I have just bought Unibond Ultimate Grab which states it's suitable for tiling over existing tiles.

I have also checked out Bal white star ready mixed as also being suitable.

Should I take back the Unibond and buy Bal White Star or are they both similar.?

would prefer the white star,probably the best tubbed adhesive on the market,would be better however if you removed the old tiles as:-
you can't be sure how well they are fixed!
the weight issue of tiling over previous tiles may become dangerous!

what size of tiles are you using?
anything over 300 x 300mm will require the use of a cement based adhesive(bagged)

if you have a ceramic tile warehouse near you , go in and ask for a tub of black lid,

they do
red lid, general water work
black lid, tile on tile and as red ;id
green lid for power shower areas

superb for tile on tile work, really great grab and really good trade price to,

great coverage with no slippage

personally i dont like unibond, if it was a choice of the 2 i would go with bal
as i feel it is a much better product.

David is right you need to check out what the origional backgroud is as putting up another layer could give you a weight issue

Hi Lona,

My tile on tile job that was done a couple of years ago (before I knew this forum even existed and about the wealth of useful information that there is here) was done in semi-ignorance using Wickes All-in-one tile cement and grout.

From things I have read here there is obviously a weight issue and certainly the 300 x 200 mm tiles I put on top were bigger and heavier than the original ones. Also I have read that All-in-ones are vulnerable to cracks in the grout as they are a compromise between an adhesive and a grout.

Now it is not yet three years since I did my tile on tile this way and maybe so far I have been lucky as there we no signs of the grout cracking. Never-the-less I have replaced it with BAL Microflex during the reworking detailed in my own thread, "Please help a Newbie! What is more the adhesion does not seem to be a problem either as I found with the odd one or too tiles that I had to remove during the reworking as mentioned above. They were stuck like sh.... well shall we say just a tad difficult to remove bearing in mind that I did not want to damage adjacent ones!

I have warbled on above to get to the point of saying that if I have got away with what I did a couple or more years ago, if you follow the advice here and get BAL or Mapei products to do your job with I can't see you having any problems.

I have found that on the Topps Tiles web site you can see BAL's product data sheets and read what BAL say their particular products are suitable for. I am sure there are other sources for data sheets and I have the Mapei ones for the Mapie products I used but I can't recall where I downloaded them from, Probably Mapei direct.

I expect if what I have said above is wrong someone will be along soon to put me right!

Originally Posted by david campbell

would prefer the white star,probably the best tubbed adhesive on the market,would be better however if you removed the old tiles as:-
you can't be sure how well they are fixed!
the weight issue of tiling over previous tiles may become dangerous!

what size of tiles are you using?
anything over 300 x 300mm will require the use of a cement based adhesive(bagged)

We have gone for Bal white star. The area where the tiles are going on top are very sound and well secure to the wall.

The size of tile going up is 32cm X 24cm.

I've just been on the phone to Bal help line and the smallest flexible grout they make is 3.5kg. I only need under a kg so anybody got any other suggestions.

Originally Posted by lona

I've just been on the phone to Bal help line and the smallest flexible grout they make is 3.5kg. I only need under a kg so anybody got any other suggestions.

With its half hour pot life and my speed of application as a non-professional there was inevitable wastage and I got through at least 2.8 kgs of my 3.5 Kg bag. This was over an area of certainly no more than 7 sq m, grouting 200 mm x 300 mm x about 9 mm ceramic tiles.

I knows the pros. are going to fall about laughing at me now!

How's it coming along Iona?

So far Les we have bought the white star bal adhesive but have not bought the grout yet. We have been on holiday for a few days so haven't got any further forward with the work but hope to start in earnest next week.

I will post a few pictures when we get started.

Originally Posted by lona

I will post a few pictures when we get started.

I guess you must have it done and dusted by now Iona. I trust it all went well.

id use a cement based adhesive if tiling on tiles personally i prefer to rip them off if i can

Originally Posted by LM Ceramics

id use a cement based adhesive if tiling on tiles personally i prefer to rip them off if i can

Totally agree with this !
Would never use tubs for tiling on tiles ,Even white star takes forever to dry properly ,ive found Mapai p9 is the best for this!