1st Job: My 1st job with mosaic tiles

[rodwillis]

Hi Guys

I need some advice with myy 1st job with mosaic tiles. I have comleted a coupl of floors, bathrooms and kitchen jobs all went pretty much to plan, however I have to go and quote for 10m2 on a kitchen job with mosaic tiles (you kinow the ones you buy in B&Q etc) as I have never done these before can anyone give me an idea on price per m2 and any tips etc (will be reading my books as well)

Cheers in advance

Rod

[david campbell]

keep your fingers off them as much as possible,flatten them out with your float and use mosaic fix!

can't discuss prices sorry

[Bri]

As above, make sure the floor is very flat before you start, this will make life much easier. Mosaics will follow any lumps and bumps but if there is a big window or french door in the room, when light shines across the floor all these lumps and bumps will stand out a mile ( I assume it's a floor you are doing) SLC first for this type of job

[rodwillis]

Cheers for the advice guys, any other tips would be welcome by the way its a wall in the kitchen so will have to do a fair amount of cutting around the units and reveals etc.

Anyway much appreciated

Rod

[timeless john]

Are you talking small mosaics on hessian sheets or 30cm tiles with grooves to look like mosaic.

[Russw77]

hi, i always find a good tip with mosaics is stand back and have a good look at the lines where each sheet meet,and adjust if needed. do so every 4/5 sheets. this rule especialy applies if your using say dark coloured mosaics and light grout as any imperfections in the grout lines where the sheets meet will stand out a mile! and most important have a big cup and loads of tea bags! hope this helps. Russ

[rodwillis]

timeless john they are small mosaics on hessian sheets

Russ do you mean like a brick pattern with each sheat ?

The one thing I am worried about is how long these take to get up, the grouting etc is obviously not a prob but the area to be done is approx 24ft and going up to bottom of the cupboards by 2.5ft

[tfs]

check to see is the sockets are level with each other to give you an idea of any problems you maye have with setting out etc.

Keep the sheets staggered.

Remember you can cut some squares off if you are not happy with the way they line up on the sheets.

If you are using hollow metal mosaics you can use three times the amount of grout you would use on normal solid mosaics. (be sure to compress all grout in going over and over)

Most mosaics can be cut with you manual tile cutter, in this case I preffer to cut a strip of tile from the sheet and cutt one at a time on the manual cutter (I have done this with glass, trav and marble mosaics) Be sure that your cutter has a sharp/ new scoring wheel.
I advise customers to seal all mosaic tile grout especialy in kitchens!

Use a 4mm trowel! If wall are too bad for this, get them straightend out before you begin. Any bigger and you may have problems with adhesive seeping through around each tile.

sheets are normaly around 30x30, whatever size your sheets are you can use this to speed up setting out. You can mark these sizes on the wall and then hold a sheet next to the line to see were each piece of tile on the mosaic will fall on the wall, this helps when sockets and other obstructions that need to be taken into acount. Take your time with setting out, the better an idea you can get of where each cut will be then the easier your job will be.

In most cases white adhesive is best choice!

[tfs]

Check the worktops to see how level they are!

Then rest a square on the worktop at each internel corner, have the square running along the worktop and up the wall to check how plumb each corner is. This will help you to see how square the corners of the wall are to the worktop and give you an idea as to whether or not there will be tapered cuts required.

Alternatively, you can draw a plumb vertical line approx 50 - 100mm away from the end of each wall using a spirit level. Then meare the distance from this line to the internal corner (checking, bottom, middle and top)

[cornish_crofter]

I can't disagree with anything above.

Just to add to what has been said.

I found it useful with 30 x 30 sheets to cut out every other tile around the edge so that the sheets knit together. Using a known level reference this will help you lose the boundaries between one sheet and the next. You'll use a few more sheets if you do this but the effect will be much better.

Also, as has been said, mosaic fix works very well. There is a long setting time that gives you loads of opportunity to get the spacing just right. The beauty with the sheets of tiles is that if after you've fixed them to the wall the odd tile looks wrong, you can cut the hessian backing, remove the one tile and restick in the right place.

Having said that, for small areas that can be done relitively quickly there is no reason you couldn't use a good trade tubbed adhesive. I will probably get shot down for this, but think about it. The tiles are less than 6x6 inches. They are not heavy, the bed is thin by comparison. Mosaic fix is brilliant because it has the right qualities for mosaics in general. However when I came to finish off our own bathroom done in mosaics. I had about 8 square feet of tiles to put up but hardly any mosaic fix left to finish the job. So I used the Weber shower resistant tubbed addy that I had left over from a recent job. That sufficed for the rest of the bath panel (aqua panel substrate) and the basin splashback. By then I had got used to the mosaics and laying them out was something I could do quite quickly.

When I did the bathroom - shower area plus bath surround - I started from the bottom and worked up as you would do for normal tiles. However, one chap on here suggested starting from the top and working down, checking the level along the bottom of the sheets as you go. He also suggested using pins to 'hang' the panels on to stop them sliding down the wall. However if you have a good substrate and don't put too much adhesive on you should be OK.

I've read a mention of a 4mm trowel here. A good mosaic trowel is more or less the same thing. Trowel notch sizes were not something that I was aware of until I joined this forum. The notch size controls the amound of adhesive you apply. As has been said here - make sure your walls are straight. If they are not or the substrait is in bad condition, an appliacation of rapid set tile adhesive to give you a straight wall will work wonders.

If you are dealing with plasterboard in poor condition that is otherwise straight, consider replacing the plasterboard if it's practical to do so. A lot of my retiling on plasterboard has been achieved by replacing the plasterboard rather than hacking the tiles off and taking half of the wall with them. For the right areas it is actually quicker and plasterboard is as cheap as chips. For above worksurfaces and underneath wall cupboards though it may be a different story.

When it comes to sealing after the grout. Don't do what I did and try and match the silicone to the grout (unless it's white grout). I would leave enough of a gap between the tiles and any edge they butt up to (consider corners, worksurfaces, other tiles on a return etc), grout into the corners and where you need sealent, use a clear sealent, so the grout colour shows through. That way you have ONE colour rather than two. That is unless you specifically want a contrast between the grout and the sealent. In my case the tiles were glass topped and not flat. Getting a well formed seal was tricky to say the least. However with a clear silicone sealent, that wouldn't have mattered too much.

Finally, as with any job, setting out is important. Consider how the job will look for each setting out option.