blimey, im getting confused!

[ian158]

Ok, so im new here, and thank god I found this site, I have been fitting bathrooms for about a year, and tiling, I have always asked my local shop what I should use, and he only supplies larsen, but I paid £33 for 20kg rapid set for wooden floors, hell is that right ? new shop opened round the corner and he does Palace and another brand which I cant remember, anyway the equivalent in the place brand is £10 !. what do you think of both products and price.

Another question is I am about to do a job next week on plaster walls, 300x600 x 10mm tiles from floor to ceiling with emulsion on walls, I need to stud 1 wall out to hide pipes etc, is 12.5mm plaster board not strong enough to fix these size tiles,if not should i use a backer board ?. what adhesive should I use. on the remaining walls i will check for blown plaster but can I just sand down and score for adhesion.

thanks in advance for your advice.

Ian

[Perfect Tiling]

Hi Ian. The first price sounds a bit high and you can do better but cant actually give you trade prices here. With regards to the job with 600 x 300 x 10mm tiles these are probably porcelain and will be heavy. If you work out the weight of them per sq mtr (6 tiles) you will see if you are within the limits...remember to allow for the adhesive. You are allowed 32kg per sq mtr for unskimmed plasterboard so you should be ok...but you only get 20kg per sq mtr for plaster so I wouldn't sand down and score those walls...better to overboard if you can. You will need to use a cement based adhesive and not a ready mix...with a 10mm notched float. Some adhesives have extra additives for porcelain...I always use BAL or Dunlop standard set which gives a 5 hour pot life. You must also prime the walls with the primer to match the adhesive you are using....dont use PVA!!! Good luck.

[Dan]

Are you in Ireland?

Larsen is big out there.

In the UK though, you have a much wider range of options (therefore a better price on most).

You have to be a trader buying a lot, a lot of times, to get decent prices. But if you shop around retail-wise you'll get some bargains here and there.

[ian158]

no cambs, but will shop around, but like to be loyal to small traders, I tend to steer away from the big boys, I like to see the small guys earn a living, but if its down to price, I will have to give him the chance to give me a better price.