On 26 May 2005, Rob wrote

Hi

I'm thinking of having my kitchen updated. All the exposed walls
are tiled but I hate the colour and the design on them so I want
to re-tile the walls.

Ive been told its best to tile on top of the old as they provide
the perfect surface. Ive also been told that old tiles must be
removed first.

Horses and courses, assuming the existing tiles are both sound and
level. Hacking tiles off inevitably means replastering or boarding-out
the wall -- maybe a good purist's route, but a bit of overkill in my
view. I[ve had perfectly good results tiling over tiles. (The only
rule I can think of is a glaringly obvious one: to avoid aligning the
new tiles with the old.)

The main drawback of tiling over tiles, of course, is that you're
making the wall thicker. That's not a huge concern in most cases, but
it can screw up fine tolerances -- like refitting sockets where there's
insufficient leeway in the cabling.

--
Cheers,
Harvey