any reason why as trawling through forums ive heard people argue about top and bottom but never say why

A personal preference

also when putting up a border would i be right in thinking that if you measured the wall and had the boarder in the 'golden section' as artists call it then it would be more asthetically pleasing?

Golden section, I take you mean the centre

no not exactly dead centre slightly above or slightly below... for some reason in art the eye notices perfection and doesnt like it...

Originally Posted by goatboy

no not exactly dead centre slightly above or slightly below... for some reason in art the eye notices perfection and doesnt like it...

Not in tiling, the eye loves perfection

only with the tiles but the tiles themselves have imperfections... try it.. you have a border exactly half way up a wall then see how it looks :P

especially when the wall is 4 meters high+

might even make a formula for the height of wall hehe

I aim for about 1200mm for the top of the border. Not anal about it, but in that ballpark.

cement render going on the walls tomorrow.. how long should i let that dry before tiling??

tough one goatboy, tempted to say "when it's dry lol" but that's not an answer. If you have access to a dehumidifier, stick that in the room (make sure doors and windows are closed) for 4 or 5 days.

and without a dehumidifier? just havnt got one and i remember at our last rented place the owner did that when he rendered the bathroom and it caused the render to crack as it was drying too fast :S

are you sure it was a dehumidifier? a heater will crack fresh render, (fan or convection), a dh can be hired from HSS or a plant hire depot local to you

positive because I had to empty it about 5 times a day when it was first put on lol

Can you leave the render for a couple weeks for it to cure

yes can leave it for as long as it takes but was wondering how long it takes because with render then plaster on top it takes near to a month+ was wondering if it would be quicker with just a cement render.. and basically you can use a dehumidifier but it cant be in close proximity to the plaster.. same with a heater.. in a room that is 1m x 2m that is near impossible... if you put a heater or dehumidifier next to a wall and that bit dried out faster than the rest then it would cause it to crack.. also wondering if the cement render should have any lime in it to perhaps stop any cracking or is that me just going ott?

I'd use a rendering sand mixed 4.5:1 with cement, rather than using lime, I'd use cementone waterproofer as a plasticiser(no skimming, tile straight onto render)

ok well its definatly not comming off the wall as i said earlier its going to be having a mesh backing bolted to the wall for it to adhere to.. just hoping that is enough not to have to blast the paint off that is behind it.. will be grinding out some of the mortar between the bricks to give it an even better key... only want to be doing this the once lol

Do a scratch coat first on eml then render

the renderer should put a dash coat on first to provide a key for the render at least 95% of the paint should be removed and depending on how thick it needs to be let the render dry slowly some old bricks suck the guts out of render and you need to wet render as it cures norm after one days drying get a bucket and a drinking cup and pour water at the top of render letting it run down face of render also were render meets floor a small v should be left at base to stop any rising damp also dont recomend ataching expanding metal over painted bricks as render will only be held by whatever you use to fasten metal with

well it's done.... decided to do it with limelite instead of sand cement just to make sure about any damp problems... the metal mesh was screwed into the brick using stainless steel screws so really doubt that is going to be falling off any time soon and the limelite acts as an inhibitor to the metal corroding anyway
the bricks in the house oddly enough are very high quality engineering bricks and water just runs off them like water off a duck's back at the base a gap has been left of just over an inch to make sure no damp is sucked up through the floor.. its looking good now apart from one bit where the mesh got caught on the trowel and is sticking out of the render about 2mm lol i'll just snip it off when it dries...

a few hours after it was finished i brushed the entire surface which will give the tiles a nice key to go on to will post back once it is dry and the tiling commences

to Jay's post... if they had tried to get the paint off they would have damaged the surface of the brick which is why in the end they went for the mesh and if the screws dont hold then id be very suprised as the wall would have to come down before they gave way lol

thanks for the update Ed

good luck with the tiling