Hello all,
I'm 100% new to tiling and am going to tackle the splashback in my kitchen this weekend.

I've bought:

• 12" x 12" natural stone mosaic tile sheets x 20
• Electric wet tile cutter (for cutting the mosaics down for around power outlets)
• Wall trowel
• Grout float/spreader
• Grout brush
• Silicone grout finisher
• Grout sponge
• Tile file
• Inpregnating sealant (needed for stone apparently??)

The problem I have is with the adhesive/grout, everything I could see in the store said "for ceramic tiles", some of them even said on the back not for stone?

I ended up just buying this because it says "All Purpose"

Unibond Advanced All Purpose Wall Tile Adhesive & Grout

Use as an Adhesive or Grout
· All Purpose
· Extra Strong
· Non-Slip Grip
· Power Shower Compatible
· Stay White Grout Finish - Guaranteed*
· No need to batten

But now the more I read on the net says this stuff is not good for stone, matt or patterend finishes, it's just for polished ceramic tiles???

What should I be using for my stone mosaic's for adhesive and white grout???

Here's the tiles in my mates house (got a pro to do them so does not know what was used)



Thanks!

I'd be using a white single part flexible adhesive.It comes in a bag. and a white flexible grout.

Dito, same as

That adhesive is not suitable i'm afraid..

Which Diy outlet did you get in from..?

Originally Posted by Dave

That adhesive is not suitable i'm afraid..

Which Diy outlet did you get in from..?

I got it all from B&Q

To be honest I did ask but the guy didn't have a clue.

Thanks guy's

If ou have a tile giant near you i would pop in there, and they will sort you out

Thanks for the replies, I never realised there was a tile giant near me! I'll pop over in the morning.

Would you say I have everything else I need for the job?

you want a white cement based adhesive. mapei adesilex p9. and ultra colour white grout also by mapei.prime the walls with mapei primer g. you can get all this from tile giant if there is one near you. you dont have to use mapei products
thats just my opinion. i dont want to be funny but if this is your 1st ever attempt at tiling .you could,nt have chose a worse tile two start with

Originally Posted by nybor62

you want a white cement based adhesive. mapei adesilex p9. and ultra colour white grout also by mapei.prime the walls with mapei primer g. you can get all this from tile giant if there is one near you. you dont have to use mapei products
thats just my opinion. i dont want to be funny but if this is your 1st ever attempt at tiling .you could,nt have chose a worse tile two start with

Thanks for the reply.

Yes it's my first time, why is this such a bad tile to start with?

I've tried the tile cutter today and it's very easy to use, cuts the small tiles very quickly and very evenly.

I'm guessing it's going to be a b!tch to grout due to the very uneven surface of the individual mosaics?


With regards to priming the walls... it's a 9 month old flat and the walls are very clean and smooth, it's just trade magnolia paint i'm tiling over, do I really need to prime?

Any tips??

give the paint a good sand before tiling, I would prime with primer g

as mikethetile says sand and prime . these tiles will move about quite abit when fixing them . you will find the individual tiles may may not allways be perfectly inline. use your grout pad to get them flat to the wall. was,nt aware the walls were painted thats why you need to sand them down , oh and dont use pva as a primer

Thanks again.

Any tips on grouting these tiles? The individual mosaics are not all the same height at all, very uneven... I chose them because of this natural appearance but not thinking about how difficult they may be to grout.

Any tips?

Give them a coat of sealer before you grout, they will be easier to clean

I'll only add that a bit of time spent setting out will minimise your cuts for power sockets etc..don't forget they're on a mesh that can be cut and pulled about fractionally so you may find you don't need to be trying to make small difficult cuts..it may help you also to bed your mosaics in the addy with your grout float (clean it after!!) by pushing it against them in a uniform way to ensure they all get coverage..and I'll echo what's been said above..you've made a challenge for yourself!..but it's not rocket science, work in small areas at a time and take your time!..if you get into trouble get back on here!..and be sure to post pics of the end results!..hope it goes ok!

oh and whilst I think of it ..try not to pull them about too much when they're on the wall (the quickest way to get in a mess with mosaic!) and work clean and wash off well!!!,,pays dividends when you come to grout!..good luck!

Guy's thanks again for the replies, I really appreciate the advice.

One more thing...

My worktop has a 5 inch board at the back running up the wall that is the same as the worktop itself. Unfortunately it's hiding a bit of a gap where the worktop does not exactly meet the wall and seems to be stuck on with no nails or something and I don't fancy having to remove it at all.

Will it look silly if I leave this on and just tile up from there?



Also is it best for me to start from the outside at the bottom and work my way up and in towards my cooker?

Thanks again!

definitely starting at the hard end of tiling
i've been at it nearly 8 yrs now and mosaics still give me a headache.
might be an idea to speak to a co-operative tiler to get some advice

Originally Posted by ricmrc

definitely starting at the hard end of tiling
i've been at it nearly 8 yrs now and mosaics still give me a headache.
might be an idea to speak to a co-operative tiler to get some advice

As it happens I'm in Rutherglen mate!

