boy this tiling lark is confusing ;-)

[peterr]

Hi guys,
I'm tiling a en-suite with a 20mm marine ply floor and one pasterboarded wall as the 4th side of 3 glass wall/door shower. I'm using 300x450 Porcelain and have topps tiles powder.
So a couple of quick questions - I'm going to SBR the floor but understand there's no need to do the wall but if I have some SBR then is it worth doing. Would adding SBR to the addie help(Bal seem to say yes for the floor but only on the wall with a thin skim).
Should I use a notched trowel as several spec sheets and a few post here seem to sugest a solid bed in wet areas .

Thanks for any help
Peter

[grumpygrouter]

You didn't say which Topps adhesive, only that it is powder. It needs to be a flexible adhesive for those tiles. If you are going to add anything to a powdered adhesive to aid flexibility it should really be a manufacturer specified additive.
Yes, you need a solid bed in wet areas and this can be achieved with a notched trowel, try a 10mm half round or a specific thinbed/solid bed trowel from the likes of BAL.

[Daz]

I'm a little unclear on your actual substrates but to ensure a solid bed contact for the tiles I would use either an 8mm or 10mm notched trowel (depending on condition of substrate) and backskim the tiles with the flat edge of the trowel prior to fixing.

As a point of interest, have you considered tanking the floor and wet area walls?

Daz

[peterr]

Thanks both,
It's Toppsfix rapid set flexible so I'm OK with that and I guess there's no real advantage of of adding SBR in the mix although I was thinking it might give it a bit more water resistant properties. I'm working out that the term "solid bed" actualy means a notched bed that compresses to a solid bed - right?

[charlie1]

Hi Peterr

A 100% solid bed of adhesive would be best described as pure, dense adhesive between the front of your wall and the back of you tile with absolutely no air pockets!! This is extremely hard to achieve! For the tile size you mention, I would use a 10mm, square or U notch trowel combed on to the wall, before you fix the tile, back skim the rear of the tile with the flat edge of the trowel then fix to wall! Your mix is key though, too dry and you will get less coverage as it will be harder to compress, too wet and your going to be cleaning up more than tiling! Follow the mixing instructions on the bag!

Good Luck!

[russ1980]

Also unless your an experienced tiler i would'nt want to be using a rapid set adhesive as it does as it says it sets rapid especially in the warm weather.

[Mike]

i use topps addy quite often, the toppfix rapid grey bags) only lasts 30 to 40 minutes, you may be better off with toppfix slowset (red bags) which will last over 2 hrs. i find this adhesive gets wetter after an hour or so.

[peterr]

Thanks for all you help, job all done and looking good. The plumber arrived this morning and commented what a great job the tiler had done ;-)
I mixed 6kg batches which seemed to work out OK and on the one occasion I got a tile a bit low I needed a foot long screwdriver to get it off the wall and that was after 2 minutes of laying it so I think I've got the coverage sussed.
Thanks once again
Peter

[Dave]

Pics..???