Okay, I need some good advice from some experts here.

Here's some background:
The house I moved into 3 years ago was remodeled and maintained in
unimaginable ways. The laundry list of problems, botch jobs, hack jobs,
and code violations is a mile long. It's been a long uphill climb for me
and my wife to right the wrongs while redoing the house.

Now we've come to the last room in the house to be redone: the hall bath.
We've decided to do give it a mini-makeover for the time being and gut
everything except the tub and shower. After I removed the 5 layers of
wallpaper and paint and removed the wooden baseboards, it appears that the
past inhabitants put a thick slick of joint compound on the walls and
effectively built the walls out until they were flush with the tile
baseboards (this is what was behind the wood). If I remove the tile, I
will have to end up filling in the gap with joint compound and basically
fixing the wall to make it flush again.

Risking the possibility of perpetrating a hack job myself, my question is,
is it safe to tile over the tile that current exists at the base of the
wall or must I remove it and repair the wall first? Mind you, the previous
owners tiled the floor over the existing tile, and both layers are coming
up (the top layer is coming up all by itself!). It's always been my rule
to never tile over tile, but seeing how, if I do it, it will be on the wall
with no weight on it, it might squeak by as being marginally okay.

Thanks for the advice, folks!

From: C
Date: 11/2/2003 9:46 PM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

Okay, I need some good advice from some experts here.

Here's some background:
The house I moved into 3 years ago was remodeled and maintained in
unimaginable ways. The laundry list of problems, botch jobs, hack jobs,
and code violations is a mile long. It's been a long uphill climb for me
and my wife to right the wrongs while redoing the house.

Now we've come to the last room in the house to be redone: the hall bath.
We've decided to do give it a mini-makeover for the time being and gut
everything except the tub and shower. After I removed the 5 layers of
wallpaper and paint and removed the wooden baseboards, it appears that the
past inhabitants put a thick slick of joint compound on the walls and
effectively built the walls out until they were flush with the tile
baseboards (this is what was behind the wood). If I remove the tile, I
will have to end up filling in the gap with joint compound and basically
fixing the wall to make it flush again.

Risking the possibility of perpetrating a hack job myself, my question is,
is it safe to tile over the tile that current exists at the base of the
wall or must I remove it and repair the wall first? Mind you, the previous
owners tiled the floor over the existing tile, and both layers are coming
up (the top layer is coming up all by itself!). It's always been my rule
to never tile over tile, but seeing how, if I do it, it will be on the wall
with no weight on it, it might squeak by as being marginally okay.

Thanks for the advice, folks!


Sounds to me like your only choice now is to gut the whole shebang and do it
over, correctly. God knows what lies under all that.

Anything less is throwing good money after bad.

On Sun, 02 Nov 2003 21:46:15 -0500, C wrote:

Okay, I need some good advice from some experts here.

Here's some background:
The house I moved into 3 years ago was remodeled and maintained in
unimaginable ways. The laundry list of problems, botch jobs, hack jobs,
and code violations is a mile long. It's been a long uphill climb for me
and my wife to right the wrongs while redoing the house.

Now we've come to the last room in the house to be redone: the hall bath.
We've decided to do give it a mini-makeover for the time being and gut
everything except the tub and shower. After I removed the 5 layers of
wallpaper and paint and removed the wooden baseboards, it appears that the
past inhabitants put a thick slick of joint compound on the walls and
effectively built the walls out until they were flush with the tile
baseboards (this is what was behind the wood). If I remove the tile, I
will have to end up filling in the gap with joint compound and basically
fixing the wall to make it flush again.

Risking the possibility of perpetrating a hack job myself, my question is,
is it safe to tile over the tile that current exists at the base of the
wall or must I remove it and repair the wall first? Mind you, the previous
owners tiled the floor over the existing tile, and both layers are coming
up (the top layer is coming up all by itself!). It's always been my rule
to never tile over tile, but seeing how, if I do it, it will be on the wall
with no weight on it, it might squeak by as being marginally okay.

Thanks for the advice, folks!

In theory it sounds nice and easy to just lay another layer of tile on
top. I am sure that it will come back to haunt you though. I would rip
it all up, and start with a clean slate.

Carolyn

You know the correct answer on this one without asking.



"C" wrote in message
...
Okay, I need some good advice from some experts here.

Here's some background:
The house I moved into 3 years ago was remodeled and maintained in
unimaginable ways. The laundry list of problems, botch jobs, hack
jobs,
and code violations is a mile long. It's been a long uphill climb
for me
and my wife to right the wrongs while redoing the house.

Now we've come to the last room in the house to be redone: the hall
bath.
We've decided to do give it a mini-makeover for the time being and
gut
everything except the tub and shower. After I removed the 5 layers
of
wallpaper and paint and removed the wooden baseboards, it appears
that the
past inhabitants put a thick slick of joint compound on the walls
and
effectively built the walls out until they were flush with the tile
baseboards (this is what was behind the wood). If I remove the
tile, I
will have to end up filling in the gap with joint compound and
basically
fixing the wall to make it flush again.

