Tiling a ceiling "Nuts???"

[Puprle Sage]

Pardon me to the experts,
I am a mere beginer having tiled less than 1,000 sq feet of floor. I am preparing to do a floor for a client, two for my mother and two complete bathrooms for my wife. Its the wife I need help with. ?<smile>

She's from Thailand and they tile everything. I have fallen in love with tile. I want to tile the ceilings. I am scared.. Ok I said it. I know it can be done. I bought a book on tile and they tiled board and then screwed it to the ceiling. This was for a very small area. I am intending to tile a 5 by 8 area.

The current surface is lame 1/2" gypsum. Not even green board. My thoughts were to remove that and screw 1/2" Durok to the ceiling then use mesh tape on the joints. I have been reading your excellent posts and advice. Thus I am curious if I should put felt or .6 mil up first.

Now you say ceiling. I say in Thailand they tile the whole bathroom and clean it with a spryer thus everything is we. Yes I will be putting in floor drains.

Please advise.

Sincerely Sage

[sailfishoney]

Originally Posted by Puprle Sage

Pardon me to the experts,
I am a mere beginer having tiled less than 1,000 sq feet of floor. I am preparing to do a floor for a client, two for my mother and two complete bathrooms for my wife. Its the wife I need help with. ?<smile>

She's from Thailand and they tile everything. I have fallen in love with tile. I want to tile the ceilings. I am scared.. Ok I said it. I know it can be done. I bought a book on tile and they tiled board and then screwed it to the ceiling. This was for a very small area. I am intending to tile a 5 by 8 area.

The current surface is lame 1/2" gypsum. Not even green board. My thoughts were to remove that and screw 1/2" Durok to the ceiling then use mesh tape on the joints. I have been reading your excellent posts and advice. Thus I am curious if I should put felt or .6 mil up first.

Now you say ceiling. I say in Thailand they tile the whole bathroom and clean it with a spryer thus everything is we. Yes I will be putting in floor drains.

Please advise.

Sincerely Sage

I do it all the time. here in florida we tile everthing too. what i do is wire lath and mud it then ,tile the ceilings and lock it in with the wall tile. works great every time. got it in my own house. tile gal glad to help

[Bill Vincent]

Sage-- although there are those who would say go ahead over the sheetrock, I agree with you-- you'd do better to change it out for the backerboard. One thing-- when you pull the sheetrock down, make sure your framing in the ceiling is max 12" OC. You want the extra framing to hold the weight of the tile. As for setting your tile, there's no need for the wire lath. What I'll normally do is mix the thinset a little stiffer than normal. I'll then flat trowel the ceiling to key the thinset into the backerboard (Make sure you wipe the backerboard down first with a sponge to get any dust off). I'll then notch trowel the ceiling as well as notch troweling the back of the tile. Then, push and twist it into position on the ceiling, and it should hold. If it's going to let go, it'll normally happen within the first 5-10 seconds, and it'll warn you with a sucking noise. If that happens, take it down, scrape the thinset, make it a little stiffer, and try again. Once you've got the right consistancy, you shouldn't have a problem after that.

[John Bridge]

Hi Sage, Welcome aboard.

If it's going to be hosed down, I think the whole thing should be waterproofed with a membrane. In Thailand the walls are concrete. No so here, of course.

[Bill Vincent]

Agreed.