Cutting and grouting unfilled travertine mosaic

[rsb123]

Is there any trick to cutting this type of tile -- 48x98mm in 305mm square sheets (yes, I'm using a electric wet saw).
mosaic.jpg
What is the technique for grouting this kind of tile so that you keep the grout out of the little holes in the tile itself?

Substrate is a solid (external facing) bathroom wall (not wet area) which currently has ceramic tile which ill be removed.

Trowel notch depth?

And finally, is Mapei Keraflex Maxi (slow set) OK to use as an adhesive or is a rapid set better?

thanks gents

[shorty8]

I normally just use a 4 inch angle grinder to cut travertine its a bit dusty but just cut it outside or have a vac handy to catch the dust, if you don`t want the holes filled on the face just point the joint but it would be easier to fill the holes, i would recommend a 6mm notch trowel any deeper and the adhesive would start to come through the joints, regarding the adhesive you will be best using a slow set adhesive as it gives you more time to work with it.

[rsb123]

Brilliant thanks. You just saved me buying another bag of adhesive.

[Rich]

I agree, would be much easier (and IMO better) to grout the holes in at the same time. What colour grout are you going for? As above regarding the adhesive. I would try a 4mm trowel, press a sheet of Mosaics back into the adhesive then pull them off and see what the coverage is like, you should be ok to use a 6mm if you need to as, I assume, the trav is 10mm thick.

On another note, you will want to work really cleanly, keep at bucket of clean water next to you as you work and wipe off any adhesive from the face of the tile straight away

[rsb123]

Grout is Mapei Ultracolor Vanilla with matching Mapesil AC Vanilla sealant for perimiter/change in plane. Bit nervous as the grout is not a spot-on match to the tile colour, but I just don't want bright white grout.

Yes tile is 10mm thick.

I assume no back-buttering necessary for mosaic sheets right?

[Rich]

Grout is Mapei Ultracolor Vanilla with matching Mapesil AC Vanilla sealant for perimiter/change in plane. Bit nervous as the grout is not a spot-on match to the tile colour, but I just don't want bright white grout.

Yes tile is 10mm thick.

I assume no back-buttering necessary for mosaic sheets right?

Did you look through all the colours that they do in Ultracolor? They do 26, you can usually find a pretty good match to the stone. White looks horrid with trav IMO. No you shouldn't need to back butter them, you might want to spread the adhesive with the teeth of youe trowel and then smooth them over using the flat side of the trowel to give a really good coverage behind the tile. Also I use a grout float to press the tiles back, the last thing you want is to have one or two that dont stick.

[Martyn Leeds]

& remember its white flexi adhesive you need

what about your wall prep? it'll have to be pretty flat before you start tiling to get best results..

[Sir Ramic]

Grout is Mapei Ultracolor Vanilla with matching Mapesil AC Vanilla sealant for perimiter/change in plane. Bit nervous as the grout is not a spot-on match to the tile colour, but I just don't want bright white grout.

Yes tile is 10mm thick.


I assume no back-buttering necessary for mosaic sheets right?

Isnt vanilla a bit yellow for Travertine? Usually Jasmine, beige or the new Limestone colour

[Rich]

Oh, thank you Neale, that would be 27 to choose from

[rsb123]

Wall prep: top of wall is painted emulsion so I'll sand & scrape that off (?)

Bottom half is tiled, so will remove that and make surface smooth.

I have Primer G for the floor (18mm WBP with hardiebacker) -- should I give the walls a coat of that?

[Rich]

You dont need to prime the Hardiebacker with that but you will want to prime the walls. Remove the paint and prime the walls with the primer G, the instructions are on the bottle.

[ROBSON MCGREGOR]

we always seal travertine before grouting then reseal everything after the grout has completely dried. make sure u use a white powder adhesive as u dont want shadows, we always use bal ads n grout, we dont cut corners using rubbish.

[Rich]

we always seal travertine before grouting then reseal everything after the grout has completely dried. make sure u use a white powder adhesive as u dont want shadows, we always use bal ads n grout, we dont cut corners using rubbish.

?... Like Mapei do you mean?

[ROBSON MCGREGOR]

sorry, we will always use bal if we have got it in stock, we do use mapei but only when we cant get up to glasgow ctd. we just prefer bal products, nothing wrong with mapei would just rather use bal.

[Rich]

Thats alright, loads of guys on here use and love Bal, I used to use it myself.

[ROBSON MCGREGOR]

What do u use now? we have always used Bal because we know its a quality product, use mapei back & forth as i have said but u get good technical backup with Bal also, if we are doing floors then we know with rapidset/flex that if its a porcelain tile then with porcelbond in the adhesive we dont need 2 worry about bonding issues, wee spot of GT1 in the grout 4 porcelain on walls & jobs a good un!!

[Gall.B]

Us BAL users are not very poular on here Robson, have been turned onto Weber adhesivesthru the forum also available at CTD at cracking prices.

Still a BAL grout user, as u say with some GT1

[Dave]

Us BAL users are not very poular on here Robson, have been turned onto Weber adhesivesthru the forum also available at CTD at cracking prices.

Still a BAL grout user, as u say with some GT1

Why is that then,,???

[Gall.B]

Propably the same reason Sigma users arent

[ROBSON MCGREGOR]

we used a bag of weber.set rapid spf white a fornight ago in a bathroom in glasgow, used it 2 put down a travertine floor, quite liked it with its low dust technology, we got it at a good price n they told us in ctd that it was worth a bash. we had been told it was all ceramic, turned up to be greeted with porcelain wall tiles & a travertine floor.

[Gall.B]

used the same stuff last week and liked it, got some for the travertine ive got on this week.