laying cut floor tiles - adhesive on floor or back of tile?

[The Night Tripper]

Hi All after following the good advice from Tim Watts et. al. regarding levelling my front porch, I have now done that and put down the main inner 'island' of tiles. I'm now looking at cutting the outer 'ring' of tiles to size, and fitting them.

The guides I've read have a heuristic 'put adhesive on the floor for full tiles, and on the back of the tile for cut tiles'. But surely this isn't an absolute rule? My cut tiles will almost all be roughly of the size 250mm by

300mm (cut from a 300mm square tile). Thus there is enough room to get my notched trowel onto the floor and put the adhesive down 'normally'.

I am assuming that the rule to put adhesive onto the back of the tile really applies when the tile is too narrow to do this. Is this right, or am I missing something?

Thanks J^n

[Tim Watts]

Hi,

The rule is not absolute - just do whatever is more comfortable.

If the subfloor is dead flat, notching an even spread of adhesive down is pretty reliable. If not, or you are using stone tiles with varying thicknesses, then here's what our pro did (with slate):

1) Splat some adhesive down;

2) Drop tile

3) Lift tile

4) Whichever bits of the back don't have much/any adhesive on - add a bit more to the tile in those positions

5) Drop tile back for prefect fit :)

Seemed to be his favourite trick for speedy laying.

Cheers,

Tim

[NT]

Doesn't matter a damn what way round you do it. Its just a bit easier to put adhesive on the floor with open spaces, and on the tile where space is cramped.

NT

[The Night Tripper]

That's what I thought - thanks. I shall continue with my planned approach then.

Interesting technique your tiler adopted, Tim - I'd thought of something like that but dismissed it as being a bit amateurish ;-o

Luckily these tiles are (a) a bit on the 'rustic style', and (b) only in the front porch; absolute flatness is not crucial, phew.

FWIW I've been cutting the tiles with a Plasplugs Electic Ceramic tile cutter I got cheap (£3 at a car boot sale, then £4 at same sale for a new cutting disc). It's worked very well, to my slight surprise. I would be happy to use it again for a similar job.

Cheers J^n

[NT]

=A33! What a bargain

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

Meh, I found one at the local bottle/plastic/card recycling point. I haven't actually plugged it in and pressed GO but I figure the virtually unworn disc will do as a spare for mine. Maybe other bits as spares as well...

[Weatherlawyer]

It would depend on the finished tile. Slate would only have one finished surface. It might get milled for an extra small fortune but more often the tiles would vary tremendously in thickness and evenness.

In which case it is easier to dab and relay repeatedly trying each one separately as one goes.

You'd need a good mix to stand up to that though. Of couse it helps that slate is impervious.