# Forum Home Renovation Tiling  Tiling on uneven bathroom wall

## clayman

Hey everyone, 
I'm about to tile my bathroom walls with 300 x 600 ceramic tiles. The walls are F.C Villaboard and I have waterproofed the wet areas. The problem is the walls are not dead straight... up, down or sideways. There is a slight 5-10mm wave in some areas. 
 What would be the best tiling method to use to have the tiles plumb and straight?

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## Master Splinter

Rip the sheet off the studs and dispose of thoughtfully.  Pack/plane studs to provide a decent surface (a two metre straightedge helps), re-sheet, re-waterproof and then you can tile.

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## Oldsaltoz

Hi Clayman and welcome, 
With tiles that size you have almost no chance or getting the tiles to good, you will edges showing, or worse if the tiles have a brick edge (Square not rounded). :No:  
Any wall area that is to be tiled must be flat or you are life very difficult for yourself I'm afraid.

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## autogenous

_There is a slight 5-10mm wave in some areas. _ 10mm is not slight when it comes to tiling_ _

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## clayman

So.... There is no technique to use with the adhesive and spirit level??? Ripping the whole 4 walls down is a bit extreme  :Shock:

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## ringtail

I'm not a tilers bum, but , I agree that ripping the sheets off is extreme. If it were my house ( not a customers) I'd fill the low areas with tile adhesive or cornice cement or something similiar and trowl off for a smooth finish,let it go off,  then tile. Ive seen heaps of tilers just whack a crap load of glue on the wall in low areas, place the tiles, then use a straight edge to push them flush. Seems to work, dunno if they fall off the wall later though. A good tiler, like a good plasterer should be able to hide all manner of sins - lol.

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## Master Splinter

I'm the lucky one who has seen them fall off a wall when stuck on with an overly thick bed of tile cement.   
So from looking at that, bodging up with something cheap isn't the first thing that springs to mind; yes, I'd think of screeding an area up to even a wall out, but I'd probably end up paying more for an expensive acrylic-reinforced cementatious adhesive that, on a square meter basis would work out more expensive than redoing the walls!! (let alone how much time it would take to do it well enough to tile with large tiles)

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## ringtail

I guess that is the issue eh. I dare say that wearing a large format tile on the head would not be good and that the logevity of the finished product should take precidence. What about glue/screw fibro packers to the wall ?

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## clayman

Could I ask why the tiles are more likely to fall off if you use more glue in the deep areas?

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## Master Splinter

Depends on the glue.   
If you use a thickened and reinforced marine epoxy as your glue, there would be absolutely, positively no chance whatsoever that the tiles would come off without the destruction of the tile or the wall, even if the wall was immersed in warm salt water 24/7 for the next fifty years while subject to wave motion.  This solution would also cost you about $100-150ish per square meter, and it wouldn't surprise me if the tile/epoxy/fc sheet sandwich was structurally stronger than the wall studs. 
Moving down the list, my next choice would be one of the two part cement/rubber modified tile adhesives - these are durable and tenacious, but I don't know how they perform in thick bed situations...my guess is that they would be fine, but they'll also cost you maybe $30-60 per square meter if you've got that much wall wobble to eliminate. 
After that, you are looking at standard cement based tile adhesive, which is reasonably good stuff, but it may not have the bond strength or the toughness to be able to withstand shrinkage or cracking when used in a thick layer (or even worse, a layer of widely varying thickness which would exacerbate shrinkage issues which could lead to delamination).  Maybe $10-20 per meter. 
You also have the fun game of not letting the tiles slump down/outwards while the adhesive of choice sets.

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## Terrian

> After that, you are looking at standard cement based tile adhesive, which is reasonably good stuff, but it may not have the bond strength or the toughness to be able to withstand shrinkage or cracking when used in a thick layer (or even worse, a layer of widely varying thickness which would exacerbate shrinkage issues which could lead to delamination).  Maybe $10-20 per meter. 
> You also have the fun game of not letting the tiles slump down/outwards while the adhesive of choice sets.

  maybe build the low areas up, allow that to dry, then tile (or rip the plaster off and start again as you originally said)

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## Ezra Tiling

If you aren't wanting to start all over again - buy some quality mastic, some wedges and pack the odd ones out using the wedges to keep the odd ones up if necessary. 
Good quality mastic should be about $50+ for a bucket from a reputable tile shop.

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## Gooner

As others have said, 5-10mm ain't slight. However, is the 5-10mm localised? E.g. is it a hump or a dip in a particular spot? If so, I would be cutting it out and fixing it up and re-boarding. 
Is the 5-10mm spread across a wide area? How long is the wall and how much are you tiling? Is it a wall where people will notice the isse? E.g. perpendicular to the entrace? 
There are a lot of considerations here. 600x300 mm tiles will be at least 10mm thick so packing out with adhesive will be a messy, ugly, and difficult job IMO and as far as I know not recommended. Would you be happy with a tiling job that would have to stick out about 23mm from the wall to get an even finish?

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## Oldsaltoz

> As others have said, 5-10mm ain't slight. However, is the 5-10mm localised? E.g. is it a hump or a dip in a particular spot? If so, I would be cutting it out and fixing it up and re-boarding. 
> Is the 5-10mm spread across a wide area? How long is the wall and how much are you tiling? Is it a wall where people will notice the isse? E.g. perpendicular to the entrace? 
> There are a lot of considerations here. 600x300 mm tiles will be at least 10mm thick so packing out with adhesive will be a messy, ugly, and difficult job IMO and as far as I know not recommended. Would you be happy with a tiling job that would have to stick out about 23mm from the wall to get an even finish?

   :brava: what he said.

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## clayman

Thanks for the reply's. I used a 10mm notched trowel with Davco powder  mastic and pushed the tiles straight with a 1200mm level. I'm very happy  with the result and the straightness. Glue thickness varied from  2mm-12mm.

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## Oldsaltoz

Good to see you resolved the problems, well done.

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