Dabbing travertine

[dangerSteve]

Hey guys,

The customer on this bathroom job im on at the mo wants the walls where the shower tray is perfectly straight so the expensive glass screen will sit nice and flat against the tiles. Usually I try and avoid dabbing but I can't see another way in this instance.... I need to level out about 10mm of differnce from top to bottom. The walls are nomoreply, screwed and glued to brickwork, the addy is Keraflex Maxi and the tiles 400x400 12mm?? trav. I buttered the back of the tile first then applied about 16 small dabbs to get a good coverage, obviously unlike ready mixed addy you dont get that suck back problem or the issue of about 6 months for it to set so im hoping this will do the job??

Steve.

[whitebeam]

The Keraflex maxi does a bed of upto 15mm don't want to be dot and dabbing though

[Highlander]

Your going down a slippery slope mate Travertine is really porus and is soft you dont Dab it mate. I dont know your adhesive but I would have used Bal or Dunlop Large Format. The dunlop allows a bed upto 28mm all you need to do is put adhesive onto wall large format trowel and then back butter the tile large format tile this will more than allow for your 10mm variation.

Once you start the dabbing process and anything goes wrong it will come back on you mate not to BS standard. Your guy may fit his screen and the drill the hole on your hollow patch and then the tile crumbles and you end with big hole.

Just use the right adhesive like I say dont use that brand maybe it can be used like I have suggested and you dont use ready mix for 400 x 400 its a no no.

Highlander

Highlander

[dangerSteve]

Originally Posted by Highlander

Your guy may fit his screen and the drill the hole on your hollow patch and then the tile crumbles and you end with big hole.

I see your point but the tiles are virtually on a full bed by the time Ive squashed it into place, I've then filled any gaps around the edges before fixing the next tile.

I think I will go with a 15mm notched in future though or like you say, notch the walls then add thickness to the back of the tile by back-buttering.

[LM Ceramics]

defintley dont dot and dab agree with the other posts

[top tiler]

carn,t see what else you can do try using your notch trowl on the wall and the tiles as well as dubbing out at the end of the day marble blokes have fixed like this for years

[enduro]

Not your problem, whoever did the wall prep should of been told this. This really annoys me when customers think you can turn their wonky wall into a lovely flat wall. If you dot and dab it then it will be your problem.

[Dave]

The walls should have been prepped plumb before tiling commenced...then you wouldn't have this problem.....

[wetdec]

Dunlop large format will take it all others I know of will sink, its travertine ! !
Failing that get couple of mtrs of cheap floor tiles and double lay them either way you will need to leave a week to grout and longer to seal it.... lot of water in there...........


tiler

..

[Cheeze]

I've lost count of the amount of dot n dab jobs I've been called out to repair. Not worth it mate, really.

[dangerSteve]

Originally Posted by Dave

The walls should have been prepped plumb before tiling commenced...then you wouldn't have this problem.....

Think Dave's got it in for me

How would you have prepped nomoreply walls which have been screwed and glued to the brickwork by someone else??

Only thing I can think the other tiler who fitted the nomore ply could have done is level the boards with small dabs of drywall adhesive then leave to set before screwing through to the brickwork?? Would dabs themselves be strong enough to hold nomoreply and the travertine, no need for screws? I'm just wondering for future reference Dave.

dSteve.

[bigandy]

Could you not have put another layer of nomreply at the end that was out by 10mm?(i am assuming that mechanically fixed this ok, but would check with them) therefore negating the building up of adhesive.