tile on tiles

[spooney55]

Hi there everyone.just been offered a full bathroom tile job, i.e walls and floor ( which are Already tiled).All the tiles seem well stuck down.would it be best to remove all tiles and start again or tile straight onto existing ceramic wall and floor tiles.I am a plumber by trade but tiling has become an add on to my business. all advise appreciated

[jimbob]

Remove all tiles and start from scratch mate. Never know whats underneath existing tiles, not to mention the extra weight involved with tiling on top of tiles......

[david campbell]

Tiles and Adhesive Weight Per Square Metre - THE TILE SOURCE

this should help!
also worth considering how secure the previous tiles are,you are never to know until you strip them off!
at the end of the day you are responsible for the job and if your work should injure somebody then you are responsible

[spooney55]

Thanks Jimbob,seems like the same sound advise as ive got from girlracer.

[365drills]

The only time I've authorised "tiling on tiling" is on the floor.

Had a pretiled bathroom floor and the concensus was that the effort of taking up the tiles which were bedded down onto a cement screed downstairs floor versus kango-ing them up and then disposing of them. It was easier to leave down and tile on.

Of course every time you do it the room gets smaller! - OK so its a silly point but with the floor it raised the bed up another 15mm.

My advice? Even a large bathroom should take no longer than a day to strip with plenty of hardcore sacks and a bolster hammer SDS kango.

As the others have said you never know what you will find. Service pipes, waste and electrics. One plus is sometimes you can expose things that will help your job. In one case we exposed a hidden soil stack which saved a lot of pipe work for the sink.

Grit your teeth then get smashing... Plus its stress relief !

[spooney55]

Thanks dave.the injury to people angle is well worth considering.