Bathroom renovation - pre-tiling preparation advice please

[Arron]

Hi,
We are renovating our bathroom, toilet and laundry and I need some fairly urgent advice on pre-tiling wall preparation.

We have a brick veneer house in Sydney, circa 1963. The 'wet rooms' are all original. The current construction in these rooms is brick to the 1.4 meter mark, rendered and then tiled. Above that is a stud wall with plaster-and-lathe lining to the ceiling. My intention is to remove the tiles leaving the bricks and rendering as it is. Then I will remove the plaster-and-lathe and replace it with Villaboard, and tile from floor to ceiling.

My question is about the villaboard. Looking in the manual, it describes the joining process. It looks pretty complicated – using tape and multiple coats of various types of jointing compounds. My question is about the toilet. Because it isn’t really a ‘wet room’, and because the villaboard will only be on the top half of the wall, do I really need to do all this ? What is the minimum jointing procedure that I need to do ? In fact, why do I need to joint the walls at all, if its all going to be covered in tiles ?

I am keen to minimize the work needed in wall preparation as I am a really hopeless plasterer.

thanks
Arron

[journeyman Mick]

Arron,
If you are covering the walls completely with tiles it's not neccesary to use villaboard with flushed joins. Just use Hardiflex. Also, I'd be thinking about running it straight over the top of the existing plater and lath if possible.

Mick

[Gumby]

. My question is about the toilet. Because it isn’t really a ‘wet room’,

It is in my house

[journeyman Mick]

It is in my house

Gumby,
maybe you should sit down :eek: (or learn how to aim a bit better )

Mick

[Gumby]

Gumby,
maybe you should sit down :eek: (or learn how to aim a bit better )

Mick

I was sitting down

[Arron]

going ahead straight over the plaster-and-lathe. That will save me a few hours.

Arron