Removing tile cement

Stheno

Hi everyone,

I've got some tile cement from a bad tiling job where the tiles fell off, and I cannot get if off the wall.

Any suggestions as to how to remove it?

It's an area roughly six by six, should I just bite the bullet and get a plasterer to come in and remove the existing cement and plaster and replaster?

Joey the lips

If you plan to re tile it you wont need a plaster just get it off the best you can. At the very most you will only need to replace a peice of the plaster board.

Stheno

Joey the lips wrote: »

If you plan to re tile it you wont need a plaster just get it off the best you can. At the very most you will only need to replace a peice of the plaster board.

Believe it or not the house is 12 years old and all internal walls are solid cavity bricks!

So it's right back to the plaster on the bricks!

I've a few chunks of plaster that have been scratched/scraped by dogs in other areas of the house, so I need to get a plasterer in to sand/fill them in, so it's not a disaster if I need to add to the work

K.Flyer

A trick I learned many years ago when renovating bathrooms.
Get yourself a steam wall paper stripper from the hire shop and a wide paper stripper or a clean cement float. I use the cement float.
Cover the floor first with dust sheets.
Get the machine up to steam and use it the same way as you would for stripping wallpaper. The steam softens the adhesive and makes it so easy to scrape it off the wall.
If you have a lot of tile adhesive on the wall after removing tiles this is a great way of removing it, albeit a little messy, but this saves a ton of time especially if you have the four walls to do and it does not make a mess of the plasterboard walls either.

Stheno

K.Flyer wrote: »

A trick I learned many years ago when renovating bathrooms.
Get yourself a steam wall paper stripper from the hire shop and a wide paper stripper or a clean cement float. I use the cement float.
Cover the floor first with dust sheets.
Get the machine up to steam and use it the same way as you would for stripping wallpaper. The steam softens the adhesive and makes it so easy to scrape it off the wall.
If you have a lot of tile adhesive on the wall after removing tiles this is a great way of removing it, albeit a little messy, but this saves a ton of time especially if you have the four walls to do and it does not make a mess of the plasterboard walls either.

I'll give that a try, no worries about melting my cement walls.

Thanks guys, as always you've been great!

Much appreciated!

Joey the lips

K.Flyer wrote: »

A trick I learned many years ago when renovating bathrooms.
Get yourself a steam wall paper stripper from the hire shop and a wide paper stripper or a clean cement float. I use the cement float.
Cover the floor first with dust sheets.
Get the machine up to steam and use it the same way as you would for stripping wallpaper. The steam softens the adhesive and makes it so easy to scrape it off the wall.
If you have a lot of tile adhesive on the wall after removing tiles this is a great way of removing it, albeit a little messy, but this saves a ton of time especially if you have the four walls to do and it does not make a mess of the plasterboard walls either.

Nope. You cannot do this. Because he is going up against sold walls chunks of plaster will come off. Seriously chunks.

K.Flyer

Joey the lips wrote: »

K.Flyer wrote: »

A trick I learned many years ago when renovating bathrooms.
Get yourself a steam wall paper stripper from the hire shop and a wide paper stripper or a clean cement float. I use the cement float.
Cover the floor first with dust sheets.
Get the machine up to steam and use it the same way as you would for stripping wallpaper. The steam softens the adhesive and makes it so easy to scrape it off the wall.
If you have a lot of tile adhesive on the wall after removing tiles this is a great way of removing it, albeit a little messy, but this saves a ton of time especially if you have the four walls to do and it does not make a mess of the plasterboard walls either.

Nope. You cannot do this. Because he is going up against sold walls chunks of plaster will come off. Seriously chunks.

Sorry to diagree with you Joey,
I honestly have used this method for removing large quantities of tile adhesive so many times on many different surfaces including solid plastered walls and I have never damaged the plaster on a wall yet.

Joey the lips

K.Flyer wrote: »

Sorry to diagree with you Joey,
I honestly have used this method for removing large quantities of tile adhesive so many times on many different surfaces including solid plastered walls and I have never damaged the plaster on a wall yet.

I dont mind if you disagree thats what i done with you but to be honest you are either doing it differently than most or you have been very lucky. You ask any tiler how they remove tiles from a solid wall. They dont use a steamer because they know this is quite a common result.

K.Flyer

Joey the lips wrote: »

K.Flyer wrote: »

Sorry to diagree with you Joey,
I honestly have used this method for removing large quantities of tile adhesive so many times on many different surfaces including solid plastered walls and I have never damaged the plaster on a wall yet.

I dont mind if you disagree thats what i done with you but to be honest you are either doing it differently than most or you have been very lucky. You ask any tiler how they remove ** tiles** from a solid wall. They dont use a steamer because they know this is quite a common result.

Funny enough it was a tiler who told me about it.
(** above.. I presume you mean adhesive)
Just to clarify... tiles are off the wall already, this is to help remove the adhesive that has been left on the wall.
I just use the machine enough to soften the adhesive to make it easier to scrape it off the surface.
I dont put it down to luck considering the amount of times we have used this method, most likely the way we do it.

paddy147

This is what can happen when you do not use a steamer correctly.

