Hi guys,
Just wondering if someone can give me some advice on the best way to pack out a mosaic to get to the same thickness as the surrounding tiles.
I'm looking at quite a large area (600mm x 2000mm) as a feature running up one wall. The mosaics are natural stone and glass mesh 9mm thick. The surrounding tiles are 10mm with a 5mm bed. I tried making a 6mm bed but found it very difficult to bed the mosaic sheet evenly without slipping.
I've read about people using cheap tiles underneath to pack out but this would be too thick. How difficult is it to make an even bed of adhesive (say 4mm) let it dry, then use a 2-3mm bed on top?? or is there a better way of doing this.
Also the man in tile giant said Keraquick would be a suitable adhesive, any thoughts?
Help ASAP would greatly be appreciated have to get this done this weekend.

Cheers

You could use the Dog tooth method..


dog tooth.bmp just make one big enough for your area.

mosaic border technique

Thanks a lot guys, should be fun trying with such a large area. will try and make one with some strip wood tomorrow.

2 questions though:

1. Ever tried it vertically? My worry is that thickness of adhesive would slip down the wall before i had a chance to position the sheets.

2. On the photos on the link it looks like he just pushes the mosaics onto a flat bed of adhesive, should i not use a notched trowel.

Thanks for your speedy responses

Make the dog tooth a couple of mil deeper than the thickness of the mosaic, use a spf fast set addy then wait for it to set.

Then use fresh addy to fix your mosaic

Let the adhesive from dog toothing dry and then fix using a thin bed mosaic trowel.. less slip then..

To do a larger area like that do a single edge toothing guide.. say about 6 iches in on either side.. leave to set and then use a straight edge just shy of the width to finish the inside section, leave to set again then it will be flat..

Sounds like fun, thanks for your responses

Wish me luck (gonna need it!)

One more question though:

Should i leave the 1st layer of addy to completely dry, would this allow enough bond strength for the 2nd layer?

Yes.... just needs to be dry enough so it doesn't drag..

cheers

Don't forget once finished..

Could apply one day and leave overnight then fix mosaic

just trying to think outside the box here..... I'm gonna assume that your field tiles are onto 12.5mm plasterboard. What if....you replace the section where the mosaics are going with 9.5mm plasterboard and then screwed 6mm hardibacker on top?

Nice plan doug, unfortunatly its 10mm marmox and the boards overlap the field tiles which are already firmly in place. I had bought some 6mm marmox boards to screw on top when I anticipated this problem but the mosaics the boss (wife) choose eventually were thicker than most.

Thanks anyway