Tiling onto brick stairs

[ELF]

Hi Everyone, I'm new to this I'm so hoping that someone out there will be able to help.
We've got some old brick stairs going down to our cellar, they have been painted but its not that good and its peeling off. We've now converted the cellar and we were hoping to tile the stairs. WE've bought some tiles (mosaic) that we are hoping to fix.

My question is, as these stairs are dusty and flakey what would be the best thing to "seal" them? Would i need to do this and is it possible?

All advise welcome as i don't want to find out that the tiles are goign to fall off if we just slap them on stairs as they are.

Thanks guys!

 

[AFH Dan]

Should you go down this route or not is up to you but...

BS says that if the paint isn't compatable with the adhesive it needs to be "machanically removed" (scrape it and sand it and try to get as much of it of as you can) Then assuming the stairs are concrete or brick, you can tile on them using a Class AA Type 1 adhesive (cement based in a bag - maybe not the fast setting if its your first time) with a thin bed solid bed trowel (leaving a small bed of adhesive that 100% covers the back of the tile) so you would need to try and make up any small dips and take of any bumps firstly.

Rather than pressing the tiles in by hand, use a grout float that will help you keep them flat. To cut them use tile nippers.

Are you tiling the walls to a certain height too?

And... get some info from "David and Julie" - (forum name) too as he/she/they are pretty clued up too.

 

[AFH Dan]

woops, just read the subject. It is brick.

 

[ELF]

Thanks for the info, it looks like i need to get scrubbing this weekend with the wire brush.