Older tub wall and plumbing help

Hi, this is my first time on this site. I am pretty sure that this has been asked prior. I want to tile my bathtub walls. The house was built in 1948. The walls had a three piece plastic surround that I removed. There was some glue on the wall. The walls look like concrete walls. I can see wire mesh near the bottom of the wall after removing some older tile sections.

My question is this: Can I just tile right on to the concrete walls with morter first or do I need to prep the wall first? How should I fill in the space between the bottom of the concrete wall and the top of the tub. The area to be filled is about 4" high around the entire length of the tub.

Also, I want to re-plumb the supply hot and cold pipes. I think the pipes are copper but they may be galvanize. Whats the best way to plumb through and repair the concrete wall? Presuming that what I see are concrete walls.

Thanks for any help given.

REH

Some pictures would help, because I do not get the complete picture.

It sounds like you may have a lath and mortar substrate, intended for tile. But I don't understand why they would go to all that trouble and then put up plastic panels.

On the plumbing wall, can you open the other side of the wall for access to the pipes?

The backer for tile needs to overlap down over the tub flange.

Given your description, I really would like further details and a picture of the situation. Since you may need some help to rectify a less-than-proper situation, also check this website: www.johnbridge.com
They are tile pros over there and can get you through this. Keep us posted over here as well. Thanks.

Jimbo,

I spoke to a former building (+25 years experience) inspector who had been to the house prior. He told me that the walls were concrete with glue for the surround and that the concrete should have black paper between the concrete and the studs as a vapor barrier. I told him that I could not verify the black paper. He recommended that I remove the concrete entirely and put in a vapor barrier and then put on 1/2" Wonderboard, then tile with thinset. He did not tell me why the surround was added on top of the concrete nor did I ask.

This also allows me to do the plumbing change that I wanted to do.

Thanks for you help.

leave the walls intact

hi R,

you can leave the walls everywhere --except where you need to break them to redo the plumbing -- and tile directly on the walls after redoing the section around the plumbing, assuming you are satisfied with the vapor barrier and how it overlaps the tub tiling flange (or not). If not, you can waterproof them from the inside with a Custom product, Redgard, or a Schluter product, Kerdi, or a few other products. Then you don't need to take the concrete down !!

David