Hi all,

After removing some old tiles from my bathroom wall there are some cracks and small holes in the plasterboard and solid walls. My tiler said it will still be ok to tile onto but I could use some unibond mixed with water to help prep the wall as best as possible ready for him to start.

Can anyone give me any tips please on the variety of unibond to get and what kind of consistency I should be looking for when mixed?

Is there any other things I could do to help the walls?
Is it best to sand back the walls after?

Thanks,

Do not use any pva, acrylic sealers, Mapei G, Bal apd or sbr which is more of a polymer..allways read the bottle.

hi are the walls in a wet area (shower)

how big are the cracks/holes? deffo don't use a diluted (or even undiluted) unibond (pva) to prep the walls

Right ok thanks for help guys.

The holes (not many of them) are very small and there are just some cracks over the walls (plasterboard one side and solid the other). The room is a bathroom above bath but no shower.

If you can give me any product names I can hopefully apply to the walls just to help them as best as possible that would be great.
Would something like 'unibond' tile primer not be any good?

Kind regards,

Whitebeam has listed some suitable primers in post 2 Rich. I don't touch anything by unibond.

Originally Posted by doug boardley

Whitebeam has listed some suitable primers in post 2 Rich. I don't touch anything by unibond.

Thanks for reply;

I can't make this out though

"Do not use any pva, acrylic sealers, Mapei G, Bal apd or sbr which is more of a polymer"

I was under the impression that those were the ones I should avoid?

Mark is just saying not to use pva Rich, all the others are fine to use as primers

Originally Posted by RichTile

Thanks for reply;

I can't make this out though

"Do not use any pva, acrylic sealers, Mapei G, Bal apd or sbr which is more of a polymer"

I was under the impression that those were the ones I should avoid?

whitebeam is saying "don't use pva", but the others ("acrylic sealers, Mapei G, Bal apd or sbr which is more of a polymer") are suitable primers.

Got it. Just doing some research into Bal apd / sbr and now that post makes sense.
Cheers guys,

The only other question I have is what I should use to fill in the small cracks and holes,,,standard pre-made flexi filler ok?

Originally Posted by diamondtiling

Mark is just saying not to use pva Rich, all the others are fine to use as primers

Thanks again,
So after I apply the solution (which i believe to be blue in colour) the walls will be ready for the adhesive (bags)? Tiler is starting in a couple of weeks, I take it the primer is not the sort where you have to leave a small open-time?

i'd defo tank the area around the shower area.

Originally Posted by aph257

i'd defo tank the area around the shower area.

The area with the damaged walls is in the bathroom. There is a separate shower room (with no damage) which I have purchased a mapei shower-proofing kit for,

I just need to get the walls in the bathroom in as best a state as possible.

If it's plasterboard I would actually cut it all out and replace the areas to be tiled with Aqua Panel. B&Q do Aqua Panel.

If you do this then there is no need to apply any product on top of it whatsoever for the bath area.

With all due respect RichTile.

If

a) your Tiler has suggested using p.v.a / unibond and
b) asked you to do the prep work for him

He's not up to much in my very humble opinion, I don't like putting people down where I haven't seen or met them or seen their work, but it would be an hours work tops to prep the wall if it's only minor damage, I wish I could get away with it lol, the thing is, if we ( tile fixers ) do the preparation we know it's right, no comebacks, many times we have all had the calls that the builder says it's all ready and you get there and it's a shambles, ok, that's a bigger issue than yours but, he should still be doing it in my book.

Deffo cut out old plasterboard and replace with new!

Here is an example of a splashback