Bathroom remodel....please help

[papabear]

I really hope you great people can be of help to the wife and I.We are doing a light remodel/facelift of our small bathroom.The dilema we are having is this.We removed the plastic tile that was original to the home(built in 1960) but we are left with the glue residue.It was trowled on to the drywall and is next to impossible to remove without severe damage to the drywall.What would be a good remedy for this problem short of removing the drywall and putting up new drywall?New drywall is alot of mess,and much more involved than we can do at this time.We are trying to think of ways to cover this glue with some sort of wall covering that will go over the glue and be bathroom worthy as far as moisture and looks go.Also,this was just a wainscotting type tile that went about 4ft up around the perimeter of the room so we do not have to go up to the ceiling.
I really value everyones opinion here on this great site.I am here reading everyday even tho I don't post.Looking foreward to hearing from everyone and thank you for taking the time to read this and passing on your ideas. John

 

[EddieWalker]

The glue will scrape off with a layer of paper. You won't hurt the drywall enough to affect it, except for the finish. To make it smooth again, just spread out some sheetrock compound. When it's dry, sand smooth. Depending on your skills, it might take a few tries to get it spread and sanded smooth.

On a side note, I've found exterior paint to be the best choice for bathrooms. It wont mildew like interior paint, and bathroom paint with mildew inhibitor isn't very good to begin with. Plus it's expensive. Get a decent exterior paint and your walls will be waterproof.

Eddie

 

[Michael_E_Tx]

Hey PB. I can't imagine any way to really "work" with that glue. How about replacing the plastic tile wainscotting with wooden wainscotting? They now make what I consider a real decent plywood, thin, that is meant to look like traditional beaded wainscotting. It would be easy to install and easy to finish off with a molding. Seal both sides if you are concerned about moisture. Best idea I can come up with. Good luck.

Mike

 

[MossRoad]

I had plastic tile in our first house. After a nice hot shower, while I was shaving and the tiles were cooling down, they would pop off the wall and jump across the bathroom! I'd have one about every week. I had enough, so I scraped them all off. Then I had a glue mess on plaster with lathe strips behind it. I didn't want to remove the plaster, the glue would not come off, even with a heat gun. So I just drywalled over it and got extenders for the electrical boxes. I also had to get deeper window and door trim and move the medicine cabinet out.

 

[Skerby]

Hi papabear! now PLEASE!!! dont take offense, but "help to the wife and I" is incorrect. drop the wife and you would not say, "help 'I'" you would say "help me" so its correct to say "help the wife and me". (honestly, im just giving you a rule.. like give a man a fish/teach a man to fish) and we all get that wrong!!!! ok, my recommendation is 1.) replace the drywall, its easy and if the room is small relatively inexpensive. since you don't want to do that, 2.) buy the glossy bathroom 4X8 sheet of bathroom panelling at the depot/lowes/menards and attach directly to the glued up drywall (of course, take out as many rough bumps as you can) i hope i help a little -tim

 

[randy41]

sand it?

 

[Egon]

Rough up a piece that has glue on it, apply some thinset and put on a couple of tiles. wait a few days and see if all works and the tiles stay on. Then make a decision.

For roughing up use a metal brush.

 

[RonMar]

I have done a few bathroom "facelifts" and the only one I wasn't real happy with was the one where we tried to fix all the deformities in the existing drywall/ceiling after removing the existing wallpaper covering. Ever do bodywork on a car? Ever see a really cheap/poorly done auto paintjob? Shooting the paint is the easy part in painting a car... The real difference between a great looking car paintjob and a poor looking paintjob is the ammount of time and skill spent in the prep work to get the surface perfectly smooth.

On the last bathroom we did(the one I am not happy with) We filled and sanded and smoothed with sponges untill we thought it was gonna look great. Then we painted it and it looked like a piece of painted pavement. We wound up doing a LOT of additional filling and smoothing over the painted surface to get to an acceptable level. The problem you run into is the eye has trouble gauging the surface imperfections in a surface with an uneven color such as you will get after removing the old surface covering(same reason camoflage is successfull). Then there is the dust... If you sand, then there is going to be a LOT of it, fine white and powdery that goes everywhere. A damp sponge on drywall spackling/joint compound is less messy, but has some disadvantages for getting a large open surface perfectly smooth. No matter how well you think you have smoothed the putty/spackling/filler you apply, there is going to be some surface imperfections when you lay down the first even coat of paint.

