first porcelain job

**redeye1979** · 30-06-2008

Hi all guess what? i'm in need of advice again. Been offered a job today tiling a family friends en suite, went round today and it's not a bad wee job, it's half height on three walls so not a massive job i thought, then he showed me the tiles he's bought and they were 400x400 porcelain, and i've never done a job in porcelain yet so i'm a bit wary after reading all the posts about porcelain and listening to a few people i know saying they hate working with it and as it's only about my 5th or 6th job i obviously don't want to let anyone down so was looking for any advice good or bad on how difficult it is and how best to go about it.

It's 400x400 and the wall is skim so i'm assuming it'll need some extra prep before the tiles are fixed?

**grumpygrouter** · 30-06-2008

Prime the walls and use cement based addy suitable for porcelain such as BAL spf or rapidset.

make sure the walls will hold the weight ok.

**redeye1979** · 30-06-2008

i thought it'd need primed first but where i live we have one tile shop and all it stocks is it's own tubbed addy and it has one type of cement ady and it's unibond rapid set or something. bit fooked for choices!!

What would i prime it with?

**grumpygrouter** · 30-06-2008

BAL APD or Ardex P51 or something similar.........not PVA!!!!

**redeye1979** · 01-07-2008

thats where it's hard where i live because the tile shop is abysmal and i will have to travel 45 miles to my nearest ctd or other decent outlet, oh well better get my back pack on!! Cheers all

**Turkish** · 01-07-2008

Better that than losing money if you don`t prep properly i think!

Turkish

**redeye1979** · 01-07-2008

definitely turkish, i just need to figure whether it's worth it to travel for it for a 'family adn friends job' when it's only 10m2 and i won't be making much from it as it is! and he's adamant the lad at the tile shop said you wouldn't need primer and the tub addy he's got will be fine!! where have we heard that before!

**grumpygrouter** · 01-07-2008

Originally Posted by redeye1979

definitely turkish, i just need to figure whether it's worth it to travel for it for a 'family adn friends job' when it's only 10m2 and i won't be making much from it as it is! and he's adamant the lad at the tile shop said you wouldn't need primer and the tub addy he's got will be fine!! where have we heard that before!

If you were using tubbed addy you probably wouldn't need to prime but as the tiles are large format, tubbed stuff will take an age to dry (if at all) and you would need to make sure it was suitable for porcelain.

Tell him to take the tubbed stuff back and get something more appropriate. Even a "family" customer can be difficult if things go wrong!!

Thye should be listening to the tiler, not just the (incorrect) advice from the tile shop.

**365drills** · 01-07-2008

Dont forget your diamond drill bitz.....

Porsadrill

**grumpygrouter** · 01-07-2008

Richard, you need to ask Dan if he can set up an automatic response to any post that contains Porcelain so that you can get you post in without repeating yourself

**Daz** · 01-07-2008

Hi Redeye,

I don't know the area you are in, but if there isn't a decent tile shop locally, what about a builders merchant?

You will be able to get a decent cement addy from Travis Perkins, Jewson etc..

Just a thought...

**365drills** · 01-07-2008

I know I know us flippin so called "sponsors huh..." (AKA Advertisers!!) We are like the adverts that come up right in the middle of something good on TV...

**redeye1979** · 02-07-2008

cheers captain slow, we have a few travis' and a few jewsons and a few builder centres round here (west cumbria) but a massive lack of tiling shops! I'll have a luck,