Tiling: adhesive to the floor or the tile?

On Wednesday, December 18, 2013 10:17:54 PM UTC, snipped-for-privacy@virgin.net wrote :

er the tiles individually rather than floating out a layer of goo on the ba se to be tiled? I only have a 2 square meter area to complete, but it's got some tricky cut-outs and I'd prefer to do it the former way, unless there' s something about this method that would give rise to unsatisfactory result s.

The stuff ends up in the same place either way. The plus of it on the floor is you can lay tiles onto a flat even bed.

NT

On Wednesday 18 December 2013 22:17 snipped-for-privacy@virgin.net wrote in uk.d-i- y:

You can do that...

Harry belched: The adhesive is far better spread on the floor with a proper tool. If you put it on the tile you never get the same amount, this leads to an uneven floor. End quote

Shurely using said tool to butter the tile backs will put the same amount on each tile ???

You also assume the floor is flat & level...if it'd not you'd be buttering & tittin about anyway...

All the time the tricky cut tiles are being done, adhesive already on the floor is drying/setting....

I'd butter with an adhesive trowel.

Jim K

Does it bollox.

(a) If you use a notched trowel you get exactly the same amount. (b) You check that each tile is flat with a level or straight edge anyway.

The spreader is faster and more economical. It also makes for a cleaner job with less adhesive squeezing out when you put downward pressure on the tile. Essentially bugger all difference though

Todays top tip. Instead of putting the tile in place & moving it towards the previous tile to get the grout gap right - place it flush & move it away. Stops adhesive being squished up into the grout gap.

Did you gain that tip from your experience or someone elses ? I learnt a lot wathing the tilers that I had putting the calibrated slate o n the floor when my back was dodgy. They combed adhesive on the floor as normal, "dropped" the tile down under its own weight, lifted it by hinging at the back to see any low spots where the tile had not compressed the adhesive so much, dropped some more adhesi ve in those spots and then pushed the thing home. Sort of obvious, but experience and skill makes jobs look easy. When I do t he floor of the downstairs loo I'll try their technique. Interesting my mother learnt how to cut hair after sitting parked outside t he hairdressers every week for years ! Simon.

Why would you want to stop adhesive partly filling the grout gap?

NT

Because it makes a mess which is difficult to get rid of, wet or dry.

and the grout may be a different colour to the tile adhesive.....

Adhesive is invariably off white

In the case of ceramic floor tiles, is it really such a bad thing to

Just came up with it. Perhaps I 'independently invented' it.

snip

??

unless it's grey... like proper cementitious gear..

Jim K