Tiling Tips: Is there a weight limit when tiling a wall?

[Dan]

When undertaking any tiling project one of the key considerations must be whether the wall can take the weight of the tiles.

More...

Tiling Tips by TTA.

 

[ythan]

please can you explain the reasoning behind the weight limit? What happens if the limit is exceeded?

 

[AliGage]

Gravity

 

[swanman]

gravity /
/ More info pls

 

[ythan]

so, no-one has any explanation of the reasoning behind the weight limit 'rules'?
some folk should surely know.
the single word answer given so far (ie gravity) is rather trivial......1 out of 10.

 

[Gazzer]

Not sure what you mean about explanation ?

Weight limits for skimmed walls is what British Gypsum say is the max weight that should be fastened to the wall in surface contact before the skim could pull away from the backing plaster or board.

 

[Bubblecraft]

As Neale said above. You exceed that weight limit, gravity takes over. Down comes your tiles along with the wall! Bit self explanatory.

 

[AliGage]

Sorry, i thought "gravity" was a fairly self-explanatory answer. but i've found you a few links:

HowStuffWorks "How does gravity work?"
Gravitation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gravity | Define Gravity at Dictionary.com

Hope this helps.

 

[ythan]

thanks to all for coming back. Just to try to take it a bit further....

Consider the situation where the tiles are first laid on the wall and the adhesive is still 'wet'. If you remove the spacers too early the tiles slide down under gravity to close the gaps but they don't fall off. And the wall doesn't fall down.

So assuming the wall is vertical and tiling is started at the bottom of the wall (i.e. tiles supported on the floor), I'm thinking that most of the weight ( the effect of gravity) will be transferred down through the tiles. The adhesion of the skim is then necessary just to keep the tiles vertical.....i.e. provide side support..... rather than supporting all their weight.

I can see poor quality skim, and poor bedding (& vertical alignment) of the tiles would be important, the heavier the tiles......is this maybe what British gypsum are guarding against?

The current rules are very restrictive, ruling out the usage of most modern larger format tiles, and requiring replacement of the skimed wall?

So what would you do faced with skimed kitchen walls and task of installing 300*600 porcelain tiles?

 

[AliGage]

I personally wouldn't be putting that size/format of tile on a kitchen splashback. However, what is the weight per square metre of the tiles you are considering.

 

[ythan]

kitchen tiles are porcelain 10mm thick, and include one 4.4m long wall, 3.2m floor to ceiling.

 

[AliGage]

And the weight per square metre is...............

 

[ythan]

about 25kg/msq plus addy

 

[Two-Trowels]

Is this formula of 20kg a meter on skimmed walls using a sledge hammer to crack a nut?

I can see the reasoning behind the post by ythan above in as much as the force would be downwards and not sideways.

Has anybody ever seen tiles fall of the wall due to weight issues, tiles that have been adhered properly with a suitable adhesive?

 

[White Room]

Is this formula of 20kg a meter on skimmed walls using a sledge hammer to crack a nut?

I can see the reasoning behind the post by ythan above in as much as the force would be downwards and not sideways.

Has anybody ever seen tiles fall of the wall due to weight issues, tiles that have been adhered properly with a suitable adhesive?

This is a job I tiled and was plastered by a plasterer, not me I might add, I pulled off a tile because it was'nt sitting right and pulled off the skim coat.
It depends how good the plastering is.

 

[ythan]

thanks for the photo, whitebeam. yes, looks like poor plastering - the skim coat looks very thick. Probably even thin tiles would have had a problem here.

i think the photo illustrates the need to check out the plaster for soundness, maybe even do a trial tile fixing to check the plaster. i still think the normally adopted weight rules are over restrictive and can result in a lot of unnecessary cost & work.

the weight rules don't stop problems with poor plastering.

 

[Perry]

Beam did you have to call a plasterer in?

 

[White Room]

No Pete, I had to sort it out:smilewinkgrin:

 

[ythan]

be very interested to learn how you sorted it out.

 

[White Room]

be very interested to learn how you sorted it out.

All the tiles had to be ripped off, the only good thing is the tiles had only just been fixed so the easily removed.

All loose areas of plaster had to be removed and tiles cleaned, the room looked like a bomb site and I spent about 2 hours cleaning up, the customer was'nt impressed.

Pva and reskimmed where was required and left to dry, job delayed waiting plaster to dry out.

 

[ythan]

thanks whitebeam, just another couple queries for learning:

how did you satisfy yourself that other the areas of skimmed plaster were sound?
i assume the tile weight was within the weight rules, but if it wasn't, what would you have then done?

 

[White Room]

thanks whitebeam, just another couple queries for learning:

how did you satisfy yourself that other the areas of skimmed plaster were sound?
i assume the tile weight was within the weight rules, but if it wasn't, what would you have then done?

I scraped another area with a scraper and found that loose as well which I removed, there was some plaster undercoat on the the lower areas which was solid but higher parts of the plastering was suspossingly been pva'ed and skimmed...not on your life.

The worrying part was where the plaster was being pulled off the wall was where the bath was going to be, for some reason the client preferred that the bath was fitted after the tiling.