# Forum Home Renovation Plastering  Fixing Villaboard directly to brick wall for tiling

## takai

Sort of following on from my other thread over in the tiling section, im trying to sort out how im going to retile the bathroom. Now given that most of the old render came off when i pulled the tile slabs off i was thinking about pulling the rest of the render off and simply using villaboard instead of re-rendering, as this will cut down on the week wait to let the render dry.  
However, from searching around on here there are conflicting reports on whether you can affix villaboard directly to the bricks for tiling. I was planning on using 6mm or 9mm villaboard as the existing render layer would be around 8mm in depth. 
From one thread it was suggested to simply daub masonry cement at 450mm spacing and then screw the sheets to the wall using temporary clouts. 
Personally I was thinking of using the masonry cement and then permanently screwing the sheets to the wall using wall plugs and bugle head screws like you would with any other plasterboard sheet. 
Sound plausable? Ive only ever used Villaboard on timber framed homes.

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## Ken-67

That would work. I've also had success in the past, using cornice cement or plasterboard stud adhesive. Make sure the brickwork is thoroughly free of dust. I would also be inclined to give the brickwork a sealer coat of Bondcrete mix or similar.

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## PeteV

why wouldn't you consider tiling directly to the brickwork? assuming your brickwall is flat, i can't see a reason why you couldn't waterproof, then tile directly over...

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## takai

The brick wall isn't completely flat, and I'm not retiling the entire wall, so need to put something behind the tiles to make them proud of the existing plaster.  
I reckon I'll do the bondcrete coat too. 
Edit: iPhones have odd autocorrects...

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## CPE W&C

Masonry adhesive is the only compound you can use to stick villaboard to masonry. Years ago i did a retirement village using the same method and i had no problems.

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## takai

So big blobs of masonry adhesive to stick the panels to the walls. Im planning on using screws every 500 as a backup too.  
Do you think a bondcrete layer would be needed?

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## Rod Dyson

It is not recommended to stick on villaboard when tiling.  However your idea of fixing with plugs will work ok.  When tiling the villaboard must be mechanically fixed.   
I would wait until the adhesive has set then put a fixing directly through each daub of adhesive.  i cant see why cornice adhesive would not be as suitable as masonary adhesive in this application.  However masonary adhesive is readily available so I would use it. 
You don't need BIG b;obs of adhesive you need to use uniform sized blobs that stand out from the surface and gently place the sheets against the adhesive. Get both top and bottom sheets in place without fully pressing them back.  Then use a straight edge to tap the sheets back flat.  You should never have to use force if you space the right sized blobs correctly.  You will only need to use force if your adhesive blobs are too big and and odd sizes.  Do this and you risk getting into trouble.  
Cheers Rod

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## takai

Cool, sounds good. 
Im also lucky in that im not sheeting the entire wall. At most ill be doing 1500 so i can do it in a single sheet rather than having to use two. 
Another forum im on suggested using flush head dynabolts rather than plugs and screws. Any preferences on here?

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## Gaza

I would use tap con screws to fix villa oard or screws and plugs dyna bolt is over kill

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## takai

Ooooh, tap con screws. I actually didnt know about them at all... Will use those, they look the goods. Especially as it is only a mechanical backup.

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## perf

you would want to make sure you were screwing at each glue point, otherwise you could pull the sheet into the gap between sheet and brickwork, which would make it a tuff day for the tiler.

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## CPE W&C

Rod,  
I tried fixing villaboard with cornice adhesive at first and found it wasnt anywhere near as good as masonry adhesive. When i stick plasterboard onto masonry i always use cornice adhesive as i find its better than MA. Weird. To be honest, having to fix villaboard with a compound is pretty rare so it could of been a variety of things as to why MA worked better than CC on the retirement village. I ended up pulling the first couple of cornice cement fixed walls off and re doing them in MA...

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## Rod Dyson

> Rod,  
> I tried fixing villaboard with cornice adhesive at first and found it wasnt anywhere near as good as masonry adhesive. When i stick plasterboard onto masonry i always use cornice adhesive as i find its better than MA. Weird. To be honest, having to fix villaboard with a compound is pretty rare so it could of been a variety of things as to why MA worked better than CC on the retirement village. I ended up pulling the first couple of cornice cement fixed walls off and re doing them in MA...

  Thanks for that.

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## gizmoe

Could you not batten the wall & then fix to the timber battens?

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## takai

> Could you not batten the wall & then fix to the timber battens?

  Only if i want to make my bathroom an extra 16mm (furring channel thickness) smaller. At worst its even 35mm with wooden battens. 
As it looks now its like this:   
Just did it with masonry adhesive, and some 6mm dynabolts. Ive also strategically placed the dynabolts to also help level out the sheets.
Priority was getting the shower area done so i could get the waterproofing membrane down... although thats now all up in the air.

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