You can "blow the plaster".


Picture attached....If ever proof was needed.

K.Flyer

paddy147 wrote: »

This is what can happen when you do not use a steamer correctly.

You can "blow the plaster".


Picture attached....If ever proof was needed.

Honestly, it never happened to me using a steamer on a block wall.
I have seen it happen when not using a steamer and someone would dig in too hard with a bolster alright. But you usually find that the plaster was a bit loose on the wall in the first place.

Joey the lips

paddy147 wrote: »

This is what can happen when you do not use a steamer correctly.

You can "blow the plaster".


Picture attached....If ever proof was needed.

This is exactly what happens. Well done paddy...

K.Flyer wrote: »

Honestly, it never happened to me using a steamer on a block wall.
I have seen it happen when not using a steamer and someone would dig in too hard with a bolster alright. But you usually find that the plaster was a bit loose on the wall in the first place.

With due respect i knew what you ment. The steemer is not going to work with the tiles on. But we really have exhausetd this one now.

paddy147

Joey the lips wrote: »

This is exactly what happens. Well done paddy...

Thanks....never a dull moment eh?:D

K.Flyer

paddy147 wrote: »

Joey the lips wrote: »

This is exactly what happens. Well done paddy...

Thanks....never a dull moment eh?:D

...well done Paddy... never a dull moment... W.T.F.

That is Exactly what will happen when some numpty tries to do it and makes a bo//@x of it because he keeps the machine in the one spot for too long.
Dont know how much practical "Hands On" experience either of you have in this field, but I dont take kindly to your implying that I dont know what I am talking about, because I do. I have been doing complete bathroom renovations for nearly 20 years and most of our work is through word of mouth. I've used steam wall paper strippers for removing tile adhesive from all surfaces for years with No Problem. And its not down to luck either!!

paddy147

K.Flyer wrote: »

...well done Paddy... never a dull moment... W.T.F.

That is Exactly what will happen when some numpty tries to do it and makes a bo//@x of it because he keeps the machine in the one spot for too long.
Dont know how much practical "Hands On" experience either of you have in this field, but I dont take kindly to your implying that I dont know what I am talking about, because I do. I have been doing complete bathroom renovations for nearly 20 years and most of our work is through word of mouth. I've used steam wall paper strippers for removing tile adhesive from all surfaces for years with No Problem. And its not down to luck either!!

K-Flyer...I think you should retract your acccusations and name calling about me.
I never said anything bad about you AT ALL.
If you read what I posted,you would clearly see that I mentioned NO ONE.
I actually made a joke as to my own abilities..hense the ":D" emoticon in my last post.
Please re-read what I actually posted show some respect in your replies to me in the future.
Thankyou.

K.Flyer

Paddy my apologies if I offended you, it was not directed at you personally, (btw where did I actually pointedly and directly call you names?) the way I read your post was that someone else had done the damage to the wall (and probably to your cost), because nowhere in your post did you say that You did the damage.
All I got from you and particularly Joey was.. no it does not work, when in fact it does.

However, I stand by my point that the method does work when done correctly.

Stheno

Thanks for all the discussion lads

After reading all your posts, I think some of the plaster has come away already it looks remarkably like the picture posted up, so in that context should I get a plasterer?

I'm doing up a house that I don't live in so can't run down the hall and check

K.Flyer

Stheno wrote: »

Thanks for all the discussion lads

After reading all your posts, I think some of the plaster has come away already it looks remarkably like the picture posted up, so in that context should I get a plasterer?

I'm doing up a house that I don't live in so can't run down the hall and check

Probably best to get a plasterer, he can advise you and also check how good the rest of the plasterwork is. If plaster is anyway loose on the wall it has to be redone before tiling.

Stheno

K.Flyer wrote: »

Probably best to get a plasterer, he can advise you and also check how good the rest of the plasterwork is. If plaster is anyway loose on the wall it has to be redone before tiling.

Thank you I've a few other small plaster jobs to do in the house, so hopefully I'll find a plasterer looking for a half day or so of work

DoneDL

K.Flyer wrote: »

A trick I learned many years ago when renovating bathrooms.
Get yourself a steam wall paper stripper from the hire shop and a wide paper stripper or a clean cement float. I use the cement float.
Cover the floor first with dust sheets.
Get the machine up to steam and use it the same way as you would for stripping wallpaper. The steam softens the adhesive and makes it so easy to scrape it off the wall.
If you have a lot of tile adhesive on the wall after removing tiles this is a great way of removing it, albeit a little messy, but this saves a ton of time especially if you have the four walls to do and it does not make a mess of the plasterboard walls either.

+1, use a good solid scraper.

Stoner

Ok we received a report on this post. I've read it and I saw no direct name calling. There was no indication that a boards user caused the damage in the picture, it is just a picture on the internet, who knows where is came from. That was my first impression and it has not changed.

I see no need to make a fuss about anything in this post. Two users had a disagreement they agreed to disagree and move on. There is no need to agree with, +1 or quote the issue again, lets stick to the OP.

Thanks All