One option is to remove the existing drywall. New drywall is not very expensive and you can fairly easilly remove it in large pieces with some carefull cutting with a utility knife. The easiest I have found to do it is to find the studs and cut vertically on either side of a stud center and across the top and bottom near the floor and ceiling. IF you cut all the way thru, be carefull not to go deep enough to strike installed wireing. On the studs, You just need to miss the nails or screws holding up the existing drywall. You can then break out the pieces from floor to ceiling nearly the width of the studs. I then use a large cats paw to remove the remaining strip of drywall and the nails/screws from the studs and the floor and ceiling cross pieces. This is a great opportunity to add insulation and a vapor barrier before you put up the new drywall board. The insulation will keep the bathroom heat in the bathroom longer when the room is heated which will reduce condensation on the walls. The longer the moisture stays in vapor form, the more moisture will be drawn out with the ventilation during showers instead of finding it's way onto/into your walls. The new drywall will require much less finish work to achieve a smooth paintable surface than trying to patch the old.

Another option is to smooth off things as best as you can and add an additional layer of 1/4" drywall over the existing drywall. You will need to add standoffs to the light switches, recepticles and perhaps the plumbing fittings so they will match up with the new surface level, but other than that it will finish up as nice as the complete drywall replacement, but you loose the opportunity to insulate.

I have done this all 3 ways and in my opinion, the last 2 are easier with a nicer end result. If I attach any sort of dollar figure to my time(even paying myself minimum wage), then the time difference to achieve an acceptable result easilly offsets the cost of the new drywall.

Good Luck

 

[HappyCPE]

I think the old glue will always be a problem as long as it is there. Also, based on prior experience, these glues are a PITA to remove. Some of them might even contain asbestos [to make the product thicker and stronger]. I can understand you might not want to replace the drywall but please reconsider. If you don't want to remove and replace, then consider covering it with another sheet, or cover it with cement board [Hardibacker, Durock, etc] and tile over it with real tile, not plastic.

The bathroom, along with kitchen, is one of the most important spaces in the house. If you are afraid of getting in over your head, hire it out. The alternative, to do it in a substandard manner, might never be satisfactory.

 

[gsganzer]

Papabear,
Demo the drywall and hire someone to put in new sheetrock, tape/bed and texture. An experienced drywall person can be in and out in 2 days, leaving you a fresh room to work on. Getting a bathroom rocked, tape/bedded and textured is a lot cheaper then you think it will be. Or, like some others have said, leave the drywall in place and have the drywall contractor just rock over it, this would save you from the demo.

 

[roxynoodle]

If you are looking to do this cheap and easy, I'd say either prime and paint with a texture paint and then the glue ridges might not make much difference. Use the exterior paint as recommended. You could also take a belt sander and remove the glue, but as others suggested, it could contain asbestos and I'd want to know that before I turned it into dust. I live in a house where the former owner put up new wallpaper every few years, right over the old wallpaper. She did a terrible job every time too. In my front room, I peeled layers and layers of wallpaper and the last layer was that stuff with the fuzzy 3-D design. I scraped and scraped and finally got tired of it and took a belt sander and sanded it all off. Since the walls very kind of pitted from doing all this scraping and sanding I put up that texture paintable wallpaper and painted it. If you can sand the glue off though you could have a lot of options. You could paint or or put up wood wainscoting or wainscoting panels. You could even use ceramic tile. It isn't going to be walked on, so you wouldn't need to put up the backerboard. A nice molding at the top could transition you to the other walls. Home Depot sells a new stainproof grout made by 3M.

 

[Dhill]

John,
If you are planning to let the sheetrock be the exposed surface of the wall, then you'll have to replace the sheetrock. It's not a difficult task, do as RonMar suggested, cut the area out that's bad and replace. An experienced tape and bedder could likely do the finished surface for you in an hour's time, but you'll probably have a difficult time finding someone who will do such a small job. If you don't want to mess with the sheetrock, then you'll have to cover the old surface with another paneling of some type. There are various laminates and surfaced sheets that you can choose from. Since these apply by using paneling glue, simply sand down the old glue ridges as best you can and apply the new sheet. There's plenty of options for trim pieces to cover the seams.

 

[EddieWalker]

Cutting out sheetrock and replacing it is ALLOT more work that just smoothing some mud over a ruff area. It's very difficult to tape in a new piece of sheetrock and feather it to the old stuff. Thre is nothing wrong with the sheetrock, so there is no reason to remove it.

The glue is attached to the paper. The paper will peel right off the gypsum that is the core of sheetrokc. Smooth it over with some mud, sand it smooth and your done. If you have a texture, copy that to the smooth area.

