Setting Out Ditra advice

[dfps]

Hi ,

Am tiling an exterior terrace with Ditra and Kerdi Tape to act as both a decoupling membrane and a waterproof membrane.

The substrate is a solid concrete slab of an area 7.6m x 4m and I am using flexible cement based modified adhesive.

The concrete is already set with good falls away from the house for drainage and is nice and flat.
The fall is in the 4m dimension and 7.6 is the width of the terrace.

My question is : should I run the ditra across the 7.6m width so that the taped joints run parallel with the house or should I run the ditra with taped joints along the 4m direction in the direction of the fall.---- or does it make absolutely no difference.

On a you tube video it shows the ditra being laid on a small terrace parallel with the house rather than away from the house in one strip.

Hope this makes sense ?

Any advice appreciated.

[Stewart]

I always try and lay my Ditra with as few joints as possible..... so I would lay it along the 7.6 m length.

[dfps]

Hi Stewart ,

Thanks for the advice.
Perhaps you can also advise me on this one.

Schluter sell their own adhesive to use with the kerdi tape.This is very expensive.I notice that Weber advise in the problem solving section of their catalogue that its ok to use tile adhesive to set the tape.They advise Weber.set. but presume any similar adhesive would suffice.

What do you use ?

Thanks

[James Wall]

I always try and lay my Ditra with as few joints as possible..... so I would lay it along the 7.6 m length.

This makes sense, I was about to suggest the same thing!

[Stewart]

Schluter changed there specification on this a couple of years ago and the Kerdi-Coll 2 part adhesive is great, but I only use it in Wet-rooms. All other times, i just use the adhesive I'm installing the Ditra with.

[dfps]

Hi Stewart.

What about on an outside terrace where water is likely to penetrate the grout at some point in time ?
There is only a garage under the terrace so its not absolutely the end of the world but it would be better if having spent all this money on materials that is was waterproof.
Would pefer to use normal adhesive rather than the ditra special 2 part adhesive.

To be honest it was athe main consideration when I posted my original thread as when water does penetrate the grout it was in my mind that it is less likely to penetrate further past the kerdi joits if they were running in the direction of the slab fall.

Hope this make sense. ??

[andy tiler]

hi dave only just got ur pm.hope ur ok ditra recomend there adhesive because it is the only adhesive that is waterproof!! so if ur after guarantees it will have to be kerdi coll to stick the kerdi band!! why go to all this trouble and risk a leak i dont think youll need a lot.ps hows it goin

[dfps]

Hi Andy

Wasnt sure if you were getting my posts.

Hope all is good your end.

To be honest the cost of this job is going through the roof.What with tiles,primers,adhesive,ditra,kerdi tape etc its already cost £1400 plus all my time travelling back and fo to France.

Its not cheap this tiling lark is it.

I eventually pulled up all the tiles and took out the loose fill layer and got back doen to the base layer slab.It was clear that some of the loose fill was not loose fill but solid screed and some was loose and crumbly which was probably due to previous water penetration and why the original tiles had lifted.

The 2 part adhesive seemed to be the last straw and all schluter products seem to so bloody expensive in France and are not that much cheaper in Spain.

Its a good job my labour is free eh !!!

Was hoping to avoid the extra expense of the 2 part adhesive as I am going to need quite a bit espaecially as there will always be a bit wasted with 2 pack mixes.
I am a bit suspicious of companies like Schluter who say you must use this and you must use that when Weber say that ordinary adhesive is ok and its only in the last couple of years that Schluter have added this adhesive to their product range,Before this ordinary adhesive seemed to be fine !!

If its was a living area below the slab or on a timber base etc I would go for the 2 pack adhesive but its only a garage below and at the end of the day I have to stop the property becoming a money pit.

Guess I have spent about 30 k on the place in the last 4 years and money is a lot tighter at the moment.

Wodya think !!

David

[Stewart]

If you are after the guarantee then you should stick to the proper specifications for installation. But schluter are the only one's that recommend using a 2 part, while everyone else recommend a 1 part flexi........

[Dave]

Just use your flexi set..

[andy tiler]

hi dave what adhesive have u used? did u go to point p where i set that account up for u ?

[dfps]

Hi Andy,

No went there and they were really poor.Didnt know anything about Ditra.Had to take my catalogue to show them.They then looked it up on the copmuter whilst 3 of the gathered round and muttered things in French.
They eventually gave me list prices with no discount.
They also gave me list price on adhesive for 15 bags and they dont do Weber anymore they did a different brand at 30 euros a bag for flexible so i drove staright down into Spain and got ditra at 25% off list and bought a flexible adhesive at 16 euros a bag.

I wont got to Point P again they hear my accent and thats the end of any sensible prices.

[dfps]

Thanks Stewart and Dave for your advice.I am hearing you its just that Andy came out to my place in France a couple of years ago and did a great job for me tiling the whole ground floor of my house so theres a bit of history.

This a great Forum. Loads of people prepared to give advice.

Thanks

[andy tiler]

hi dave u would have got the weber adhesive cheaper in the uk .also u should have used dural,s membrane its way cheaper than ditra.i cant understand point p wen i was there we got a good price on the adhesive,if u have an account ure discount should be set fsss.im sure you,ll get it sorted,if u need any more advice you can call me or send me a quick message on the forum