Hello,
I have bought some large (300x600x6mm) wall tiles and was wondering which adhesive would be best. I have used ready-mixed adhesive and grout all-in-one successfully before on smaller tiles but I know this is no good for big tiles. They are going above my new hob so I really want them to stay on the wall! Tiling on to new plastered wall which has had 2 coats of emulsion.

Thanks!

hi and welcome to the forum, do you know how heavy the tiles are per m2, when tiling on to plaster you can not exceed 20kg per m2 including the adhesive and grout, and its not a good idea to tile on to emulsion.

Thanks for your reply, I'll check the weight, they seem quite heavy. Is there something else I should treat the surface of the wall with?

6mm ceramics should be fine on a plastered wall, whether they are big or small tiles they will still weigh the same per square metre. Got to admit though, it does sound quite thin for such a large tile, you sure they are 6mm thick?

You deffo need to remove the emulsion... and in such an area i would say the tiles will be fine if they are ceramics.... you need a C2TE adhesive, this will give plenty time to work with it and then you can use a flexible grout .. colour to suit tiles..

As above, remove the emulsion, check the weight and use a standard setting cement based adhesive

Thanks very much for all replies. The thickness is actually 9-10mm, was guessing yesterday as at work! Does this sound ok?

If I remove the paint do I just tile onto plaster or do I have to treat the wall with anything else?

Ta.

I think with 9/10 mm thick it will be close or over the weight limit.

Plasterboard can carry 32kg per square meter. That includes the tile, the adhesive, and the grout, not just the tile. So take everything into account. You'll need to remove the paint as said. Else you're just sticking the tiles to the paint, and the paint doesn't carry much per square meter as it's not meant to, it's just paint.

Plaster can carry even less weight, only 20kg per square meter, so make sure it is all plasterboard. Sometimes external walls are rendered and skimmed, this would make those walls weaker when it comes to carrying weight.

9 or 10mm is about right for ceramic of that size, but it is of the heavier ceramics. Floor tiles are often just 10 - 12mm when ceramic or porcelain and they don't go much thicker than that. So you're on the top end of the weight there.

It might say on the box how heavy they are for freight reasons. And usually a box is about a square meter. If not it'll say what coverage is in a box so you can work out the per meter weight.

Thanks very much.

I am a bit worried now as the wall is already plastered (skimmed over rough wall after wallpaper stripped) and the kitchen fitted. We were just going to tile straight on so I am glad I asked this question, this is all news to me!

Does this mean there is a risk that the plaster will just pull away from the wall if the tiles are too heavy?

Is there any way round this?

Thanks again.

Yes the plaster could fail. The tiling is only as good as the substrate that it is fixed to.