Hi All
Hoping for your thoughts
Been taking the tiles off today from a 20ft long bathroom that was planned for starting tiling on Monday.
The previous tiler had dot and dabbed the entire bathroom and in areas the tiles were about 10mm off the wall.Not possible to tile directly onto the old plaster as the walls are very uneven.
For reasons cannot overboard and the customer is totally understanding in that it needs skimming/levelling before i can tile.
Tonight he has a plasterer(mate of plumber)coming round to quote for the work.
The plumber is sure if his mate can skim on Saturday we should be fine to carry on Monday.
This seems very quick to me.
Been looking at previous posts and should i work on this 24h drying per mm,or is there any other way or should a couple of days be fine?
The plumbers a funny one,cannot understand while i'm using cement adhesive when his mate would use tubbed and so on.
Have no experience yet on deciding drying times while also holding off a guy who seems to want to get in and off.
Any views appreciated
Cheers
Kev

If you can't overboard and the walls have to be skimmed, you will have patches that will take longer to dry (due to varying thickness of skim).

I would suggest that a heater is placed in the room to help speed up the drying but I wouldn't expect to be tiling for at least a week after skimming.

in my opinion kev, skimming it will not get the humps and bumps out, or dry in time. Can you not strip the old plaster off and dot and dab plasterboard on to tile onto?

I'm with doug on this

have to agree best take of the plaster and reboard. quicker for you and customer.
cheaper for customer or should be and if you can save them money you have more chance of reccomendations from them as an honest guy.

Using a heater to dry out plaster is not the best way to dry it, to force dry the plaster skim may indeed crack and release from its bond on the wall (not always so but has been known) better to let the plaster dry naturally and wait to do the job. Remember that the plaster has done his job and client will be happy with him, it then becomes your responsibility when you start the job, if something does happen then you know that all will say "It was fine before the tiler started"
Patience is the virtue in my opinion. Good luck.

I see what your saying Doug regarding skimming making know differance.
The plumber explained to the customer his mate would have it flat.
I don't know enough on plastering to query him.
Regarding re-boarding/overboarding the customer is keeping his old bath and if it was overboarded,plus with a tile it would create a small overhang and i don't think he would be able to turn the taps.
Also should have mentioned the 2 long walls were divided half by tiles and half paint by a very old ornate rail the customer has stressed he wants and doesn't want it damaging.
As like the bath if overboarded plus a tile under the rail it would stand out.
Chieslling off the plastering as you guys say then reboard does make sense but nervous in case brings these rails down and how big a job is taking off plaster around baths and large areas.
Hope i make sense
Kev

Update on this bathroom.
Stood my ground when the plasterer came round explaining skimming would make no differance,I put a 10ft baton along the walls and they were even further out,up to 18mm hollows.
The plasterers replies were,the hollows were within British tolerance,he'd seen lot worse in new houses and generally all tilers have to accept at times you have to dot and dab.
I mentioned flaws of dot/dabbing,amount of adhesive,safety,boarding out,etc and said i wasn't prepared to do the job.
Intially the customer gave him the job to skim but rang the next day,apologised and said he'd seeked further advice and was now having it boarded out by another guy whose taking the bath out to do behind and when he explained this to the plumber he was cut off while explaining there'd now be a slight delay to prep the walls.
Kev

Well done Kev, good that you stood your ground