adhesives and trowels

[CRAIG G]

just finished what i thought was a wee job, ended up having to re plaster walls. i had to use a 10mm notched trowel for the 250mm x 400mm tiles and it just eats up the adhesive but what i was wondering was why is normal adhesive not adequate for large format tiles, whats the difference betwwen normal adhesive and large format stuff?

[Sir Ramic]

explain what you mean by "normal adhesive " ?

[CRAIG G]

just like most stuff sitting on the selfs of B and Q and the likes, alot said only for tiles up to 300mm x 300mm

[Sir Ramic]

Do you mean ready mixed ?

[CRAIG G]

example, mapei shower proof

[Dave]

Are talking about tubbed adhesive


Sent from my iPhone

[CRAIG G]

yeah ready mixed

[Sir Ramic]

Tubbed stuff is dispersion adhesive and needs air to dry it out. So if you use it on a large format tile the air will not be able to get to all the adhesive. Cement based adhesive works by water being the catalyst which makes the adhesive set within a given time.

[Sir Ramic]

Looks like you have done a course, were you not taught this ?

[Sir Ramic]

Also 10mmm trowel for dispersion adhesive is too big. Should be 6mm.

[CRAIG G]

we never got taught anything about stuff that would really help,

[CRAIG G]

i done a course but its pretty annoying because they really didnt help much to prepare you for the real world

[jay]

all part of being a tiler you need to know your adh and their limitations same with grouts and waterproofing membranes and then there's substrates

it all comes with experience and you will find only the basics are taught on courses as it would take forever to cover them all

[CRAIG G]

i no ive still got alot to learn but youd think they would of taught you the basics on stuff like this

[CRAIG G]

so really dont use ready mixed adhesive on tiles over 300mm x 300mm and dont use anything over 6mm notched trowel with ready mixed either?

[Sir Ramic]

Why bother with ready mixed anyway ? If you need to be building up with adhesives, you need cement based adhesives anyway. You can also get fast setting and slow setting with cement based adhesives.

[Mike]

i only use tubbed if it's a splashback with small tiles, and that's only if the customer has already bought it. much safer to use bagged adhesive and probably works out cheaper

[Rich]

As above. There are hundreds of posts on here about cement vs ready mixed adhesives, cement adhesives win hands down every time. tubbed/ready-maxed adhesive is only suitable for a very small percentage of tiling jobs because there are so many limitations to the stuff. The problem is that it is sold as an alternative to cement powders which it is not. I am amazed that this wasnt covered in your course, I would recommend getting a cup of tea, sitting down and spending some time looking through the forum, I will bet that you will learn more on here in a couple of hours than you did on your course.

[Phil Hobson]

As above. There are hundreds of posts on here about cement vs ready mixed adhesives, cement adhesives win hands down every time. tubbed/ready-maxed adhesive is only suitable for a very small percentage of tiling jobs because there are so many limitations to the stuff. The problem is that it is sold as an alternative to cement powders which it is not. I am amazed that this wasnt covered in your course, I would recommend getting a cup of tea, sitting down and spending some time looking through the forum, I will bet that you will learn more on here in a couple of hours than you did on your course.

Amen, to that.

[whitebeam]

But they teach you to do patterns with the tiles but not the basics...strange.

[Daz]

Tubbed adhesive is a waste of time for the professional tiler IMO.
Splashbacks can be done in a day so you need rapid set, otherwise you have to return to grout .
And I can't think of any other job where ready mix would be suitable??

Daz