Need help

[suzie B]

Hi there can anyone help with this problem??????????

we Tiled our Kitchen floor last week with porcelin tiles 600x600, which we bought from B+Q,i cleaned them with heavy duty tile cleaner then sealed them before laying, we tiled the area 7.40m2 and went last night to grout them to fine that none of them have bonded with the tiles, the adhesive has stuck to the concreate floor but not to the tile, why would this be???? we're not first time tilers we recently did our bathroom which now looks fab! we can't understand why they haven't stuck, a tiler friend said he's had the same problem with B+Q adhesive and the 600 x600 porcelin tiles and that it's the adhesive thats rubbish, professional tiler said we should take pictures and take them to B+Q and get a full refund for the tiles, adhesive etc, has anyone else had this problem? can anyone please help????

[Sir Ramic]

Cant argue that some of their adhesive is rubbish but which one did you use. I watched some people recently in the store choose adhesive for porcelain tiles purely by the price..(Cheapest )...and yes I tried to say but they wouldnt listen.

[suzie B]

oh bugger we bought the tile adhesive specially for porcelin it comes in a white bag with red writing, can remember exact name but we paid £23 a bag so not that cheap

[suzie B]

this is the stuff we used, UniBond Rapid Set Porcelain Floor Tile Adhesive Grey made a mistake thou was only £16.99 a bag and B+Q boy recommended it so must be good (haha), it say's on bag for interior and exterior use

[nybor62]

ive never used unibond adhesive so i cant comment on it , but i still think you have been sold the wrong adhesive, it should have been a rapid set flexable adhesive , how quick did the adhesive you used set ,
what does it say on back of bag ,does it say its suitable for porcelain

[suzie B]

yeh it said it's sepcially for porcelain tiles, it says a 3 hour drying time but we only mixed a little bit at a time to make sure it didn't set to quick, we read the back of the bag and followed all the instructions can't understand why it didn't stick, we went for the unibond band cos it's a well known brand and thought you can't go wrong with a well known make maybe that was wishfull thinking !!!!!!!!

[deanotile]

ive never used unibond adhesive so i cant comment on it , but i still think you have been sold the wrong adhesive, it should have been a rapid set flexable adhesive , how quick did the adhesive you used set ,
what does it say on back of bag ,does it say its suitable for porcelain

why dose it have to be flexible rapid ? If there is no ufh and it is a concrete sub straight a standard set porcel bond will do the job.

[nybor62]

why dose it have to be flexible rapid ? If there is no ufh and it is a concrete sub straight a standard set porcel bond will do the job.

yeah sorry, for some reason id got it into my head there was ufh, must have been from reading another thread

[suzie B]

i think we'll just have to take some pictures of the floor and go to B+Q and kick up a stink, pain in the arse really need the floor finished to get new kitchen in, such a disaster! gonna spend a few nights getting adeshive off the bloomin concreate now

[nybor62]

hi suzie did you mix the adhesive with the right ratio of water as stated on the bag, because they will use that against you if you did'nt

[suzie B]

yes i mixed it exactly i used scales as it was 4 parts powder to 1 part water by weight, i asked the tiler that did our walls in bathroom and he said it was perfect ( maybe not so perfect thou)

[nybor62]

what size trowel did you use, how did you mix the adhesive.i.e by hand or with a paddle mixer, i would keep some of the adhesive you take up from the floor as they can test this to see if its ok , might be a bad batch its a long shot but you never know

[suzie B]

mixed the adhesive with a trowel by hand,not sure of the size but it wasn't a massive one, thanks i shall save a bit and see if they want to test it, hopefully they can give us some money back

[nybor62]

i meant what size floor trowel did you use to lay the tiles i.e 6mm 8mm 10mm
you should:nt mix adhesive by hand

[suzie B]

we mixed all the other adhesive by hand for the bathroom and theres no problem with those tiles they are perfect

[Scott]

But there is a problem with this one.

Ill be the intructions say mix with a paddle though.

Were the back of the tiles dusty? Did you back skim the tiles with adhesive as well as trowel the floor, this is recommended on larger format tiles.

[mikethetile]

But there is a problem with this one.

Ill be the intructions say mix with a paddle though.

Were the back of the tiles dusty? Did you back skim the tiles with adhesive as well as trowel the floor, this is recommended on larger format tiles.

at last

the problem with the sheds is that they dont know enough about each product they sell to advise you properly, you would do better in the future to shop at a proper tile outlet who have the product knowledge, your tiles should have been dusted down and back skimmed, good luck with B&Q but they will claim fixer error, the good news is that if your tiles come up clean you can reuse them, you will need to hack the addy off the floor though, I dont use unibond adhesives so cant comment on them , try the buildfix as thats made by mapei

[jay]

hi was the concrete floor dry and dusty and did you prime first

[whitebeam]

If I'm mixing small amounts of addy I just mix by hand.

[Dave]

Hi and welcome..

If you have not back skimmed the tiles then they will not bond correctly.. these large format tiles have a square grid pattern on the back and this needs smoothing in with adhesive and then pressed firmly into a solid bed of adhesive.. 100% contact is needed for a strong bond..

I have just installed 30 mtrs of these tiles this week.. so no probs with them is all i can report..

[Bathfix Bob]

I can confirm that Unibond products are total rubbish, everything they make fails instantly.

Unibond silicone goes as black as hell as soon as its in contact with water.

Their tile adhesives and grouts are shockingly bad and used to let me down everytime I used them, you grout a wall and the next day its all shrunk and cracked.

Total rubbish.