Bal bond.

[wivers]

I was at a job yesterday starting to tile a bathroom. The bath wall origanally had a 5 tile high splash back around it, and was painted upwards from that. I checked to see if the paint was sound and it looked to be, so i began to apply Bal Bond to the walls with a roller. I left this for around 30 minutes or so until the walls felt dry and tacky, and then began to put the tiles up. I got about 7 tiles along when had to pop a tile off to pack it out slightly as the wall deviated a bit, but as i took the tile off the adhesive peeled off with it like it was on a sheet of rubber. I checked the other tiles and they did the same, when i rubbed the wall it was like peeling off copydex. I then tried keying up the walls a bit more and tried again this time when i had to take a tile off all the old paintwork came off with the tile and a thin coat of the plaster! I removed all the tiles and checked all the walls again when i realised the plastered walls had blown in places all over the bathroom. I cleaned up and waited for the customer to get home, told him about the problem, etc and gave him the name of a plasterer i use as i wasn't willing to tile onto the walls as they were. I'm sure when i priced the job i checked for any problems like these so i have no idea what happend, what caused the Bond to not soak in? what caused the plaster to blow? and what made the paint suddenly want to fall off?

Help please.

[Dan]

If the walls have been painted for a while and the plaster is older it's lost it's strength. Due to it being by the bath I guess the steam has eventually affected it.

I'd have tried to pull off all the tiles, scrape away the paint, then probably dot and dab plasterboard on just the dodgy wall, then re-tile.

The bond wouldn't have come in to it yet, I think the bond would have helped the adhesive stick to the surface of the PAINT which means when you touched the tile once it's started to go off you'd have pulled off the paint.

This is something you'll see a lot of on painted walls. You can't always score them to bits and just go for it. If the plaster is really old (I think after 20 years it's at it's peak and then anything there on it's lost it's strength) you'll find it's worth knocking off and dot and dabbing. Or as you did, get it re-plastered. The thing is, plasterboard can carry more weight than plaster, plus if you're doing the dabbing you're getting some extra work in the job, and you do it in your own time (you're not waiting for the plasterer to arrive and complete it for you).

I'm sorry to hear that you had to come away from the job, it must have been a real **** day for you.

In your favour, you can't always tell what the condition of the plaster is in if it's painted. When you next price up a similar job say to the customer 'providing you're definitely having this job done, mind if I just chip at some plaster to check it's strength and bond?' (unless you find out it's newish plaster). External walls are usually the worst if the plaster is on render. I've pulled off an old tile before near a basin and nearly the whole wall fell on me and the basin was about 3 inches away from the wall when I'd got all the bad off. I dabbed plasterboard on and before long I was tiling the wall. It can be quicker to dot and dab some bad walls than try to make it good and tile it as it is.

[tjsmiler]

Dan, i know this is a bit late mate but if you were in a bathroom that had originally been plastered which was still bonded well to the walls, but the wall itself was bowed (inwards) too much to be able to pack the tile out would this wall be worth or ok to dot & dab?

Thanks bud