Hi

I currently use 2 types of trowel for my tiling (I'm kind of new). One is a 6mm square shaped trowel, which I mainly use for wall tiling. For floors I use a 10mm square shape. Both work well - however, I'm concerned that the 10mm square is perhaps not the best tool for the job. Reason being is that I always seem to get through a ton of adhesive when flooring - it seems to lay a very thick bed - even when I scrape it to the base level. I thought that a 10mm square should compress down to around 3mm when the tile goes on, but it doesn't appear to. Would another trowel be better? Or is it something else I am doing fundamentally wrong?

Paul

Hi paul..

It also depends on the format of tile....larger tiles will require a deep notch to collapse to form a solid bed......and larger notch trowels are better for slightly un-even floors etc.....

I forgot to add a point on that note - which is that next week I am laying 600x300 Porcelain tiles, on floor and wall of a wet room I'm building. Tiling onto Wedi Board, with Devimat on the floor.

As a recommendation - what size trowel and notch would be good for that?

Paul

Originally Posted by pt44

I forgot to add a point on that note - which is that next week I am laying 600x300 Porcelain tiles, on floor and wall of a wet room I'm building. Tiling onto Wedi Board, with Devimat on the floor.

As a recommendation - what size trowel and notch would be good for that?

Paul

Personally paul i level over UFh before tiling......i have just used Mapei fibre plan leveller and it is very good...leaves anice smoth finish and perfect for UfF and timber floors......I would invest in a solid bed trowel though if i was you....
try dave at tradetiler..he has some real nice ones...

TradeTiler.Ltd Trowels

Originally Posted by Dave

Personally paul i level over UFh before tiling......i have just used Mapei fibre plan leveller and it is very good...leaves anice smoth finish and perfect for UfF and timber floors......I would invest in a solid bed trowel though if i was you....

Actually did that a couple of weeks ago - and I agree, it was much easier using self leveller first.

As for a solid bed trowel - from what I can see on that site - that means a 10mm U shaped notch. Is that correct?

Paul

and they do left handed trowels too.
sweet.

Originally Posted by pt44

Actually did that a couple of weeks ago - and I agree, it was much easier using self leveller first.

As for a solid bed trowel - from what I can see on that site - that means a 10mm U shaped notch. Is that correct?

Paul

yes!!

A U Notch Trowel will give you the best coverage for your flooring mostly - TradeTiler.Ltd Rubi Trowels (the second to last - the last being the large format)

Originally Posted by Dan

A U Notch Trowel will give you the best coverage for your flooring mostly - TradeTiler.Ltd Rubi Trowels (the second to last - the last being the large format)

Thanks for the help so far Dave. Large format? As in size of notch or size of trowel. Trowel looks same size as others in the picture - but many pictures on the net are wrong. My 10mm square is a really large trowel, making spreading faster and easier to get a level spread, is this Rubi larger than a normal trowel as well, is that what you are saying?

Also - once the tile goes on - what sort of depth should this trowel give adhesive thickness wise? Does it squeeze all the way down to 3mm or a little more than that (normally speaking)

Also (barrage of questions from the nooby) I presume I've been using the correct technique, and pushing the trowel all the way down to the base level, so that the peaks are 10mm and the troughs are virtually 0mm. On a level base, common sense tells me that is the way it should be done? But would be nice to have that confirmed.

So many questions to ask!

Paul

Large format is the size of the tile, ie the bigger they are then use the u shaped notch instead of the square notch. Dont worry about using plenry of adhesice thats what its there for.
As for adhesive squeezing down to 3mm i think that is spot on. I always trim door stops etc with the multimaster and place 3mm spacers below a tile to work off and no matter what trowel i use to lay them they fit lovely.

As for technique, if your floor is level then yes indeed you are doing the correct thing. you will learn to float over low bits in the floor.

The fact you are asking all these questions id good it means you are trying to do things right. Well done and keep it up.

The term solid bed is a trowel that can give 100% coverage of adhesive....

These trowels have notches that are deeper in depth than they are wide between the notches( say for instance 20mm deep and 10 mm between the notch)....the peaks then collapses as you press the tile into the adhesive bed thus closing the narrower section of the toothed bed between the notch , creating the solid bed......

This is also how correctly you mix your adhesive so that it will bed down and create a nice solid fix....you can check this by bedding down a tile and then relifting it and checking how much coverge you have on the back...