I really want to to have a go myself but more and more people keep saying as you have and it's putting me off a bit

What would be the going rate for you to come and fit these all the prep work being done already (walls sanded/primed, sockets off, tiles sealed)and all materials already purchased?

Originally Posted by MCSTORM

Guy's thanks again for the replies, I really appreciate the advice.

One more thing...

My worktop has a 5 inch board at the back running up the wall that is the same as the worktop itself. Unfortunately it's hiding a bit of a gap where the worktop does not exactly meet the wall and seems to be stuck on with no nails or something and I don't fancy having to remove it at all.

Will it look silly if I leave this on and just tile up from there?



Also is it best for me to start from the outside at the bottom and work my way up and in towards my cooker?

Thanks again!

I'd leave your wooden splashback on if I were you, I've just tiled a kitchen today with the same and it looked fine, and like you said it may be hiding a gap to the wall that will make your life a little harder still! mark out your sheets on the wall from the end of the worktop towards the cooker with a pencil..then you can see how the mosaics will fall to the cooker. Obviously you want to avoid an unsightly small cut or huge grout joint to the cooker splash back so once you've set them out you'll be able to see where the nearest whole tiles fall and adjust accordingly, remember if they fall just short you can always score the mesh once on the wall and widen the joints slightly to fit. Once you know where your start point is fix a course (1 sheet) at a time along the wooden splash back top till you reach the end then fix the next course above working back on yourself. Hope that makes sense!..it's a quite hard to explain without showing you in person..but like I said before..don't be scared of it, just take your time and be methodical, break it into manageable sections and don't panic!..you will make some boo boo's..but so does everyone first time!

Originally Posted by jamie B

I'd leave your wooden splashback on if I were you, I've just tiled a kitchen today with the same and it looked fine, and like you said it may be hiding a gap to the wall that will make your life a little harder still! mark out your sheets on the wall from the end of the worktop towards the cooker with a pencil..then you can see how the mosaics will fall to the cooker. Obviously you want to avoid an unsightly small cut or huge grout joint to the cooker splash back so once you've set them out you'll be able to see where the nearest whole tiles fall and adjust accordingly, remember if they fall just short you can always score the mesh once on the wall and widen the joints slightly to fit. Once you know where your start point is fix a course (1 sheet) at a time along the wooden splash back top till you reach the end then fix the next course above working back on yourself. Hope that makes sense!..it's a quite hard to explain without showing you in person..but like I said before..don't be scared of it, just take your time and be methodical, break it into manageable sections and don't panic!..you will make some boo boo's..but so does everyone first time!

Most helpful and very re-assuring so thanks for that

If you expand the picture you will see where I've already marked where the tiles will go.

I have a bit of an issue that you may be able to clear up for me. As I planned to start from the bottom working in and up once the bottom row of tiles are in place the top part is the right size for me to cut up the sheets and fit 2 rows of individual mosaics.

The problem being that once the bottom sheets are on then there's not enough of a gap for me to properly get my mosaic spreader in (one with small triangles cut out from Tile King) to evenly spread the adhesive even with the smaller side of the spreader... I'd have to spread it up/down rather than across and I'm not sure if it will be difficult to get a good even coverage this way and also if I may end up scraping a lot of the excess adhesive down on to the finished row below?

Does that make sense?

It may be easier to do the smaller section at the top first but I'm not sure if that's a no no?? I guess if I make my measurements bang on then that would work?

Or have I got it wrong and I just put the adhesive on the entire wall first? I'm worried it may set at the top before I get the bottom run done properly?

Also... these are very heavy sheets, will the Keraquick Fast Setting Single Part Flexible Tile Adhesive I bought have enough "grab" to ensure they stay put???


Sorry for all the questions

it would work if your measuring is spot on, but I would personally cut down the sheet below to allow enough room to get your trowel in (does that make sense?!) ie. split the sheet further down and fix say 4 or five rows of mosaic as your last course rather than 2! I think you'll be asking for trouble trying to work top to bottom!.. your addy should be fine, as previously posted bed them in firmly with the face of a grout float, don't put more addy on the wall than you can comfortably tile before it starts to go off..remember it's a marathon not a sprint!

do you know what size trowel you have bought? if not measure the teeth on the trowel and let us know

Edit:
Sorry just read this "my mosaic spreader" - Ignore me

Originally Posted by Colour Republic

do you know what size trowel you have bought? if not measure the teeth on the trowel and let us know

Edit:
Sorry just read this "my mosaic spreader" - Ignore me

Sorry it is a trowel with 3mm V notch.

The dimensions are 280mm x 110mm

Just a quick update.

I wanted to thank everyone for all the great advice, I took my time and got it finished yesterday morning, only took 3 mornings and it turned out better than I could have hoped for! Better in fact than the same tiles the tiler did in my mates house and charged him £400 for

Here's a couple of pics, the light is funny and does not show them in much detail but you get the idea





Thanks again, bathroom next!

nicely done mate!..have a drink!