On 2008-01-30 11:20:41 +0000, "Dave Plowman (News)"
said:

Been tiling the bathroom with large (450 x 300mm) porcelain tiles. Much
of it was tiled before so removing the old didn't leave a perfect surface.
However...

Did the one wall which is old (100 years) plaster on brick. Some of the
skim came off which I made good before tiling. Fine. Looks great. Moved on
to another which is plasterboard and skimmed and in excellent condition -
this one was wallpapered. Did about half and ran out of adhesive. Which
was Homebase 'waterproof' adhesive and grout. Bought at the same time as
the tiles.

Now my closest shed is Wicks and they are rather cheaper than Homebase so
bought some from them. And this morning while finishing off that wall all
the tiles fixed with this stuff yesterday fell off. Quite a shock when the
first one went. The adhesive remained stuck to the tiles and you could see
it had been flattened where it contacted the wall but had come off clean
as a whistle from the plaster. The ones stuck with the Homebase stuff are
absolutely solid on the same wall.

I'm obviously going to get the Homebase stuff again - but what's wrong
with the Wicks product? Stored past its best or just no good? And do I
just take it back and complain?

Luckily not one tile was damaged by falling 6 ft or so.

I wouldn't buy any of these shed products - they are too variable and
not of good quality.

It would be well worthwhile calling the technical help line of Ardex
and giving them details of the substrates and the tiles.

They have a number of fixing systems which will cover virtually every
eventuality. Some involve the use of an admix to the adhesive or a
binding preparation for the wall, rather than a need to purchase
multiple adhesives.

I had similarly sized and heavy tiles to fit to a variety of surfaces
including plasterboard, skimmed plasterboard, plaster and plywood.
For the plywood, they recommended a two part conditioner product, which
when mixed and applied leaves a sticky surface even when cured. It
will then work with the adhesive that is used for the other surfaces.

Certainly Ardex adhesives are more expensive than shed products, but in
the context of the complete project, the difference is negligible.