Help!: Tiles not flat after laying onto perfectly flat surface!

[MsCabbage]

The title says it all and it's me I'm moaning about.

The tiles are travertine 300mm square with square cut edges and are of uniform thickness. I'm using a topps tile solid thin bed trowel with 6 by 10mm notches. I butter the back of each tile but scrape off any excess adhesive and put the tile on wall and twist it a few times holding opposite corners.

So the tiles end up not being flat to each other but it doesn't seem possible to correct this as if I squash down on the one side the other side pops up.

These are such beautiful tiles and deserve to be treated better than this!

[mikethetile]

hi ms cabbage

did you get the tiles from topps too

and have you checked that they are flat

[MsCabbage]

No I didn't get them from Topps as they are not tee strainers . I got them from a builders merchant in the end for £10 a m2 when I purchased a whole pallet.

And yes there are impressively the same thickness.

[mikethetile]

yes but are they flat

put one a kitchen worktop and see if it sit perfectly flat then stack others on top and see if they rock

[jay]

hi ms cabbage i agree with mikethetile they sound cheap for rectiles another way to check tiles is to put two tiles face to face(shiney sides together) and look if they meet in a strait line or bowed or twisted problem could be more than likley wall is bowed vertically or horizontal it doesnt take much

[MsCabbage]

They are honed and filled to almost a polished finish and on the front they are so flat when you put them against each they kinda stick to each other cause they are so smooth and flat.

Ignore the £10 a m2 the builders merchant undervalued tiles as they got them cheap from a bust company.

[jay]

gotto be them perfect walls then

[mikethetile]

just wanted to check as theres a lot of dodgy imported tiles on the market

only really leaves your method of application, which is a bit difficult without being there
the trowel needs to be at about 60%, everything else you mentioned is correct , you only need to push hard enough to deform the ribs into the valleys giving you a good coverage of addy behnd the tile

i put them on gently a row at a time and then put a level across the face to check for flat and lipping then just gently push home , when im satisfied i move onto the next row. its sounds time consuming but it desnt take long in practise and its worth the effort

[garretridge]

thats what i do too mate put row on easy just enough to stick them then press all together with level all at once trying to do one at a time is near impossible and time consuming to acheive a flat finish without lipping tiles!

[Dave]

Are your nothes 10 mm deep or 10mm wide...?...

Really needs to be at least 10mm deep...to allow for deviations in the substrate..maybe 12mm if you still struggle....

Put a level/straight edge on the wall and any hollows deeper than 3mm needs filling to get it as flat as possible..

[Rob Z]

Hello Ms Cabbage, to add to what has already been said...maybe you are mixing your thinset too stiff...mix it a bit looser and you will see that you can get the micro-adjustment that you need to align the tiles. Travertine is porous and will start immediately sucking the moisture from the thinset.

As the other guys said, if your surface is flat and the tiles are flat, you just need to modify your technique with the setting material. Like Dave, I would probably use a 1/2" notch trowel (12 mm).

[MsCabbage]

I know its me that is causing the problem!

I reckon from what's been said its cause I'm twisting each tile pretty hard into position and it would make a lot more sense to do light and then use straight end against that row. I love that technique and reckon it will work - I'll let u know soon enough!

Thanks for the advice.

Dave the trowel is 6mm deep and 10mm wide but the wall is perfectly flat cause I made it

[Dave]

6mm is not deep enough to get 100% coverage on that size tile.....go upto 10mm or 12 mm deep....trust me and you will find it a lot easier to get a nice finish...