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 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.

When following these instructions, we had to take a tile off to reseat it to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhesive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling previously, 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 increase 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.

On 24/09/2017 11:50, wrote:
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 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.

When following these instructions, we had to take a tile off to
reseat it to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in
contact with the adhesive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point
of contact. When tiling previously, 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 increase the height of the ridges) but neither seems to make any
difference.

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

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.

On Sunday, 24 September 2017 11:50:30 UTC+1, wrote:
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 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.

When following these instructions, we had to take a tile off to reseat it to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhesive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling previously, 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 increase 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.

nothing


NT

On 24/09/2017 11:50, wrote:
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 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.

When following these instructions, we had to take a tile off to
reseat it to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in
contact with the adhesive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point
of contact. When tiling previously, 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 increase the height of the ridges) but neither seems to make any
difference.

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

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).


--
Cheers,

John.

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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....

On Sunday, 24 September 2017 11:50:30 UTC+1, wrote:
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 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.

When following these instructions, we had to take a tile off to reseat it to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhesive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling previously, 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 increase 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.

You want a tilers float with bigger notches eg
https://www.screwfix.com/p/rubi-open...FSulUQodavEP_w

On Sunday, 24 September 2017 11:50:30 UTC+1, wrote:
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 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.

When following these instructions, we had to take a tile off to reseat it to discover that only the ridges of the tiles are in contact with the adhesive and therefore 10mm gaps between each point of contact. When tiling previously, 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 increase 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.

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

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

On 24/09/2017 15:09, wrote:
Unfortunately this is for a shower area. A combination of

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.

- 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....




--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

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?

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?