I'm about to fix ceramic tiles on a wall previously painted with Dulux
kitchen emulsion. I've been advised to remove the emulsion before tiling.
The top coat of tough emulsion peels off easily after heating it with a
steam wallpaper stripper but the underlying coat of mat white emulsion
diluted 50% with water is much more tenacious, Is it OK to tile over this
or should I scrape it all off?

--
Mike Clarke

Mike Clarke wrote:
I'm about to fix ceramic tiles on a wall previously painted with Dulux
kitchen emulsion. I've been advised to remove the emulsion before tiling.
The top coat of tough emulsion peels off easily after heating it with a
steam wallpaper stripper but the underlying coat of mat white emulsion
diluted 50% with water is much more tenacious, Is it OK to tile over this
or should I scrape it all off?


Best to suck it and see. Fix a single tile and see how easy it is to
prise off after 24 hours. If there's some adhesive left on the wall, you
should be ok

Mike Clarke
wibbled on Sunday 07 February 2010 11:00


I'm about to fix ceramic tiles on a wall previously painted with Dulux
kitchen emulsion. I've been advised to remove the emulsion before tiling.
The top coat of tough emulsion peels off easily after heating it with a
steam wallpaper stripper but the underlying coat of mat white emulsion
diluted 50% with water is much more tenacious, Is it OK to tile over this
or should I scrape it all off?


Belt and braces:

Run a wire brush over the emulsion to take of any flaky stuff and to scratch
through to the plaster in a few places - easy tiger, you're not trying to
de-rust the wall. Just a few stiff wipes...

Then 1:2 or 1:3 SBR:water and brush it on - this will soak through the base
coat of white emulsion and set it solid. It's also water resistant.

Tile to that. If you're wondering, the SBR trick is recommended by BAL for
polished new plaster but I've tried it on thin emulsion and it works.

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.