Risking the possibility of perpetrating a hack job myself, my
question is,
is it safe to tile over the tile that current exists at the base of
the
wall or must I remove it and repair the wall first? Mind you, the
previous
owners tiled the floor over the existing tile, and both layers are
coming
up (the top layer is coming up all by itself!). It's always been my
rule
to never tile over tile, but seeing how, if I do it, it will be on
the wall
with no weight on it, it might squeak by as being marginally okay.

Thanks for the advice, folks!

Well, the only bad things I saw in this case were the floor (tile on tile),
and the walls where they slicked it out to meet the tile along the floor.
I'll post a question outside this thread about unfinished drywall.

The tub and shower are original, so no "improvements" there.. Even with
the mini-makeover, we'll probably gut the whole thing in about 5 years or
so. This quickie job is just to rid of the embarrassment. This is why I
figured that since the 4" tile running along the wall would be okay seeing
how it's going to be put up with mastic anyway.



On 03 Nov 2003 03:13:42 GMT, (HA HA Budys Here)
wrote:

From: C
Date: 11/2/2003 9:46 PM Eastern Standard Time
Message-id:

Okay, I need some good advice from some experts here.

Here's some background:
The house I moved into 3 years ago was remodeled and maintained in
unimaginable ways. The laundry list of problems, botch jobs, hack jobs,
and code violations is a mile long. It's been a long uphill climb for me
and my wife to right the wrongs while redoing the house.

Now we've come to the last room in the house to be redone: the hall bath.
We've decided to do give it a mini-makeover for the time being and gut
everything except the tub and shower. After I removed the 5 layers of
wallpaper and paint and removed the wooden baseboards, it appears that the
past inhabitants put a thick slick of joint compound on the walls and
effectively built the walls out until they were flush with the tile
baseboards (this is what was behind the wood). If I remove the tile, I
will have to end up filling in the gap with joint compound and basically
fixing the wall to make it flush again.

Risking the possibility of perpetrating a hack job myself, my question is,
is it safe to tile over the tile that current exists at the base of the
wall or must I remove it and repair the wall first? Mind you, the previous
owners tiled the floor over the existing tile, and both layers are coming
up (the top layer is coming up all by itself!). It's always been my rule
to never tile over tile, but seeing how, if I do it, it will be on the wall
with no weight on it, it might squeak by as being marginally okay.

Thanks for the advice, folks!


Sounds to me like your only choice now is to gut the whole shebang and do it
over, correctly. God knows what lies under all that.

Anything less is throwing good money after bad.

Tile over the wall base , there will be no pressure on it , use a mastic
not mortar, mortar wont bond

Thanks. I also thought about taking a low-grit sandpaper and scuffing up
the tiles first so the mastic would adhere better.


On Mon, 3 Nov 2003 06:37:42 -0600 (CST), (mark Ransley)
wrote:

Tile over the wall base , there will be no pressure on it , use a mastic
not mortar, mortar wont bond

"C" wrote in message
...
Thanks. I also thought about taking a low-grit sandpaper and scuffing up
the tiles first so the mastic would adhere better.

you can, but mastic is incredibly sticky in itself. there won't be any
pressure for pulling off the tile, so it should stick on a wall just fine
without it.

On Mon, 3 Nov 2003 06:37:42 -0600 (CST), (mark Ransley)
wrote:

Tile over the wall base , there will be no pressure on it , use a mastic
not mortar, mortar wont bond

glue on a nice piece of wood molding, cheaper, looks better.

I've always thought that the tile looked nicer. The previous owners had
wood glued along the base and it looked horrible - not to mention that the
corners were all chewed and chipped up.

Getting back to my original question -

After further investigation, it appears the builders, not the previous
owners, put the tile on the drywall and then slicked it so it was flush.
Have the same problem in the shower around the window.

Oh well, anything will be an improvement over what was there.


On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 15:06:10 -0600 (CST), (mark Ransley)
wrote:

glue on a nice piece of wood molding, cheaper, looks better.

Thanks for the info.


On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 13:42:33 -0700, "Charles Spitzer"
wrote:


"C" wrote in message
.. .
Thanks. I also thought about taking a low-grit sandpaper and scuffing up
the tiles first so the mastic would adhere better.

you can, but mastic is incredibly sticky in itself. there won't be any
pressure for pulling off the tile, so it should stick on a wall just fine
without it.

On Mon, 3 Nov 2003 06:37:42 -0600 (CST), (mark Ransley)
wrote:

Tile over the wall base , there will be no pressure on it , use a mastic
not mortar, mortar wont bond