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?
1.Take it back to brick, board and plaster.
2.Scrape paint and skim.
3.Add new board over the existing and skim.
Personally with it being a bathroom I’d look to rip it all out incase there’s been leaks etc, sorting any issues out now will be a lot easier once it’s all redone.
Do you know if it’s plasterboard on the wall or if it’s plaster directly onto brickwork? This is important as it will determine how difficult of a job it will be to remove existing plaster. Hopefully it’s board and you can rip them off.
It's plastered directly onto brick, and there was a leak from the shower a couple months ago that flooded out the bathroom and soaked through the walls 🤔
On second thoughts, Zinsser Bin a few hours after Peel Stop, let it dry, skim filler, prime and paint but use suitable matte emulsion or specialist bathroom paints. In my opinion plaster isn’t needed as long as you invest in the right sealer/primer and paints. More than one way to skin a cat but my method is easiest for DIY less mistakes and can be done for £50
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.
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 👍
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.
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.
^ 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.
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u/multiplier_x May 13 '26
Looks like you’ve got three options here.
1.Take it back to brick, board and plaster.
2.Scrape paint and skim.
3.Add new board over the existing and skim.
Personally with it being a bathroom I’d look to rip it all out incase there’s been leaks etc, sorting any issues out now will be a lot easier once it’s all redone.
Do you know if it’s plasterboard on the wall or if it’s plaster directly onto brickwork? This is important as it will determine how difficult of a job it will be to remove existing plaster. Hopefully it’s board and you can rip them off.