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Planning to install solid core wet wall panels/tiles like these because installing shower over bath: tongue and groove panels

They are 38cm L x 65cm W each and tongue and grooved. However the house I purchased has some rows of tiles over bath like thus (and a couple of tiles behind the wash basin too): half tiled walls

This makes it tricky and I don't know what to do about the step change if I were to panel over the tiles. The wall behind is just drywall (maybe greenboard) over studs.

  1. Should I pack the wall(s) with say ply? How do I do this - just normal ply and screw them to studs? As you can see the existing tiles have a trim on top which is not flush with the tiles - it juts out by about 1 or 2 mm so to make it flush/plumb should i plaster a thin layer over the tiles?
  2. Should I bite the bullet and take off the tiles? Likely going to damage the drywall behind. Do I need to rip the drywall, get big section(s), cut them to size and screw them to studs? Do I need to level the walls or the tiles will be OK even if not absolutely level (eg if the adhesive provides a "give" or a cushion).
  3. Do I need to take paint off or just score it randomly and attach the panels (or even stick it over paint)?

Edit: For comments asking if the wet wall panels are the same as traditional tiles, no they are not. The one in the pic is this one for example. The core is MDF or some PVC composite etc.

ustulation
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  • Are "solid core wet wall panels/tile..." simply wall tile or something else? I am not familiar with the product or maybe the terminology. – RMDman Aug 13 '23 at 13:26
  • @RMDman no they aren't wall tiles in the traditional sense - I've edited to add details and link to the sample panel whose pic I put in the question. – ustulation Aug 13 '23 at 17:35
  • Thank you for the info. Very interesting. Do you know if something similar is available in the US? – RMDman Aug 13 '23 at 17:49
  • You're gonna have to open up the wall anyway to install the shower piping, so why not just demo the tile entirely and replace the drywall behind it? Never mind that I'm not sanguine about using this type of panel in a shower. It *says* it's waterproof, but the "waterproof" claim can be made for materials which are only waterproof for some period of time. – Huesmann Aug 14 '23 at 12:54
  • @Huesmann The bath tap can be simply replaced with a bath-shower-mixer tap and nothing goes behind the wall. All you need is a riser rail fixed to the wall which will hold the shower handle. While your claim about waterproof being temporarily waterproof etc might be applicable to some materials and circumstances in general, it's completely untrue for wetwall panels. Not sure where you are from but it's an increasingly common practice in the UK to use those instead of traditional tiles as they offer many advantages. I've already provided links and you could read up more if you wanted. – ustulation Aug 14 '23 at 15:26
  • How do you even replace that fixture? – Huesmann Aug 15 '23 at 11:58
  • @Huesmann Not sure I understand your question. Do you mean to say you don't know how to replace/change bathtub taps (in a particular setup you have in mind)? If so you should create a separate question and ask there. There are plenty of videos that'll show you how to access bathtub taps if that's what you are after. – ustulation Aug 15 '23 at 14:40
  • Not my problem, but I think it's gonna be yours. – Huesmann Aug 16 '23 at 11:53
  • @Huesmann yeah try again. Qualifying with why you think what you think would be a good start. A simple search about bath-shower mixer taps would have given you plenty of context about why you need 0 pipes going through/behind the walls. – ustulation Aug 16 '23 at 18:21
  • Well, I'm nearly 100% certain the pipes for your existing faucet go through the walls (or floor) so that's hardly zero. Perhaps you are fortunate enough to have your existing faucets connected with hoses beneath the deck, and not pipes. In any case, I'd be interested in seeing how you accomplish this. – Huesmann Aug 17 '23 at 12:10
  • @Huesmann OK I think the gap in what is obvious to me and what is obvious to you probably comes from us being in different places where things are potentially done differently. Since you term it as "faucet" I assume you are in the US. Here (UK) , in vast majority of the cases that I've seen and certainly in my case, the the pipe comes from under the floor to the bathtup tap. All you need to do is to take the side cover of the bathtub out, open the connection between the pipe and the tap and change it for the new tap that has a bath-shower-mixer....(contd) – ustulation Aug 17 '23 at 12:24
  • @Huesmannn If-fact it wouldn't matter even if the pipe came in from the walls. As long as they connect to the bathtub tap in front of the walls, there's nothing you need to do with the walls. Just unscrew the tap from the pipe and put in a new tap. That's all. Maybe where you are from, the connection of the bathtub tap to the main plumbing/pipe-feed happens to be somehow behind the wall (which would really be a weird design IMO) and then yes, to even unscrew that you will need to tear the wall to some extent. – ustulation Aug 17 '23 at 12:26

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You should think long term and take off the tiles. It will give a flush finish without breaks in the grout.

It is possible that you may damage the drywall. But its also possible that it is a shoddy job and they may come off easier than you think. You do need to make the surface reasonably level before you retile.

Rohit Gupta
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  • Cheers! Do you recommend just running the drywall knife from where the silicone meets the bathtub to the top of the tiles and saw that entire section out and install a new greenboard etc in it place? I suppose taking out individual tiles is going to be messy and might take out chunks from the wall in many places needing repair to those areas. – ustulation Aug 13 '23 at 17:37
  • Or just take the bottom row out first which gives more space to run the dry wall knife to cut through the section just above the bath tub. – ustulation Aug 13 '23 at 17:38