I was removing my old medicine chest in bathroom where the background is wh ite tiled. 3 square tiles fell, not broken. I would like to put them back, but do not know what i can use to do it. I know there is something that is used for this but I only seen it in a 5 gallon can. Any suggestions, please ?
Is there still tile mastic or thin set on the wall where the tiles fell out? Is there still mastic or thin set on the backs of the tiles that fell out? If there is mastic or thin set on the wall, but hardly any on the tile back, it's because the tiles were set after the mastic or thin set had already skinned over. It would be best to remove the old mastic or thin set from the wall and tile if you can. The will be easier on a plaster wall, but could get a bit dicey if the wall is drywall. It may be hard to remove the thin set or mastic without also removing the drywall surface paper it's stuck to. I'd try using a hair dryer to soften it up if it's mastic.
Otherwise, since the area around your medicine cabinet is a dry area, I would just use ANY adhesive you happen to have. If you have any construction adhesive in a caulking tube, you can just use that. Buy a plastic adhesive spreader at any home center and spread the adhesive on the back of each tile before setting it back in place.
You may want to remove the grout from the edges of the neighboring tiles and regrout around the tiles that fell out. Any place that does ceramic tiling will have some white non-sanded polymer modified grout they can give you for a $2 donation to their coffee fund.
If the hairdryer softens it, does he have to remove and replace it, or can he treat it like he just spread it on?
No, he'd have to remove the stuff.
Old mastic doesn't liquify when it gets warm, it just gets soft enough to turn kinda rubbery so that you can scrape it off. Hot mastic won't "wet" the back of the tile, which is what you need for good adhesion.
But, my experience removing old mastic is with using a heat gun. A hair dryer will help, but to remove lots of the stuff you really need a heat gun. Without heat, remove old tile mastic is a lot like fighting with a bear over a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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