A Guide To Tiling Over Tile

Tiles should last forever, however sometimes what we thought was nice twenty years ago doesn’t look as good today so tiling over tile maybe considered as an option. When tiling over tiles a few considerations need to be looked at, firstly are the tiles solidly bonded to the wall or floor, are the tiles clean free of all contaminates, grease, Grime or anything that would prevent a primer or adhesive adhering to the existing tile, are there cracked tiles and when tiling walls is the background behind the existing tile system strong enough to support a second layer of tiles.

Loose or Hollow Tiles: If there are any loose or hollow tiles they should be removed and the area filled using a suitable repair mortar like Ardex A46 which can be tiled on in as little as four Hours.

Degreasing: The surface area of the tiles should be free from contaminates, grease and waxes can build up on the face of a tile over time this needs to be fully removed before you consider tiling over tile. Products such as Ardex Degreaser or Lithofin Ceramic Clean are very good at removing such layers.

Cracked Tiles: If there is a cracked tile it should be removed and investigate the reason why the tile has cracked, a crack in a tile if tiled over can reoccur in the new tile if not addressed. Ardex PU5 Crack Repair resin is the ideal product to stitch repair these cracks.

Priming: With some of our more highly polymer modified BAL adhesives priming may not be required however when using standard flexible adhesives primer should be used. The best product for priming Tiles and creating a mechanical key is Ardex P4 primer.

Adhesive: With some of the High polymer modified adhesives tiles can be fixed direct onto the existing tiles once cleaned without the need to Prime.  BAL Adhesives like BAL Max Flex Fibre and BAL Single Part FastFlex can be used direct on to existing tiles.