Hi, I'm hoping someone can offer some advice.

I just finished my first tile installation, and I think there's a problem. I laid newly-laid-tiles-lifting-easily-2 tiles in our laundry room, over newly-laid-tiles-lifting-easily board (laid a day earlier).

I used Flexbond under the 1/4 cement board and used galvanized screws to secure it in place. I then installed the 13 x 13 tiles using a 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 trowel. I made sure that the consistency of the thinset was that of peanut butter.

It has now been 24 hours since I completed the install, and I went in to take a look before grouting. I noticed that one tile was sticking up in one corner (in a prominent location) so I decided to replace it. I was expecting to have to break it apart, and was unpleasantly surprised to see that it lifted whole, and that the thinset beneath it was still damp (and scraped away easily from the cement board).

I'm not concerned that the entire install has failed in some way. I'm not sure whether I should just give it more time, or attempt to remove the tiles and begin again. I'm not sure what I did wrong, so I don't know why the tiles wouldn't have adhered.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't know what to do at this point.

Hi Audrey, welcome to the forums. I am not familiar with the products that you are using as it sounds like you are from the United States. If you wait around for a while, our contributors from your part of the world will advise, I am sure.

Its cold over here in the UK, below freezing at nights. Adhesives have to be laid at 5 deg C plus to go off properly.
I havnt laid any at close to freezing so cant comment if curing is inhibited but if that is what it says on the bag.....

Is the heating working in the rest of the house if so than this shouldnt be an issue, but for everyone working on sites, best organise a heater. It will keep the hands warm if nothing else!

I'm in Canada, actually.

I ended up pulling up the tiles last night, and I'm going to redo the floor today. I think that I hadn't pressed the tile into the thinset deeply enough, so the adherence wasn't as good as it could have been.

I may have taken them up for nothing, but since this is a laundry room and the tiles will go beneath a washer, I wanted to be sure that they were solid.

Temperature isn't an issue for this installation; the laundry room is on the main floor, above a finished (heated) basement.

hope it goes ok this time

Hi Audrey,

Did you use Flexbond by Custom Building Products? If so, then by the next day it should have been well bonded, especially over cement backer board which would help pull the mositure out of it while curing (as opposed to something like Schluter Ditra).

Flexbond is a quality product with high bonding strength, and it shouldn't have scraped off the tile like you are describing.

Here's one suggestion: check the bag for the date and production code. Custom uses a sequence of numbers to ID the date, year and plant location for the material. Look for a number stamped on the end of the bag and let me know what it is. One problem with thinsets and grouts at Home Depot (I'm assuming you bought the Custom product at HD) is that they don't do a good job of rotating stock. I have seen bags of material at HD that were 3-5 years old . By then, the cement is dead in the material and it won't reach full strength when mixed.

Hi audrey one thing you might consider is how much adhesive you put down before you lay the tiles into it the longer you leave it the more it goes off and won't stick, besides that i did a job for my brother-in-law a number of years ago and had a similar problem all i could put it down to was a bad batch of adhesive it just seemed to take forever to go off, all the best Mike

Thanks for help.

I put the tiles down again Wednesday, and they seem fine this time. I was careful to only put down enough thinset for 2 - 4 tiles at a time (because this is my first tile job and I'm slow), so I don't think that the thinset was too dry when I laid the tiles.

I used a 1/4 x 3/8 x 1/4 trowel this time (instead of the 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2), so I got a lot let seepage coming up between the tiles, and I also did a better job of pressing them into the thinset. I also lightly backbuttered the tiles.

I bought the Flexbond at HD, yes. I can't find a date, but the Batch number is 08 317 065 FF. I'm hoping the 08 means it was made this year. The cement board (also purchased at HD) is Wonderboard.

I'm going to caulk and grout today, so I hope that the installation was successful.

Thanks again for the help.

Hi Audrey,

That's a good code and fresh material. It was made on the 317th day of 2008. Good luck with your project!