I've been checkin out the site for a while now and picking up all sorts of tips, so when my mate had the tilers in to do bathroom last week I went for a look. He had large porcelain tile to be fitted,670 x 330 onto plasterboard. Problem I have is that the only adhesives lying about were BAL whitestar tubbed stuff. I'm not a tiler but pretty sure I have seen you guys say bagged gear with flexi properties or porcelbond for this type of tile. Am I worried for nothing or should I not bang the door on the way out!!
John

White star will stick smaller porcelain tiles but for that size, the problem arises when the adhesive tries to dry out. As you have a plasterboard substrate you may be ok but as a general rule the advise given on here is to use a cementicious adhesive.

You white star will take several days to dry properly if at all and if it is grouted too early it will compound the problem.

Grumpy

I agee with Russ, sorry but White star is not recommended by BAL for large format tile as this installation is. But dont panic...if there was any problem the wall tiles may have already become mosaics on the floor by now, tell your friend just to watch the grout for cracking or falling out, this will be a sign of de-bonding tiles.....Gaz

Originally Posted by Gaz@BAL

I agee with Russ, sorry but White star is not recommended by BAL for large format tile as this installation is. But dont panic...if there was any problem the wall tiles may have already become mosaics on the floor by now, tell your friend just to watch the grout for cracking or falling out, this will be a sign of de-bonding tiles.....Gaz

PMSL Gaz.

Grumpy

Thanks for the reply,
I was under the impression that tubbed stuff was a no go for porcelain but it can be used on small tiles? Whats the size limit for porcelain tiles using a tubbed adhesive?
Thanks again
John

It depends on the background you are tiling onto. Tubbed adhesive sticks by air drying. For this you need to have a porous surface for the moisture to disperse into, with porcelain tiles, they don't absorb moisture so your substrate would need to be porous i.e plasterboard or backerboard or something. In addition, the adhesive can dry out of the grout lines before grouting. Personally anything above a 200mm square tile in porcelain on an absorbant background I would use powder adhesive.

Grumpy

The thing to remember is that white star dries through (mainly) evaporation and the cement based adhesives (mainly) through chemical reaction.

that's why you should always allow for the grouting to be carried out the next day. It pushes the labour cost up but it is the right way about it.