Recommended flexible tile grout?

For floors - mostly ceramic tiles...

It needs to be flexible as the tiles are sitting on Marmox which is slightly flexible.

I'm sorted on the adhesive - Mapei Kerabond + Isolastic - I tried some, then tried to break it up and it held together like a b*stard.

Another complication with the grout, which I don't fully appreciate yet is I'd like something that's either available in various very basic colours, or can have colour added. I suspect we will need some in a light beigy or a very pale colour and some in a darker grey based on tile choices so far.

How does one go about this?

Ta

Tim

Reply to
Tim S
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Then rip them up and make it rigid. Tiles will NOT survive more than a mm of flexure or so.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Hi Tim - looks like we're doing much the same but you're a couple of steps ahead of me :-). I have a shed full of marmox, and a batch of tiles at the local shop waiting for me to ok the delivery (no space to store them here) but haven't properly looked into adhesive/grout/etc.

It's good to hear of your successful test with the kerabond & isolastic

- was there anything else that seemed like a possible alternative?

How are you planning to fix the marmox down? (I'm doing both walls and floor)

Any pointers to a good/cheap supplier?

Cheers,

Pete

Reply to
Pete Verdon

May as well stick with Mapei and the Ultracolour - as much colour choice as you could ask for, with matching silicones for the expansion gaps.

Reply to
Bolted

Dunno about flexible grout - but adding some emulsion paint colours ordinary ones. Just make sure you make up enough for one job as it's difficult to match later. And you only need a few drops of it.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The Natural Philosopher wibbled:

I don't expect a >mm of flexure. But I do expect to need a flexible grout.

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

Pete Verdon wibbled:

Actually my test was on an expanded polystyrene floor heating panel, 25mm or so thick

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Mapei Kerabond + Isolastic was the recommended for this application. My tests indicated that cheap "quarry" tiles (6mm or so thick, 10x10cm) would survive me jumping up and down on them - but a heavy impact load (belting hard with a rubber mallet) would crack the tiles.

Based on that, and the clear fact that Marmox has way more surface rigidity, I feel quite happy with the Marmox - it's going to take a hell of a whack to crack the tiles, and you could crack a tile on concrete if you try hard enough.

On a dodgey floor, good screed but no DPM, I used Mapei Keraquick on advice from Mapei Technical. They couldn't guarantee it for 30 years (their words) but they thought it had the best chance of survival against damp. That was good enough for me.

On good floors with damp resistance I will either use the same or perhaps something slightly cheaper.

Screwfix for Keraquick, but I've since found

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stock it (and much of the Mapei range) rather more cheaply.

BTW - cut Marmox like plasterboard - score with a stanley knife, snap and cut the back. Very quick and fairly non messy. But lots of blades - it eats blades :)

Reply to
Tim S

One thing I would add Pete:

For the bathroom, I thought it best to give Marmox a call regarding loadings of the bath and loo.

Their recommendation was not to sit the bath on Marmox as it would be using up a fair fraction of the max compressive loading.

The suggestion was to leave cutouts in the mamrox for the feet and use either plywood packing to the same depth (their suggestion) or fill the cutout and level off with screed (my suggestion that met with their approval) so that load pads were formed for the bath feet.

Although the loo is potentially a much lower loading, they suggested doing the same there just to be on the safe side...

Cheers

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

Bolted wibbled:

Thanks for the pointer - spot on as always :)

The matching silicones will be handy too.

Now I've read the datasheet I also notice that Keracolour FF + Fugolastic additive has the same flexural strength - so that's a second option depending on availability.

Thanks!

Tim

Reply to
Tim S

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