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

Dave

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.....

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

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....
try dave at tradetiler..he has some real nice ones...

TradeTiler.Ltd Trowels

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

DB-Tiling

and they do left handed trowels too.
sweet.

Duncan

Dave

yes!!

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)

Dan

pt44

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

davy_G

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.

Dave Gibson
Ravara Tiling Services

Dave

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......

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)