Wall Tile adhesive queries - best way to spread it and best way to clean it up

Sounds like you may not have mixed the adhesive well enough. Some of these things are better mechanically whisked into the water, but I'm not familiar with the product

I wash the tools in a bucket of water every half an hour or so. Bits of adhesive start to harden on the spreader quite quickly during use and make the job harder.

Leave the bucket for an hour to let the solids sink to the bottom, and pour off the clear water

Agreed - I used Mapei (the other really good adhesive brand) and used a paddle on an electric drill for all mixing to produce a really smooth gloop. Once you have achieved a good working consistency, even application is down to practice.

Agreed again - also a large damp rag is very useful to clean up the very frequent blobs that seem to get on tool handles and clothes.

. Thanks for that Stuart and Robert. FWIW I'm using BAL ready-mixed adhesive, so poor mixing isn't my problem - its just down to technique/practice I guess.

Did you PVA the wall first? If not the wall could be drying out the adhesive as you spread it.

I chuck my tiling stuff in a bucket of brick acid every now & then.

A good tile adhesive should be able to cope with porous walls

Easier to clean up as you go. You only need a bucket of water

Only time I've PVA'd a wall before tiling is if it is lime plaster and in poor condition - to give it some more strength. I'd say the most absorbent wall would be bare plasterboard - and not had any problems tiling direct to that using a decent ready mix.

Plasterboard is positively dense compared to my walls.

I get a surprising amount of 'a few of my tiles have fallen off' jobs.

Probably through using a cheap/unsuitable adhesive. I had that when using a Wicks one.

I never know what adhesive has been used, but its always the adhesive has firmly stuck to the tile but not the wall, so I assume its due to lack of PVA.

Suppose if the grout had failed and water got in that's where it would give way first, since tiles don't usually absorb water. But I'm not sure PVA would help in that case since it's not waterproof either.

All pva ever does is stop the liquid part soaking into the plaster before whatever you're using has had a chance to cure, so it's an inhibitor rather than a barrier.