I am currently trying to tile a wet room ceiling with glass mosaic using pieces of ground glass collected from the beach being stuck on to thin ply, grouted and screwed \ glued on to a plasterboard\strut ceiling. I want to try white and clear adhesive, and it will have to be suitable for a variable depth, as all the glass pieces are different depths and profiles. What adhesive would work best?

I will probably use a standard mapei grout such as Keracolour, but I do have some epoxy grout left over from a job which I might try.

OH goodness, Alan, I'm not sure about using ply! Dont know anyone else's opinion oh here, but wouldn't dream of using wood, screwed to plasterboard or otherwise, in damp surroundings!

Otherwise Mapei adesilex P9 is good, non slip, long working time and comes in white, and their ultracolour plus in white or any of their off whites, could work. Epoxy best choice if you have the patience...but still really no happy about the ply it sounds such a nice idea and I work with different thickness of glass all the time, but NEVER on ply. Is the glass stuck on the ply already? If not, please stick it to mosaic mesh.

Thanks, mosaic girl. I really wanted something rigid that I could stick the glass on to at ground level, then screw and stick each managable section to the ceiling, I could use 2-3mm plastic sheeting , mosaic mesh probably wouldn't be rigid enough. Any suggestions - it needs to be something that adhesive will stick well to, so that we dont get showered by bits of glass falling off!

The rest of the wet room is tanked with 9mm No-more-ply and Bal tanking tape \ paste & fluid, followed by ceramic tiles and Mapei adhesive \ grout.

I suppose I could use 6mm tile backer board for the ceiling, but was hoping to use something a bit lighter. The ply I was going to use was marine grase, but I take your point about dampness.

Your best option then is to go for wedi-board; you can buy it online easily enough and use the Mapei adhesive mentioned, you can screw the wediboard into the plaster board with specially supplied screws, it comes in 6mm and is very very light. The other option is aluminium sheeting, just 1mm or even 0.7mm is possible, with regards to suitable glues etc please PM me, but I feel wediboard would be your most pleasant option to work with. PLEASE no ply. I think you do the mesh injustice though, as you can glue the pieces on however large mesh you can handle and then cut it into manageable pieces, making sure marking joining points with masking tape and then fix easily and reliably, it is popular for a reason, and it allows you slight adjustments you just won't have with a rigid board. You can fix the glass directly onto the tile cement, too, but without me writing a book about it here and not knowing exactly what you can and cannot do any brief instructions could be easily misinterpreted. Have you ever done any mosaics before? How do you like to work....etc..etc...

Thanks,

I will try wediboard. Only need 2 - 3 pieces, so getting it delivered will be a problem. Hopefully someone local stocks it.

Send us some photos when your done, we LOVE photos here!!! Good luck!

Originally Posted by Mosaic Girl

Send us some photos when your done, we LOVE photos here!!! Good luck!

Took the words right out of my mouth! I actually came to this topic to ask for completed pictures as the topic title sounded appealing!

PLEASE POST SOME PICTURES ONCE YOU'RE DONE - WE LOVE PICS!

Will do - but it might take some time - I estimate about 2000 - 3000 pieces of glass minumum. We have been collecting them for a while, but don't know if we have enough yet. I bought a small pebble polisher to get all the pieces in the ideal condition.

I've attatched 2 pics of the glass:

First pic shows unfinished glass, 2nd pic shows it after it has been in the polisher for 2 days. (some bits don't need this)

2000-3000 pieces, wow..a lot of beach walks in there!! It will certainly look good, I can see it in my minds eye, (I used some beach glass on my wave if you have a close look in my album)
You may be better off using some clear resin instead of grout afterwards, the one used in fashion jewellery making...

By the way, if you want to thank people on here, you do not have to reply everytime, you can just click on the thanks button on the bottom right of the message, you will find yourself using it a lot!