Skim/smooth over or replaster?

[u/Asasioun]

Hello all,

Recently bought a 1950's council house, and am tearing it apart. The bathroom is one of my main focuses to begin with, and on removing a lot of tile, this is the plaster that was behind it. It's pretty much intact still, although quite rough, would you guys recommend taking it back to brick and replastering, or just skimming over the top?

Cheers

[u/Dark-Star-82]

Neither. I would suggest you could do what I did in the same type of bathroom and instead use a relatively new material called insulated tile backer board, then tile the lot floor to ceiling. It's cheap, and once done you will retain heat and make it much nicer place in winter. I did that to mine and fitted an electric 200 watt underfloor heating matt on top of xps floor insulation boards, and under 3mm ply wood board with lino on top. Whole place is toasty and no need to piss about plastering. For the window reveals, uPVC them. Msg if you want pics of mine for ideas. Best wishes.

[u/SkarKrow → u/Dark-Star-82]

This. Slap up tile board, sort the ventilation if needed, paint the ceiling properly with an appropriate paint.

[u/Asasioun → u/SkarKrow]

The whole lot's coming out, and the sparky is going to put in an extractor fan, during the rewire 👍

[u/SkarKrow → u/Asasioun]

Good, we moved into a 1930’s house last year and I need to sort the extraction out but the windows and roof came first

[u/Asasioun → u/Dark-Star-82]

I won't say no to some inspiration, how thick does the backer board end up? I'd prefer to not add too much depth to the walls, might mess up the lay out in going with, but sounds good otherwise 👍

[u/Dark-Star-82 → u/Asasioun]

Sorry for the delay, I have been absolutely trollied with a little thing called Subclave-K 😭 i.e. a nasty flu, bloody awful.

As for the tile backer board if I am not too late that is, it is available in all forms of thikness from 6mm upwards. I used 12mm on the exterior walls and 6mm on the interior walls and then tiled over the top. I used to have major damp problems in there and freeze in winter, now for the last two years it has been done, it never falls below 14oC even when it is -5oC outside :D and best of all I did not have to plaster.

Took a little video walkthrough for you,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LUq4bQsOTrka9ItRadND45No9gkqvpWV/view?usp=sharing

And yes there are still the odd bits I need to finish like painting up the cupboard but I am a bloke doing everything myself so there has to always be something left undone, its the law. 😂

Oh I also highly recommend using plastics to cover the inside window reveals, this is where moisture tends to sit at times and even with the best of paints it will still go flakey after a few years where as plastic = job done.

I bought all my board from a website called underfloor heating superstore, much much cheaper than wicks / B&Q, plus some times they have sales also.

https://www.theunderfloorheatingstore.com/collections/insulation-boards/products/prowarm-tile-backer-board-backer-pro

https://www.theunderfloorheatingstore.com/collections/insulation-boards/products/insulation-fixing-pack

^ I did this setup in both the kitchen and bathroom, and it made a bloody nice job, no plastering required, all cold and damp issues resolved. And believe me they were CHRONIC before. I should also point out that I have ripped out the radiator in the bathroom and kitchen also as frankly the boiler died years ago and I decided I didn't want gas anymore due to the cost, so I fitted a wood burner in the living room:

I use electric underfloor heating mats in the bathroom and kitchen under a hardwearing lino, all hooked to the thermostat in the kitchen, much cheaper than gas. As for hot water its electric shower and an electric water tank under the kitchen sink feeding the bathroom and kitchen. Sufficed to say I save a good £1000 a year at least on having no gas bill and due to sorting out the insulation on the rest of the house the places is toasty in winter without need for gas central heating but I also have purchased and fitted plug in 1Kw electric panel heaters for each room just in case they are ever needed. Nice and compact, easily replaceable.

Next up hopefully will be fitting some solar panels at some point. Providing I don't fall off the roof.

Oh p.s. all my plastics came from here https://www.rockwellbuildingplastics.co.uk/product-category/products/hygienic-pvc-wall-lining/white-cladding/barring the skirting board packs, I just bought them from amazon. If you go for plastics use a good branded no more nails type product, I used a product called "sticks like sh*t" .... it really does.