I am re-doing an older kitchen and need advice on 2 subjects which relate to tiling the backsplash. First, I had to take off 40 year of floor linoleum off the wall and most of the paper backing stayed on the wall. I’m told that if I skim coat with drywall mud that will suffice for putting up the tile but someone else suggested just putting an enamel paint primer up so the thinset will breathe and dry? Any suggestions?
The other is that the stove is next to a wall which is lathe and plaster – I’m told that code is to have a tile backsplash 18″ up and to the edge of the stove – is this correct
Any help here would be appreciated
Replies
Backer Board
I think you wold get better results with a 1/4-inch backer board under the tile. Also now is probably the time to add the upgraded elctrical, it at all possible.
Not sure of any code requirments for the tile around an oven. Hopefully if there is one, somenoe can give a code refrence so I can learn something.
I can't speak
definitively for every code in every jurisdiction, but I have never seen a code that required tile wall covering in a residential kitchen. Backsplashes are simply for ease of cleaning and around the kitchen sink (and draining board, if applicable) to add some waterproofing, and of course, for decoration.
Lath and plaster is basically concrete over a wood substrate with a smooth plaster of paris surface. Unless compromised, extremely durable and fire resistent stuff.
Seal the lino backer............
That's what the non latex paint would do, so the paper left wouldn't fuzz up, peal, etc. That's a good idea b/4 skimming if you wish to do that.
Tile likes fairly flat, doesn't need a real smooth substrait. 1/4" tile backer would merely push the tile out another 1/4-then you have to deal with the ends-not bad if you have a good transition planned.
Tile next to the stove? never heard code rules on it either-tho an easy clean, non combustible surface would be good. You turn the heat on a pan to high, and what doesn't hit the pan-goes out around the sides. Grout to clean next to the stove..................might be a pain. Your choice. We do it all the time behind the stove for a splash.
We've done this, only pulled off old tile instead of lino. Tore up the drywall backing pretty bad, but replacing the drywall outright was essentially impossible due to cabinets being in place and other issues.
First I scraped things as smooth as possible, then used shelac primer to seal the surface and capture a lot of the paper fuzz. Spent several additional hours scraping/peeling bits of paper loose and repriming spots, then skim coated with drywall mud. (WIthout the primer the fuzz would have mucked up the mud badly and made a difficult process that much worse.)
The whole process was complicated by the wall not being particularly flat to begin with, with some major ripples near the window, but eventually got the surface reasonably smooth. (Perfect is not necessary for tile backer.)
Primed once more to kill the chalking and dust, then the wife tiled, using mastic (I forget what kind). The result was a job better than most pros could have done -- my wife is quite the artist with tile.
I vaguely recall that some sort of covering is required on the wall behind the stove. Conventionally this is done with a piece of colored sheet metal, or with tile. Your local building inspector's office would know the details. But certainly tile is sufficient.