I’ve got half a dozen loose tiles to sort in the shower. Previous attempts at this have ALWAYS[/u] resulted in failure.

The plan is.

Remove tiles.
Leave wall to dry for as long as is necessary.
Replace tiles.
Grout.
Leave for 24 hours.

Is there anything that I am missing?

Use BAL flexible cement and grout, no other make. It will sort it. Topps sell it.

I would imagine point 2 of your plan is critical…

I would imagine point 2 of your plan is critical…

Probably the reason for my previous failures.

Scrape off as much of the old tile adhesive as possible i.e. back to bare plaster

You really have to find out why they’re failing 1st, get to the root of the problem. Is it damp, poor surface prep, product, technique etc.

Take the tiles off, see what’s left of the wall, if it’s ruined, make good with fresh plasterboard or whatever the substrate may be, make it as stiff as can be, moving wall boards cause a lot of loose tile problems.

if sound, not flaky, damp in anyway or flexible, then you can retile. after tiling leave for 24hrs to dry before grouting.

Grout and polish then leave a further 24hrs before use.

Re products, Bal is indeed a fine adhesive and grout but I tend not to use it anymore, I prefer a cement based adhesive such as Tilemaster Lightweight with an appropriate primer (NOT P.V.A.) and flexible grout.

Make sure after grouting that everything is sealed that needs to be. If you use a Gypsum based ready mix adhesive, any water getting behind the tile can dissolve the adhesive over time and they will drop off again.

Make sure the shower valve is siliconed where needed too.

Any failure in a tiled wall/floor subject to water will probably spread beyond the one tile as such I would replace all the tiles that contact the obvious failed one. As there have already said ensure the surface is solid and able to support the weight of the tiles and adhesive.

Thanks.

The area affected is the bottom course in the shower on the face that gets the direct hit from the water. The grout has been failing for a while now.

I’ll get them off and have a look at the state of the wall behind.

Try to hack off what’s behind and replace with a piece of Hardiebacker cement board, either screw it to the battens or use drywall adhesive to fix it to the wall.

I would take the bottom two rows of tiles off,take back to the brick and install some 12mm backer board, you screw or glue this direct to the brickwork, it’s waterproof too. Seal this to the shower tray then apply a quality adhesive for your tiles.

Edit. Beaten to it by BigJohn

I used to have the same problem in a wet room, directly under the shower head where the water hit, the grout crumbled and failed, then the mosaic tiles came loose. Re fixed with BAL, been fine ever since (6 years).

As said above, some sort of primer might make all the difference. Not pva though. Something like Zinsser Gardz

The shower needs to be out of use for at least a day before. Remove tiles(weep at state of damp wall),Hairdryer for ages til dry. Combination of no more nails and expanding foam were a success last time I bodged it.
Plus loads of silicon sealant& fresh grout. Horrible job.

When i worked in industry we had a large communal shower area, and to save cost the builders had used shuttering ply for the walls of the cubicles then tiled over them, and very soon after opening when having a shower, the tiles would pop off due to the difference in the temperature of the tiles and the plywood buckling slightly, result was we all got issued with flip flops to wear incase we got cut on broken bits of tile.

Check what the wall is made of and seal it well once dry,also remove more tiles above the loose ones, and look for water penetration behind the lowest level of tiles, it could turn out to be a big job.