New bathroom floor tile problems

Apr 11, 2005 14 Replies

I tore up the old tiles which were on a wooden underlayment. I installed Wonderboard and screwed the hell out of it. Then installed all the tiles using thinset. Waited 24 hours then grouted. Well a week went by and 2 tiles would make a noise when you walked on them. After removing the 2 tiles I noticed that the thinset didn't harden. These 2 tiles are not next to each other and are in the middle of the floor. I cleaned up the areas and applied thinset to 2 new tiles and installed them. Well it's been 12 hours later and one of the tiles seems to be ok but the other still seems loose.



Can't figure out why 2 tiles in different areas are acting up. If worse comes to worse I'll cut out the wonderboard under the tiles and install 2 new pieces and try again. No one used this bathroom for almost week after the tiles were set. All tiles, wonderboard, thinset, grout were in the house for a week before the work was started.



Email me with any recommendations, Thanks



What type of thinset? Are you sure it's not mastic of some sort? You may need to remove all of the tiles and reset using a good thinset.

Thinset was bought at Home Depot and is pre-mixed. All other tiles are fine. The one tile today seems to be fine the other one is still tacky after 36 hours. Gonna just pick it up, clean the area and use new thinset and a different tile but I think there might be something in the wonderboard that won't let the thinset dry.

I'd be trying to figure out why the thinset didn't set up. If it didn't under two tiles, you can pretty much bet it didn't under others...maybe all.

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

formatting link

I've never used the pre-mixed, and what you're describing has never happened to me. Next time use dry thinset and mix it yourself. Customs, Hydroment, Mapei.

We are in the process of doing tile in our bathroom, and the wonderboard we bought had some kind of tape on it (I'm not sure what purpose it served, it was just green plasticky tape with the brand name all over it), and we were told by the HD people to make sure that we took that tape off before tiling because of the problems you describe.

Any chance that is the problem?

--Jodi

Hehe...good thought! If it's limited to just a couple of tiles, that could be it!

If its premixed like that, i'll bet its mastic. Depend on which type you used. For a floor I would have used thinset, over even better yet... They have the flexbond thinset. Real nice dry thinset that you mix. Even if there is a little give it still holds.

Tom

If its premixed like that, i'll bet its mastic. Depend on which type you used. For a floor I would have used thinset, over even better yet... They have the flexbond thinset. Real nice dry thinset that you mix. Even if there is a little give it still holds.

Tom

Not necessarily, but that was my guess as well. Pre-mixed thinset is readily available at the big orange and other home improv. stores. I don't use it or recommend it.

Good advice.

Thats just the wrapping that they have on the wonderboard. Mike (original poster) was having problems with the mastic curing properly.

Latex fortified. I've been using something called Duraflex.

It's thinset says so right on it

I hope not, but I don't know why it's only those 2 tiles. I didn't remove the tape, one of the tiles sits on the edge of two boards the other sits squarely on a different board

That's where I bought it. Going to try a small tub of Ceramic tile adhesive now, so we'll see tomorrow.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required