Adhesive colour for floor tiles?

[Greg]

Hi all

I have just bought some ceramic floor tiles, sandstone (or limestone? can't remember) grout and adhesive. The adhesive is grey. My tiler (sorry, no time to DIY this one...) tells me the adhesive should be white or it will show through. This sounds strange to me, but is he right?

TIA

Greg

[Simon Avery]

Hello Greg

Huh?

Combined adhesive/grout products (crap, btw - don't use as a grout, they're too sticky and are far harder to clean off the tiles) would obviously show, but adhesive is hidden unless you have a really messy tiler.

UNLESS, it's because it's real Sandstone, which is absorbant and might, concievably, suck the adhesive up (can't think it would, just mooting possibilities) but even then, if that happens then your tiles are ruined anyway.

No, sorry, really can't figure out what he means.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think he means he wants to use the white stuff he nicked off the last job, and charge you 15% over the retail for it actually :-)

[David]

Marble can be translucent and will show adhesive especially near to the top of the grout joint. If a serrated trowel is used to spread adhesive then the tiles can appear to be striped later on

With sandstone it's very hard to remove traces of adhesive residue. If only a small bit is accidentally put on the surface it is near impossible to remove (can be sanded off). White adhesive is not so noticeable in this situation. A good policy is to pre seal the stone surface.

David

[Simon Avery]

Hello The

Ahhh....

[Greg]

Thanks all. Just for clarity, the tiles are ceramic (and I can't see the light through them), and it's the grout which is sandstone in colour.

Cheers again

Greg

[The Natural Philosopher]

Brick acid will get it off sandstone and slate, but will attack marble.