Tiling troubles with large tiles

[leenowell]

Hi All,

We are tiling our bathroom with 500mm x 300mm tiles. After a lot of Google / YouTube effort it seems that the consensus was to use a float with 10mm s quare "teeth" and put the adhesive on relatively thick with the flat side o f the float then grove it off using the teeth with the float at 35 deg to v ertical.

When following these instructions, we had to take a tile off to reseat it t o discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhesi ve and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling prev iously, when we have had to take the tile off the adhesive fully covers the whole tile.

We have put it on thicker, held the toothed edge at greater angles (to incr ease the height of the ridges) but neither seems to make any difference.

Anyone out there have any ideas what we are doing wrong?

thanks in advance

Lee.

[Fredxxx]

I don't think you are doing anything wrong. 10mm or so gaps should be fine as long as the high parts of the adhesive are in contact with the tile.

I have assumed the purpose is to allow some vertical adjustment by wiggling and adjusting the tile down and making sure those adjacent are level.

[tabbypurr]

le/ YouTube effort it seems that the consensus was to use a float with 10mm square "teeth" and put the adhesive on relatively thick with the flat side of the float then grove it off using the teeth with the float at 35 deg to vertical.

to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhe sive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling pr eviously, when we have had to take the tile off the adhesive fully covers t he whole tile.

crease the height of the ridges) but neither seems to make any difference.

nothing

NT

[John Rumm]

I would not assume there is anything wrong - in most cases there is no actual requirement that the tile is fully bedded - so long as its supported all over, and there are no large voids behind.

The exception to that is in wet service areas like showers, where they suggest there should be a full bed of water proof adhesive. However even there you may have a full bed with ridges on top, rather than through.

(in general the ridges make positioning and levelling the tile easier, since there is somewhere for the displaced glue to go without needing a massive application of force to get it to squidge out at the edges of the tile - especially true with pro glues that have lots of grab and relatively little slump).

[leenowell]

Unfortunately this is for a shower area. A combination of

- using the notched trowel with adhesive on and then in several directions before doing vertical lines

- sliding the tile (say 20mm) perpendicular to the grooves each way

- putting a thin coat on the tile

Seems to have improved things but still not perfect.

Not easy though....

[harry]

le/ YouTube effort it seems that the consensus was to use a float with 10mm square "teeth" and put the adhesive on relatively thick with the flat side of the float then grove it off using the teeth with the float at 35 deg to vertical.

to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhe sive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling pr eviously, when we have had to take the tile off the adhesive fully covers t he whole tile.

crease the height of the ridges) but neither seems to make any difference.

You want a tilers float with bigger notches eg

[harry]

le/ YouTube effort it seems that the consensus was to use a float with 10mm square "teeth" and put the adhesive on relatively thick with the flat side of the float then grove it off using the teeth with the float at 35 deg to vertical.

to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhe sive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling pr eviously, when we have had to take the tile off the adhesive fully covers t he whole tile.

crease the height of the ridges) but neither seems to make any difference.

The bigger the tile, the flatter the surface needs to be or you get upstand ing corners. Also the bigger the tile, you need a thicker bed of adhesive.

[leenowell]

Thanks Harry. I had one of those and then after a bit of Google suggestion was to go for a 10mm version. So now using that but still not much joy

[John Rumm]

The full bed of adhesive is really about keeping water away from the substrate (plaster, PB etc), should any make it past the grouting. That does not equate directly to "must be solid glue with no gaps", but more should be a contentious barrier somewhere between tile and wall.

Normally in these cases, I would towel on adhesive to a reasonably uniform depth, then run the notched trowel over to create some groves, but not push hard enough to go right through the glue - but just enough to make ridges that will make bedding the tile easier.

[leenowell]

That makes sense. So your point is that the fact that there may be every other strip of 10mm not directly attached to the substrate (worse possible case) is not really the issue. It is more protection of the substrate?

[leenowell]

That makes sense. So your point is that the fact that there may be every other strip of 10mm not directly attached to the substrate (worse possible case) is not really the issue. It is more protection of the substrate?