With some tiles that have a heavy profile on the back then it helps to back skim the tile to achieve this solid fix......

Originally Posted by pt44

Hi

I currently use 2 types of trowel for my tiling (I'm kind of new). One is a 6mm square shaped trowel, which I mainly use for wall tiling. For floors I use a 10mm square shape. Both work well - however, I'm concerned that the 10mm square is perhaps not the best tool for the job. Reason being is that I always seem to get through a ton of adhesive when flooring - it seems to lay a very thick bed - even when I scrape it to the base level. I thought that a 10mm square should compress down to around 3mm when the tile goes on, but it doesn't appear to. Would another trowel be better? Or is it something else I am doing fundamentally wrong?

Paul

You will soon fly through adhesive when doing floors mate, only expect about 4-5 sqm per 20kg bag.
Without sounding daft, and not meaning to insult, when you say you end up with a really thick bed are you holding the trowel in the correct position when spreading?
How many sqm on average are you using per bag? (20kg)

Originally Posted by penno

You will soon fly through adhesive when doing floors mate, only expect about 4-5 sqm per 20kg bag.
Without sounding daft, and not meaning to insult, when you say you end up with a really thick bed are you holding the trowel in the correct position when spreading?
How many sqm on average are you using per bag? (20kg)

Not insulted at all - advice is always appreciated.

Holding trowel in the way that seems logical. Trying to keep it at 90 degrees to surface, though obviously it has a slight angle on that, so its more like 60 degrees. I have seen that if it approaches 45 degrees it flattens out the peaks to much. And I've always presumed (right or wrong) that the peaks should be at their maximum possible?

Difficult to judge how many sqm's I get per bag. Reason being is that the 2 large floors that I've done have both needed building up by at least a 1cm in places, so for instance, when I laid my kitchen floor, I was sometimes only getting 5x (45x45) tiles laid. But that was a really thick bed. It needed to be that thick, because the level needed to meet a bi-fold door edge, that was critical to have the inside and outside floors meet.

I find that more often than not I spend my time floating rather than scraping. Even on my current job. A wet room, with 600x300 white porcelain tiles laid on wedi board. Because of the slight fluctuations in the wedi board, its still not a perfect flat surface. So in some parts it needs a 3mm bed on one part of a tile, but on another part of the same tile it needs 6mm - to keep the tile vertical and matching it with the others. As the tiles have rectified edges and are really clean/sharp and modern, their isn't any room for having even a slight error. If one is slightly low, it shows badly.

I blame the builder that put up the wedi board (oops that was me). But it always happens. Because even though the board is flat, when you tape the joints, you still get a 1mm or more build up, which throws the whole thing out. Or you simply have cumulative errors of wall being out.

Paul

Personally I use the Platinum trowels for floors - they produce alternating peak heights and tiles bed down beautifully. Largest format I have used them on is 600x600 porcelain and always got 100% coverage.

Originally Posted by IGTiling

Personally I use the Platinum trowels for floors - they produce alternating peak heights and tiles bed down beautifully. Largest format I have used them on is 600x600 porcelain and always got 100% coverage.

I have heard some bad reports on them as well.........some have said that they are very heavy for a trowel and not easy to spread the bed consistently.....

Originally Posted by Dave

I have heard some bad reports on them as well.........some have said that they are very heavy for a trowel and not easy to spread the bed consistently.....

They are VERY heavy and my grout float has come off the handle already.I was impressed at first with the float but not too chuffed with the rubber coming away from the handle.Still not used my trowels yet though.

hey guys, is it ok to use a 10mm x 10mm square notched trowel on floors

just bought one and am seeing you guys are recommending the round notched one!!

Originally Posted by STINGRAY30

hey guys, is it ok to use a 10mm x 10mm square notched trowel on floors

just bought one and am seeing you guys are recommending the round notched one!!

It isn't the size of the notch that you use that is important, it is the coverage on the back of the tile. If you can get full coverage using a 10mm square notch then that is fine, you can always back skim the tiles as well to help this. A half round 20mm trowel helps to give full coverage easier but you still need to check how you are doing by lifting a tile every now and then to see. If you aren't getting full coverage, then change up a size or take other action so you do.

do you recommend investing and using a half round trowel???

Originally Posted by STINGRAY30

do you recommend investing and using a half round trowel???

I would. See David@tradetiler, I got my Rubi one from him.