Kitchen wall (tiling) panic

[msfreud]

My old kitchen is being ripped out tomorrow and new solid pine units arriving next week... I'd been thinking I could just remove the old wall tiling (splashback going end to end on both sides - it's a galley kitchen - between units and worktops). And then get someone in to put new tiles on after the kitchen units are fitted.

Now I've read it's usually difficult to tile again over areas where old tiles have been removed because it needs to be smooth and newly plastered for tiles to attach?!

I don't have time to get a plasterer in before the new kitchen is fitted, and it seems like a big expense for what is a fairly small area of the wall. The new units will pretty much fit to the spots where old units have been so all other damage from removing old units should be covered by them.

What can I do about the tiles now though?! They are horrible cheap white square tiles which won't go with my beautiful new kitchen so leaving them on is not an option.

[roneik]

If you chip off all the old tile cement that protrudes on the surface, then any hollows should be taken up by the new tile cement. You could before tiling skim over with some tile cement with the flat edge of a plaster trowel . Wait to dry and then tile. You will find you can have several goes at getting it flat as tile cement is quite forgiving as it takes a while to set