It's a plot I tell you....

[The Medway Handyman]

I've concluded that tiles are sold as a loss leader & the money is made on adhesive & grout.

Large tub of adhesive - enough to cover 8 sq mtrs - did it hell. Ran out at less than 5 sq mtrs - applied with regular notched trowel, not excessively.

Grout was the same. Tub also claimed "enough to cover 8 sq mtrs". & didn't last till 6 sq mtrs.

So you have to go and buy another of each & use about a quarter of a tub, storing the rest in the shed for 10 years in case it "comes in handy".

Paint is the same. Small can not enough, big can far too much - I suspect they know the average room size & package accordingly.

[Jim K]

switch to powdered? ;>)

Cheers Jim K

[Brian Gaff]

And how many people can ever unblock superglue bottles and use it for the next job. If they manage it half the contents glue your fingers and the rest tends to formaa hard lump on any nearby cloth or very visible surface.

Brian

[harry]

Make your own. Sand cement and PVA. Applying PVA to tile backs and floor also.

[newshound]

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are *not* out to get you

:-)

[Owain]

Superglue may be best bought as 5 or 7 small tubes for =A31 in Poundland type places.

I presume it is actually superglue inside the tubes; Poundland UHU sticks okay but not quite as smelly as I fondly remember it.

Owain

[Huge]

I bought a 50ml bottle from Screwfix a long time ago and it's still going strong. Keep it in the frig, don't leave the top off when using it (it's the moisture in the air which sets it) and make sure there's none on the spout when putting the cap back on.

[ARW]

That's the uk.d-i-y way.

[polygonum]

Bought something like that quite a few years ago. Very disappointed that when we tried to use it the other day it simply did not set. Looked OK, flowed OK.

Still - will probably buy some more small tubes next time I see some.

[Nick Odell]

I've been buying pound shop superglue in 8 or 10 or 12 tubes per card and the glue works fine. I don't know whether this stuff has a shelf life or not but I've found that, once I've opened a tube, the remainer probably won't keep for more than a few days before it goes off solid.

I also had an odd experience with one tube that was pretty old but had never been opened. I gave it a little shake to determine if it was still liquid. It was. Not wanting to spurt liquid superglue out of the nozzle, I gave the spout a quick, percussive flick to persuade any glue there back into the main body and as I did so, I felt the whole mass of glue turn instantly solid.

It's never happened again like that, but is there a known chain-reaction type effect that I'd unfortunately unleashed?

Nick