What tile adhesive is used for large format tiles?

[Harry the tiler]

if only new plaster walls had a max of 3mm tollerance i would be one happy tiler, ive yet to find a plasterer thats bothered to get the walls that good, dont think they ever get a straight edge out the van, interesting about the natural stone weight issue most stone is 12mm thick, must be a lot of over weight stone walls out there!!!!

Originally Posted by smiths

Why would you want to mix adhesive if you didn't have to?

ready mixed sticky is fine for small (less than 300x300) ceramics, large format or natural stone wall tiles, it hasn't got the mechanical long term fix of a single part powder, you can adjust your notch tolerance without worrying about curing capabilities... when you move up in the world with tiling tub gear becomes obsolete

[Harry the tiler]

once you try a powder on the wall's you wont go back to tub gear, ive got a 24v cordless i stick a wisk in it and it takes a minuit to mix up a bucket of muck, the only down point is you have to start buying buckets to mix up in...

[Mudster]

Originally Posted by gaz4266

how do u mean pre-primed, like acrylic paste. You still need to prime especially plaster, because it is highly absorbent, and it will draw moisture from the product , waterbased or acrylic

But really for all it takes no way i wouldn't prime plaster or plasterboard

better to be safe than sorry, I always prime with a SBR bonding agent

Technically an SBR primer is for slurry priming concrete floors and sealing the edges and back of wood substrates before tiling.

For priming gypsum plaster walls or plasterboard you should be using an APD primer. (Read BAL's techinicaly literature for a chemical explanation on why this is).

[Mudster]

Originally Posted by Harry the tiler

if only new plaster walls had a max of 3mm tollerance i would be one happy tiler, ive yet to find a plasterer thats bothered to get the walls that good, dont think they ever get a straight edge out the van, interesting about the natural stone weight issue most stone is 12mm thick, must be a lot of over weight stone walls out there!!!!

Indeed, I have a big problem with 12mm Travertine being sold as wall tiles, Topps sell it, Fried Earth sell it, in fact all the major tile retaillers do and it is pure ignorance on their part that they continue to do so.

New regulations have been introduced this year that makes them legally responsible for the advice they give, which up to now has been the responsibility of the installer no matter what the retailler says.

[Mudster]

Personally I've never used ready mixed adhesives, but thats generally because I've always fitted natural stone, and a ready mix can't hold the weight or be built up to the required bed thickness.

[gaz4266]

Originally Posted by Mudster

Technically an SBR primer is for slurry priming concrete floors and sealing the edges and back of wood substrates before tiling.

For priming gypsum plaster walls or plasterboard you should be using an APD primer. (Read BAL's techinicaly literature for a chemical explanation on why this is).

Technically an sbr is a modified acrylic polymer dispersion bonding agent, the very same polymers used in apd. Sbr has several uses. as a bonding slurry as u mentioned and adding in to sand cement renders and screeds and when watered down it can be used as a primer.

[Mudster]

Actually SBR is water based not acrylic (the description you used - modified acrylic polymer dispersion agent is actually APD, hence the acronym). so it's fine as a render additive/primer but for Gyproc plaster APD is the way to go. Which was generally what I was getting at.

SBR is basically similar to PVA, it can be used as a brush on primer on sand/cement renders before they are plastered but not a primer on plaster itself it's just not designed for that.

You are correct that you need an acrylic polymer dispersion agent, but you've confused the two product and are mistakenly using SBR instead of APD.

[Mudster]

On BAL WhiteStar, I only ever used this once and it failed completely. I had a call back on a job where the customer had decided to have a bath panel tiled replacing a plastic affair that came with the bath.

It was 15mm WBP, well made and fitted to a solid frame, so I decided I'd give the White star a try seeing as it made it clear it was for use in bathrooms and flexible enough to go on wood. Made sure the wood was clean and dust free and happily tiled.

Three months later all the tiles fell off, I had BAL technical down who took it all away and were unable to provide any satisfactory reason it should have failed, however refused any liability as if you read the product sheet that accompnies BAL white Star it's made clear that although you can tile on Wood and although you can use it in a bathroom, you can't use it on wood in a bathroom.

So I pointed out that the bathroom had yet to be used, (this was an extension in a large property that already had another 4 bathrooms). They stuck to their guns and refused any claim on the grounds that the sdhesive had been used in an unsuitable situation.

That's the one and only time I've used ready mix.

[Harry the tiler]

i try not to tile bath panel's, but if i have too ill use fast flex or similar..

any powder or cement based product can take any large (ceramic) format tile. if going to use a paste, you should use acryllic, as generaly have better grab/grip. if porcelain tile, must use powder.

[Elliott]

Is there anywhere in the North East where I can pick up cheap BAL?