I am wanting to put ceramic tile at the top of my shower, where the drywall meets the shower. I have no clue where to start. What will I need? How long should this take?
Before concrete-masonry board was even invented, tiles were glued right onto drywall -- even painted drywall. There may be some new-fangled surface prep material you could get for painted drywall -- ask the dudes at Home Depot, Ace, Tru Value, or Lowes (or other hardware / home-improvement store) to see if there is some material you spread on the painted drywall to make the mastick stick better. .
iam not sure if tile glue will adhere to paint so you may have to strip the paint of the villa board wall (bathrooms are made with a cement based wall sheet called ,villa board/Fibre cement sheet/Fibro. Rest of the house is Drywall). you need - bucket a tile glue mixer ( an atachment that fits onto your drill) make sure to buy a glue that is designed for FC sheeting. a glue spreader ( it has square notches in it) plastic cross spacers and wedge spacers. a tile cutter OR an angle grinder with a mayssonry disk sillicon (ask for bathroom type) a silicon gun grout, Sponge, Grout spreader ( or a peice of rubber size of your hand will do the same) work out how your tiles will look by running some sqaure and straight lines so you can work off, once you get a straight row of tiles the rest will follow that line and you should line up nicely with the walls if you worked it out correctly. mix your glue to a custard type consistancy and smear up the wall with the notches spreading your glue. place first tile by coming at the wall at a 90 dgr angle to the wall then lightly lift and press the tile onto the wall, put in your cross spacers and repeat for the next tile. Make sure not to leave any glue on tiles or souroundings as it is VERY hard to get off.!! And make sure to clean out the gaps between the tiles so grout can get in. once tiles are all in place allow 24hours dry time then you are ready for the grout (gap infil) when you buy the grout ask for a water proof one, all you do is mix it up till its a melted choclate consistancy and just press into the gaps at the same time wiping it up with a moist sponge untill it looks even and just a little bit below the tile surface. last step is to Sillicon up the edges with the wall meets the tiles with the same color as your grout
