile directly on to those.

Being a 1907 build house, I would imaging that it has solid brick walls. I would normally recommend using lime, but it is pointless under tiles. In addition, with the cement & plaster that is already on the walls, the damage has already been done.

CNSam

Thanks for the responses guys - @FreeBear, thanks for the added insight their, I did wonder myself about the render/plaster situation along with damp etc.

Think i'll be certainly looking into what you suggested - so it's not a case of just buying EasiFill and off I go?

Do you have any recommendations on cement compounds?

FreeBear

CNSam wrote: »

Do you have any recommendations on cement compounds?

A 5:1 mix of plastering sand & cement with a generous helping of fibres - http://www.tdpltd.com/our-products/concrete-and-screed-fibres/ - Add a splash of plastiser, and don't try to build up too thick a layer in one go. You only need to build the surface up so that it is nearly flat. It doesn't have to be perfect as the tile adhesive will be going on top.

konark

CNSam wrote: »

My answer is, what's my next step, do I use filler across the whole of the wall such as "Easi-Fill" or do I go down a bonding plaster route and then a skim finish?

If that's your answer I don't understand the question.

armchaireconomist

You could slap some powder filler in the gaps to fill them out, and "smooth" out with the tile adhesive, but personally i'd had that off and dot and dab some moisture resistant boards - will help with moisture if nothing else and give you a better surface to work with