Floor tiles outside

I bedded mine on sand/cement with a bit of pva on the backs of the slates. If you're doing a small area then exterior tile cement/grout is easier to use. The default sand down my way is sharp sand, and it is not as workable as builder's soft sand ( the golden brown stuff ), so I struggled a bit levelling the slates. The advice I had was to bed them on a 'solid bed', but that's very difficult as if you don't get the amount of cement underneath the slates exactly right, they'll be too high or too low. I was worried about water getting under the slates in any voids then freezing and prising them off. In hindsight, I live in such a mild area, and there is no standing water problem so I think I worried unnecessarily.

Get all your tiles out, and randomise them to mix the batches, then find the thickest one and lay that first - it will determine the thickness of the bed. If you use sand/cement then use soft sand, and mix in plenty of pva or plasticiser to give a workable mix. Then my advice would be to go for a 'five spot' method underneath each tile so they can be settled easily into place and level. Try ot to leave big voids under any tile. A slope of 1:60 ish should be OK. Finish up with some exterior tile grout. I can't comment on adhesives, I've only used the products I've mentioned.

Andy.

Reply to
andrewpreece
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I want to tile a concrete, outside doorstep; was going to use slate floor tiles - that should be suitable for the purpose shouldn't it?

Never having tiled outside before, can somebody tell me what the differences are to doing the bathroom? I was going to buy swimming-pool rated adhesive; make sure the tiles are ever-so-slightly sloped outwards; anything else to look out for? Are there any issues related to frost-protection?

Thanks David

Reply to
Lobster

I take your point about 5-spot, but I did bed my slates on a solid bed of wet mortar and found great difficulty in getting them level; the problem was that if I had a little too much cement underneath, I could tap and jiggle them down a little bit but the cement would 'lock up' if I tried to adjust them down too far. and the only solution was to pull up the slate, scrape out all the cement, and try again. A similar problem occurred with too little cement beneath the slate, they'd go down too far and be unadjustable. I found the whole business to be very critical, which is why I suggested the

5 spot method, but perhaps if soft sand and plenty of plasticiser is used the solid bed method is easier than I found,

cheers,

Andy.

Reply to
andrewpreece

I would probably advise thickert slates, and probably bed them on 5:1 sharp sand and moratar done fairly thickly.

But a good job with rapid set adhesive would probably be OK.

Use waterproof grout to prevent frost cracking.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The solution to this is to use a fairly wet mix, so that it has enough mobility to squelch outwards when tapped with teh 'rubber bonker' as SHE calls it, but not enough to allow te tiles to slump under their own weight. I found by accidenent that addition of plasticiser helps too - te water reoais trapped in the cement longer, rather tha evaoprating off.

My advice is abvoid 5 spot like the plague, yes its quicker. yes, it avoids having to clean up the mess, but a great barf of sticky mortar with the tiles or stones pressed right in is rock solid forever, and has no voids that could cause problems of cracking etc.

I leave em for about an hour or three, then carefully wipe with a sponge, rinsing EVERY wipe to remove surplus sand. The dull dusting of cement is removed a few days later with patio acid.

If youi want to grout with a different material, scrape out the joints after about 24 hours, when the surface is stable but the muck is stil friable.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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