# Forum Home Renovation Tiling  Cleaning old tile glue off cement rendered walls

## bunnyz

Hi All,  
I've just finished removing some old tiles from off the kitchen wall (massive thanks for the advice people posted here...http://www.renovateforum.com/f209/re...ashback-98997/) 
Now they're gone, I need to deal with the old glue still stuck onto the walls.  
So far I'm tossing up getting a sander and doing it that way, either electric or sandpaper it away by hand, or otherwise , is there a liquid cleaner out there I could use , i.e. scrub it off with steel wool or something like that? Would I need to be worried about the moisture getting absorbed into the wall? 
Thanks for any info.  
Cheers,  Bunzo.

----------


## Ken-67

The problem with sanding is that the old glue would have been rubberised or latex based. As soon as you start sanding the friction heats the glue, and the paper quickly becomes clogged up. then the glue starts to scorch to an even harder mess. To date, I know of no cleaner that can do the job.
You don't say what type of walls you have.
If it is plasterboard, the best way is to cut out the section of board, and replace it with new board.
If it is fibre cement board, its a matter of hard work with a sharp chisel or scraper, and a hammer. Use an old chisel, because you are going to have to sharpen it a lot.
If it is hard plaster or masonry, you can use a sharp cold chisel and hammer.
Make sure you get every bit of old glue off, otherwise you may have problems fitting the new tiles. Even a tiny lump of old glue may cause a new tile to rock and not fix properly. 
If you take chunks out of the wall during chiselling, fill them over and seal them before you start re-tiling.

----------


## bunnyz

Thanks for that, Yeah the wall is just brick which has been rendered over with cement.  I'll sharpen an old chisel or scraper and leave the sandpaper for another job  :Smilie:  
I still got a few more questions so here goes: 
After I'm done with chiselling and I got a flat surface, would I need to do anything to the wall to prep it before I fill the chunks that have been taken out of the wall? Any suggestions about a good product to use for filling these holes? 
And when I'm re-tiling the area , will the tiles glue straight onto the rendered cement, or do I need to prep it with something before glueing the tiles go on? 
Ta!

----------


## Ken-67

Paint the bricks with a Bondcrete® mix. Use plasterers sand and cement to fill the holes. You will have to wait about 10 days for it to dry out before tiling. You can also use the Bondcrete mix to seal the whole area you are going to tile.

----------


## takai

Sorry, not to hijack completely, but i reckon this will save on a new thread.
In a similar position, and the majority of tilers ive talked to said i would be fine just tiling straight over the old cement, and simply to render the cement and then tile over it. Looks like this:  
Im a bit dicey with that, especially as the tiles came off quite easily (courtesy of the air chisel), and quite a few of those cement slabs are pretty loose.
What do you guys think?

----------


## bunnyz

If I've got a git of glue left on the wall after knocking the tiles off, can I glue over it directly once all the gaps and holes have been filled?

----------


## tryitonce!

Hi, there's an awesome product called Soy Gel - Paint and Urethane remover. SOY·Gel™ Paint & Urethane Removal - Let's Clean & Heim Surface Technologies
I removed old wall tiles piece by piece from a mid 1980s unit and was left with a solid black mastic that would not come off the rendered brick walls. Best effort was angle grinder (and my neighbours really hated me), so trust me when I say buy Soy Gel. You can only get it on-line. It arrived in 24 hours, just layer on, leave it to do the work and 20 mins later I was scraping the very soft black stuff off the wall. Like the site says "Easily Remove MULTIPLE LAYERS of Paints, Urethanes, Concrete hard surface sealers, Acrylics, Epoxies etc". You will not believe how good this stuff is. I am not affiliated but cannot speak highly enough about how easy it made my reno.

----------

