Getting tile adhesive off a plaster wall
Keefiedee
adhesive off a plaster wall? The tiles were removed in a bathroom
rearrangement before we bought the house, and it would not be
appropriate to re-tile over the same area.
I have tried a steamer, and an orbital sander with coarse paper, but
am wondering about using Nitromors. Can't think of anything else - so
am becoming resigned to a long job, but this group often surprises me
with answers I've never thought of, so any ideas?
TIA
Keith
stuart noble
The hd scraper can be pretty effective for that sort of thing. It's the
impact rather than the amount of pressure, so a tap with a hammer often
helps.
> http://www.screwfix.com/prods/16530/Decorating-Sundries/Decorators-Knives/Heavy-Duty-Scraper
Nitromors should work in principle since it will dissolve the resin that
holds the adhesive together, but it might take an awful lot of it to eat
through ridges of the stuff
Tabby
No, plaster over it.
NT
Jonathan
You can get tile adhesive off old tiles by soaking them in water and
scraping. It might be possible to sponge it and let the water soak
into the adhesive and then scrape it off.
Jonathan
Andrew Gabriel
It will depend how modern a tile adhesive it is. There's pretty much
no chance to get modern adhesive off as it's much stronger and more
resilient than plaster, so the plaster will break away. Very old tile
adhesives were not as strong, but mostly they were still stronger
than the plaster. You will probably need to reskim (unless you are
tiling again, in which case small bits of missing plaster won't
matter, although large areas might).
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
The Natural Philosopher
It simply is not worth even trying.
Hack it off as best you can (or leave it) and re-skim.
> TIA
>
> Keith
The Natural Philosopher
What resin wiould that be?
Most wall tile adhesives are cement or gypsum based.
The Natural Philosopher
Only some cements are water soluble.
Many are not.
> Jonathan
Jim K
wrote:
> > You can get tile adhesive off old tiles by soaking them in water and
> > scraping. It might be possible to sponge it and let the water soak
> > into the adhesive and then scrape it off.
>
> Only some cements are water soluble.
>
> Many are not.
so worth a try then...
Jim K
Andy Dingley
> adhesive off a plaster wall?
Depends on the adhesive. Old adhesives are fairly water soluble,
sufficient that you can soften them with a wet sponge and scrape.
More modern adhesives are often somewhat water resistant (and these
won't soak off old tiles either, unless you use weak acid). These need
to be shifted mechanically. Tile setter's abrasive mesh is quite good,
but you need to make a wooden sanding block for it. Also a "brick
stone", a coarse abrasive block with teeth cut across its face. Your
problem here is that the plaster substrate is softer than the tile
adhesive.
Try soaking. Most tile adhesive is still usefully water soluble (it's
the grouts that are really waterproof).
harry
If it's very hard, 4"/100mm angle grinder. VERY messy business and
the finish you get depends on how careful you are. The diamond coated
ones work best as they don't choke up. Only suitable for smallish
areas, takes forever on big areas.
John Rumm
Yup - dry mix professional adhesives will be cement based, the ready
mixed ones (and the so called tile'n'grout abominations) may be acrylic.
--
Cheers,
John.
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John Rumm
The sharp HD scraper may help, failing that the flat carbide rasp on a
multimaster type tool is very good at this sort of thing - although will
be quite slow for a large area.
stuart noble
Whatever resin it is that binds the aggregates
>
> Most wall tile adhesives are cement or gypsum based.
I think most of the pre-mixed products are based on microspheres but,
whatever the aggregate, it still needs a binder of some kind or it ain't
an adhesive.
The Natural Philosopher
I think you are talking rubbish.
Whether cement and sand is an adhesive or not, its perfectly capable of
sticking bricks together and tiles to plaster.
I've seen all sorts of adhesive, from essentially polyfilla type water
soluble junk, through waterproof acrylic style glues plus filler, right
up to real chemical set cements. And even I suspect epoxies.
Decent grouts are usually some form of cement base.
Only the polyfilla style rubbish is really soluble. Polymer style stuff
acrylics mainly - soften but don't dissolve. cement and epoxies bases
stuff dont even soften.
AND enough water to dissolve the glues that do, will play merry hell if
there is plasterboard, not brick, behind.
The Medway Handyman
> On 25/02/2011 10:36, Keefiedee wrote:
>> I suspect the answer is no, but is there an easy (ish) way to get tile
>> adhesive off a plaster wall? The tiles were removed in a bathroom
>> rearrangement before we bought the house, and it would not be
>> appropriate to re-tile over the same area.
>>
>> I have tried a steamer, and an orbital sander with coarse paper, but
>> am wondering about using Nitromors. Can't think of anything else - so
>> am becoming resigned to a long job, but this group often surprises me
>> with answers I've never thought of, so any ideas?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Keith
>
> The hd scraper can be pretty effective for that sort of thing. It's the
> impact rather than the amount of pressure, so a tap with a hammer often
> helps.
>
>> http://www.screwfix.com/prods/16530/Decorating-Sundries/Decorators-Knives/Heavy-Duty-Scraper
The 6" one is a better bet, thicker blade & longer handle - requires
elbow grease & plenty of spare blades.
--
Dave - The Medway Handyman www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
stuart noble
I'll try that method next time I'm doing some overhead tiling in a
window reveal, and we'll see how good an adhesive it is
David Robinson
wrote:
> In article <2efb4748-6a09-4bfe-8481-65d8d635d...@x13g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>,
> Keefiedee <k.dun...@virgin.net> writes:
>
> > I suspect the answer is no, but is there an easy (ish) way to get tile
> > adhesive off a plaster wall? The tiles were removed in a bathroom
> > rearrangement before we bought the house, and it would not be
> > appropriate to re-tile over the same area.
>
> > I have tried a steamer, and an orbital sander with coarse paper, but
> > am wondering about using Nitromors. Can't think of anything else - so
> > am becoming resigned to a long job, but this group often surprises me
> > with answers I've never thought of, so any ideas?
>
> It will depend how modern a tile adhesive it is. There's pretty much
> no chance to get modern adhesive off as it's much stronger and more
> resilient than plaster, so the plaster will break away. Very old tile
> adhesives were not as strong, but mostly they were still stronger
> than the plaster. You will probably need to reskim (unless you are
> tiling again, in which case small bits of missing plaster won't
> matter, although large areas might).
If you are tiling again, if you're using a cement based tile adhesive
(i.e. powder in a bag, add water - not ready mixed in a tub) then it's
never going to come off cleanly next time either. This means, if you
have a plasterboard wall, you might as well just put new plasterboard
up and tile straight onto that. Skimming it, just to tile over it,
buys you nothing.
YMMV. But for a DIY-er, putting up plasterboard is a lot easier and
quicker than putting up plasterboard _and_ skimming over the top. One
argument for skimming is that tiles could never come cleanly of
plasterboard so next time you'd have to re-board. Guess what? You
probably will anyway even if you _do_ skim it! ;-)
Cheers,
David.
ruthbo...@gmail.com
Muddymike
Mike
tabb...@gmail.com
NT
spuorg...@gowanhill.com
> Maybe that'll finally spur Keith into action after 4 years 5 months
That was a few decades ago though.
Owain