My wife decided that my tiling wasn't up to scratch in the ensuite and therefore got a pro in for the main bathroom.................but I'm not sure that he is !

The tiles are Instal Bianco porcelain 450x250 and for a start he appears to have primed the walls (a mix of aqua-panel, plasterboard and plaster) with PVA and is using a ready mixed BAL adhesive (BAL grip) which I think is acylic based , when I thought that you should use a cement based powder adhesive to mix yourself for porcelain tiles.

Please tellme that I am worrying unnecessarily !

NO!! you are not....wrong primer and wrong adhesive.......STOP him straight away...

It will be raining tiles

Oh Hell............here we go again

You need to stop him from doing anything else, and get him to start again doing it properly, or better still get someone else in who knows how to do it properly, falling tiles in the shower =

Oh crumbs were your wife find the PRO tiler?

Eeerm

THINK HE IS A MUPPET !!!
NOT A TILER.
STOP HIM IMMEDIATELY !!!!

Oh heck, he's turning up tomorrow !, can you guys just explain to me what I should be telling him to argue my point for what he is doing wrong, thanks.

Why don't you just point him to this thread when he arrives tomorrow?

Quite simple mate, the gear being used is NOT right for the job. Get the number for BAL tech line if he disputes it and they will put him right.
Maybe ask him to start again and you would like the correct gear to be used, he replaces the tiles already used at his cost?

Try and reach a compromise without too many fall outs but do not let him continue with the grip gear no matter what he says.

Out the door might be more appropriate

Don't use PVA

Don't use tubbed adhesive on 450x450 tiles.

Don't carry on with the job until you have cleaned off all the PVA.

Use the correct adhesives and prepare as instructed on the back of the bags.

Call me old fashioned, but I'd prefer not to just accuse him of doing it wrongly, but simply ask why he is using certain adhesives, preparations etc, when "isn't X,Y,Z what is more usual"

I think I am right in thinking that cement based adhesive is the best choice because it goes off by chemical reaction, not evaporation, the latter being impeded by large format, non porous tiles where moisture will take an age to disappear, but what is the story about PVA ?

Just to point out there are a couple of tubbed ready mixed adhesives that are suitable for porcelain tiles, though large format porcelain do not fall into that bracket
Granfix Multifix is one of them ...
http://www.tileadhesive.co.uk/PDF%20...20Adhesive.pdf

Also this adhesive is self priming, so no need for pva or any other primer

Originally Posted by graybags

Call me old fashioned, but I'd prefer not to just accuse him of doing it wrongly, but simply ask why he is using certain adhesives, preparations etc, when "isn't X,Y,Z what is more usual"

I think I am right in thinking that cement based adhesive is the best choice because it goes off by chemical reaction, not evaporation, the latter being impeded by large format, non porous tiles where moisture will take an age to disappear, but what is the story about PVA ?

PVA will become "live" again in contact with moisture. Dispersion adhesive contains alot of moisture so the pva will not do vey much apart from become slippy. There is a very good thread on here about primer v pva which I am sure Dave has a link for and will post it up for you.

Originally Posted by Leatherface

Just to point out there are a couple of tubbed ready mixed adhesives that are suitable for porcelain tiles, though large format porcelain do not fall into that bracket
Granfix Multifix is one of them ...
http://www.tileadhesive.co.uk/PDF%20...20Adhesive.pdf

...as is Ardex D30, but not large format and you must have a porous substrate.

Grumpy
did you get my PM ?

Originally Posted by grumpygrouter

PVA will become "live" again in contact with moisture. Dispersion adhesive contains alot of moisture so the pva will not do vey much apart from become slippy. There is a very good thread on here about primer v pva which I am sure Dave has a link for and will post it up for you.

This one Russ?

http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/tile-a...s-primers.html

Originally Posted by Leatherface

Grumpy
did you get my PM ?

No Leatherface I didn't. Send it again?

Originally Posted by cornish_crofter

This one Russ?

http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/tile-a...s-primers.html

The very chap Hugo.

If I were you Graybags, print off this thread, and a few PVA ones, and there are many, to arm yourself with tomorrow. He will say, I've done this before and never had a failure yet blah blah blah
Good Luck

Graybags, how you approach him is down to you. You know what approach is best for the situation.

My only concern here is that if he doesn't know these basics, then what is your bathroom going to look like when he's finished?

My Brother in Law had his kitchen tiled by a complete chancer. I've never seen such a bad tiling job in all my life! The real shame is that he had spent a small fortune on these tiles.

The problem here is that I suspect this job is out of this guy's depth. This may make you feel awquard but either you want to come out of this with a job well done, or you want to avoid upsetting this guy, you may not be able to achieve both.

If it were me, I would probably pay him for the time he's spent at your job and ask him to stop and pack up. You can make an excuse to the effect that your wife hates the tiles and apologise for causing him an inconvenience.

There are plenty of good tilers on this forum who are short of work. You don't say where you are but if you PM Dave or ask in the Tilers Wanted section you will no doubt get a few replies.

It's a tough call but at the end of the day I assume you and your wife want a good job done.

In fairness to him he may not have primed all the walls, just that there is a tub of PVA on the window sill, which I guess he might have used on the one plastered (outside) wall. The other walls are all studwork and hence are plasterboard/aquapanel. Would you normally prime them, or just tile straight on them (with the correct adhesive !)?

Originally Posted by graybags

In fairness to him he may not have primed all the walls, just that there is a tub of PVA on the window sill, which I guess he might have used on the one plastered (outside) wall. The other walls are all studwork and hence are plasterboard/aquapanel. Would you normally prime them, or just tile straight on them (with the correct adhesive !)?

For using a cement based adhesive it would be normal to prime plasterboard but if he was using "grip" then it is not necessary. Aquapanel doesn't need priming at all.

PVA shouldn't be used at all! Even on an external wall. It's basically a very old (out dated) habbit that refuses to die...

The actual quality of tiling, cutting, grout lines and levelness is excellent, just wondering whether if he hasn't used PVA on the non plaster walls (which it dosen't look like he has) whether the BAL Grip adhesive might just hold the tiles.They are 450X250, not 450x450, so not "huge"

Originally Posted by graybags

The actual quality of tiling, cutting, grout lines and levelness is excellent, just wondering whether if he hasn't used PVA on the non plaster walls (which it dosen't look like he has) whether the BAL Grip adhesive might just hold the tiles.They are 450X250, not 450x450, so not "huge"

Still large format are they not?To big for tub addy

You`ll have to ring BAL but i`m sure they`ll tell ya there to big for BAL grip.

dont know if any tubbed gear is suitable for these size of tiles,someone let me know if i'm wrong,and pva deary deary me!

with a bit of luck graybags tiles will come off and clean and be ok to re-use, from some of your posts it seems as though you might be giving tiler benefit of doubt. Simple answer is that if he doesn't take them off now they'll come off later under less controlled circumstances!