hey guys
new to the forum and to some extent tiling to , i went to price a job today and all the walls had like corigated paper on .the guy said he cant get it off and i had a go and neither could i he said the other tilers said all you have to do is score it all over and pva and then you can tile straight ontop can you do this ???

also i dont know why but i keep measuring in feet instead of metres probably cause i a bit thick when i comes to maths find it hard to work out my square metres :-s i just feel like ive lost my confidence a bit with only being 19 and starting out in tiling on your own is hard i even rang around 30 local tilers to see if i could get any expierence with them and no noone is taking anyone on so just gotta go do it myself.
please guys can you help also if i get the job going to use ready mix adhesive can anyone recomend any i did use maipie once and it was really good .

It seems all the other tilers didn't know what they were talking about or the HO was making it up. Never tile over a paper backing, it has to come off i'm afraid. It sounds like somebody has wallpapered directly onto plasterboard and as such it woun't come off. It quicker and easier to replace the plasterboard.

Also PVA shouldn't be used in tiling, you want an SBR at the very least. How big are these tiles and in what room are they going?

im confused to what it it is on the walls its like its a artex wall but the bits that peel look like paper it all onto concrete walls , also having a major problem with working it all out into square meetres as i went and measured in feet and inches i need to get back to him with how many square meetres it is and a quote to do it its given me a big headache but was reffered by a mate cause there his mates who want the job done

if you know what it is in feet & inches, why not just convert it to cm/metre and then work it out from there... there's plenty of online conversion sites

try Online Conversion - Common Length Conversions

working out the area is the easiest part, do a search in google for 'inches to cm' or 'feet to meters' it will come up with some online conversion calculators, imput you measurements and hey presto it will give you the area in meters.

EDIT: or just use Martyns link

First leason is you should always take a camera with you when quoting, it's very easy to forget certain details after you've left and can be a bit of a pain to make an excuse to go back.

How did you try to remove the paper? did you just picked at it? or did you wet it first?

i have to admitt i only picked at it but i did say to him have you tried steaming it off and he said that he had tried that but it wasnt moving , it was just frustraighting because every room had been replasterd walls and ceilings and they only just done the cieling in te bathroom why not do the walls aswell

Does the customer have the funds to do the job right or do you get the feeling he might be after cutting some corners trying to save money?

The reason for it not being plastered could either be A) The plasterer refused to plaster over the paper or B) the HO told him not to because he thought it could be tiled on to. Which ever way you look at it, the paper will have to come of, that is either by stripping it or replacing the walls. If it's a plastered wall I'd be very surprised if this paper couldn't be removed, hard work maybe but should still come off one way or the other

i have to admitt i only picked at it but i did say to him have you tried steaming it off and he said that he had tried that but it wasnt moving , it was just frustraighting because every room had been replasterd walls and ceilings and they only just done the cieling in te bathroom why not do the walls aswell

ok so i woked it out to 10 metres not sure how i square it unless ive made a mistake

hey guys ive got all confused ive worked it out i have a box room two walls are 5f8 wide by 7f 5 high and the other two are 9f5 wide by 7f5 high how do i get that into square metres cant think what to put into the converter

it's roughly 22sqm, not allowing for wastage, you could normally add around 10% for wastage so that would be 24sqm BUT it does depend on the size of tiles and setting out, so you could get away with less or much more

width of room x height of room
the minus any large fixtures and fittings that may be in the room so windows for example width of window x height of window (this figure can then be deducted from the total area)

so my floor area worked out to 18 f so i put 18f into the convertion chat came up with 5.486 4 meter so it that roughly 5.5 metre squared ?

roughly yes, but what is in this room? a bath? a shower?

To be honest I know you're keen but it sounds like you might need a hand with this room. It's a pointless exercise working out how many tiles you need until you can first work out how to prepare the substrate. Please don't score the walls and apply PVA as the job may come back to bite you.

hey thanks for the advice i had a chat with the client and there going to go with another tiler who is going to pva the walls so its up to them . cheers for all the help

Another job that'll come around far sooner that it should be, and I bet it gets done correctly the second time round.

Originally Posted by Dan

Another job that'll come around far sooner that it should be, and I bet it gets done correctly the second time round.

Amen to that Dan.

sounds like you had a narrow escape , its hard when your starting out as your not sure about things and everyjob means a lot to youas you need the work to build your reputation, tbh most on here would have walked when the client refused to pay to strip the walls and as for pva , its a no no

he will get the job he deserves

stick around and you will learn a lot on here

tradetiler sell metric only tapes , im surprised you can use imperial at such a tender age, I was brought up on both but only use metric