DIY Related: Tiling on plywood wall

[Rover]

Hi guys

I live in a park home. All the walls are plywood and there is some amount of movement possible (Quite thin plywood, similar thickness to hardboard, with uprights about a foot apart).

I want to replace the tired looking tiles in my bathroom from floor to dado height. Can you advise which adhesive to use please.

[tfs]

I wouldnt tile onto these walls as from your description they dont stand up to the job.

[Rover]

The park home is 25 years old and the original tiles are still in place so it's clearly possible, and I presume adhesives have improved massively during those years ..... I just need to know what to use.

[tfs]

Best bet would be an s2 adhesive or epoxy. It is not a good idea in my opinion but as you say they have been up for so long already but I personaly would not do this for someone.

[tfs]

would it be possible for you to reinforce and resheat the walls prior to tiling?

Oh, and welcome to the forum

[aph257]

Are you sure they ceramic tiles and not vinyl look-a-likes?

[Rover]

Definitely ceramic. Bog standard 6" square tiles.
Adding anything to the walls isn't a possibility unfortunately. I know tiling onto these walls isn't ideal ....... but it's the only option

[tfs]

I would imagine that your grout has all cracked and failed on these walls and I think even after using the best of adhesive and smallest of tiles this would continue to happen without proper prep work.

To be honest with you I wouldn't want to tile these walls in this condition and would probs reccomend the likes of multi panel or respitex if sorting out the walls was not an option.

[kevin67]

i wouldn't tile onto something like this as its going to fail. is wet wall or similar not an option?

[kevin67]

oh and

[Rover]

I would imagine that your grout has all cracked and failed

Nope. I've taken some tiles off. I had to use a floorboard chisel & hammer. Each one came off seperately. None are loose. The adhesive (whatever it is) has mostly come off with the tiles.

[tfs]

Nope. I've taken some tiles off. I had to use a floorboard chisel & hammer. Each one came off seperately. None are loose. The adhesive (whatever it is) has mostly come off with the tiles.

Sounds like the grout was holding them together then mate.

Well bonded tiles will break into peices and the adhesive sticks just as well to the substrate as it does to the tile.

[Mike]

i would plasterboard it all. won't be hard to do just screw into the studs

[Brinkley]

Rover most or probably all tilers wouldnt touch this for the reason of being able to give a garauntee on the works.
but ifyou are doing the job try mapei keraquick mixed with latex plus .
use smalltiles tocope with the movement and avery flexible grout good luck

[Rover]

I fully understand why a professional tiler wouldn't touch it ...... and adding plasterboard isn't possible because I've got limited space and the bathroom items only just fit.

What about "No more nails?" Would that work?

[Dave]

Use an S2 2 part adhesive like keraquick and latex plus and then epoxy grout the joints.... that might just hold up...

But it isn't an ideal substrate, so you can only try and see how it goes..

[nybor62]

welcome to the forum , as all comments above , if you intend doing your self then be aware it might fail

[Mike]

plasterboard would only bring it out 10mm each side, can you not afford that? as for no more nails you can't stick tiles with grab adhesives or silicon. no more nails is rubbish anyway. you need to try get a good substrate or you may end up regretting it. the old tiles were only thin and light and it looks like you were lucky they never fell off. the new tiles are probably bigger and heavier

[akinsontiles]

Make sure you allow for movement at the bottom and sides of the walls where they meet other tiles or the wall and fill this with a silicone sealant as it is flexible. If the movement is is great it is possible to fix the tiles with the silicone but don't tell anyone I said this as it is very bad practice

[pjc]

take the advice don't or prepare the the walls properly

[Rover]

Thanks guys. I've taken all the views on board.

[GaryS]

as with all jobs there is a right way and a wrong way to do things it seems some here have forgotten that for years and years before cement boards or other tile backing systems tiling was done onto plywood as a matter of course, use a larger grout join and a flexible addy. if you use the flat of the trowel to back butter the ply before applying addy to the area it will help the addy to stick to the ply also back butter the tiles and it is highly unlikely that they will come unstuck.

[aph257]

Hi Rover, do you want ceramic tiles or something else that does the job? Google Neken, you maybe surprised, i tiled a park home's bathroom last year using them.

[tfs]

as with all jobs there is a right way and a wrong way to do things it seems some here have forgotten that for years and years before cement boards or other tile backing systems tiling was done onto plywood as a matter of course, use a larger grout join and a flexible addy. if you use the flat of the trowel to back butter the ply before applying addy to the area it will help the addy to stick to the ply also back butter the tiles and it is highly unlikely that they will come unstuck.

Ply is still tiled onto these days mate but should not be when its as thin as hardboard as Rover has mentioned. This is why most of use would rather sort out the wall first. Ply aside there will probably be too much bounce in this wall and thin ply can warp easily. I would go as far to say that this sheet of ply was probably nailed on to the stud work (which is probably also very thin)

Regardless of how good a bond you get to the ply the grout may well crack if the wall is as bad as Rover has described.

Sorry for the rant but there seems to be more issues than just tiling onto ply here mate

[Rover]

I think my mention of "possible movement" has been over emphasised. The wall is quite sturdy, but just not as solid as a conventional wall.