Don't get caught up in over doing it or making it into some complicated, big job when it's not necesary.

Eddie

 

[JJ. in B.C.]

Hi papabear! now PLEASE!!! dont take offense, but "help to the wife and I" is incorrect. drop the wife and you would not say, "help 'I'" you would say "help me" so its correct to say "help the wife and me". (honestly, im just giving you a rule.. like give a man a fish/teach a man to fish) and we all get that wrong!!!! ok, my recommendation is 1.) replace the drywall, its easy and if the room is small relatively inexpensive. since you don't want to do that, 2.) buy the glossy bathroom 4X8 sheet of bathroom panelling at the depot/lowes/menards and attach directly to the glued up drywall (of course, take out as many rough bumps as you can) i hope i help a little -tim

I know absolutely nothing about refinishing bathroom walls, but.......i do think that one should do ones homework before trying to correct another persons grammer !!! The term "help to the wife and i" is perfectly correct, whereas "help the wife and me" is NOT. Please stand corrected. JJ.

 

[Doc_Bob]

New drywall is alot of mess,and much more involved than we can do at this time.We are trying to think of ways to cover this glue with some sort of wall covering that will go over the glue and be bathroom worthy as far as moisture and looks go.

Thinnest waterproof wall board you can apply over the mess. Or if you are going to retile, I think Duroc over the glue would be fine. Or, you do I like I did and demo the entire bathroom! Lot of work but it sure looks nice.
Bob

 

[vmarc]

I've used a wallpaper type product from Lowes that will cover even cement block and make it look smooth.Paint right over it.

 

[RobertN]

It's very difficult to tape in a new piece of sheetrock and feather it to the old stuff. Smooth it over with some mud, sand it smooth and your done. If you have a texture, copy that to the smooth area.
Eddie

One thing to look at is the right tools. To float stuf out, whether matching old/new sheetrock, or floating a coat of mud over existing, it helps to have the right tools. You just can't float stuff out with a 4" or 6" knife. That's when you need a 12" or bigger.

 

[riptides]

I am currently refinishing drywall in three rooms. Depending on the amount of material applied to the wallboard and how it reacts to primer I have -

Removed vast amounts of wallpaper and mudded

Removed vast amounts of wallpaper and mudded, and mudded

Removed vast amounts of wallpaper and mudded, and mudded, and mudded

Removed vast amounts of wallpaper and applied new sheetrock

Removed vast amounts of wallpaper and applied new sheetrock and mudded.

Notice, I never said sanded. The trick is to apply layers of mud/compound to get the desired imperfections out. Where the wallboard is beyond mud and the desired smooth surface, we hang new sheetrock over existing wallboard.

Either way it is a chore, textured primer and paints help.... but if your going to do it right..... well.... spend some time.

Good luck.

-Mike Z.

 

[Dhill]

I am in the middle of a full bathroom remodel. I’m moving walls, plumbing, the whole works. It’s time consuming, and some of it is difficult. Even with this experience, I’m assuming too much when I offer THE way to fix John’s problem. Without seeing the actual task that he faces, it’s hard to say what the best way is to fix it. Sanding and mudding sheetrock is easier than replacing sheetrock. But stripping the sheetrock paper completely off of the gypsum diminishes the integrity of the sheetrock. A little moisture on the sheetrock will cause it to literally fall apart. Mudding over that can control it somewhat, but just adding mud isn’t going to replace the effect of the paper if all the paper is missing. In that case, it would be much better to replace the damaged section of sheetrock. But that may not be necessary for papabear’s application. I think most of us here are offering free advice for him to consider. He’ll have to make the decision for what’s best. From my experience, even the simplest fixes can become a major PIA.
On a side note, the expression “to the wife and I” is grammatically incorrect. The pronoun “I” is subjective case. It is used here as the object of the preposition “to” so consequently, the pronoun should be in its objective form “me”. However, when it’s all said and done, who cares. We know exactly what John means, and he was extremely gracious in the manner that he asked for help.
As Forest Gump says, “and that’s all I have to say about that.”

 

[gsganzer]

Papabear,
Just to give you an idea on cost to rock, bed and texture. It cost me $500 to have my masterbath 10' x 12' and adjoining closet 10' x 6' tape, bed and textured on the walls and ceiling (I put the sheet rock up myself). For them to also install the sheetrock, it probably would have added another $500-$600. I know "expense" is relative, but I think it was extremely reasonable for someone to come and do it in 2-3 days. And it looks a whole lot better then if I did it myself.