what size trowels

[harry030907]

what size knotched trowels are most commonly used by a proffesional tiler for walls and floors? and would they be square or round knotch cheers guys.

 

[grumpygrouter]

For me I have a 3mm, 4.5mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm square notch, Bal Thinbed/solid bed trowel and a 10mm half round for solid bed fixing for floors.

 

[hillhead]

Hi Harry,
i personally use 6mm on kitchen splashbacks, 8mm on bathroom walls unless walls are bad then 10mm.all these square notch.
Floors range mostly from 10mm to 13mm square or round notch,round notch gives a better take from my experience.

 

[harry030907]

thanks guys, does it also matter what size knotched trowels you use when laying different size tiles? hillhead what do you mean about the walls being 10mm in bathroom?cheers

 

[woodie]

i use 3mm for mosaiacs, 6 & 8mm for walls in kitchen and b/rooms, 10mm on floors

 

[grumpygrouter]

Harry, as a general rule of thumb, match the notch size of the trowel to the thickness of the tiles to be fixed. You can vary the size of the notch depending on the overall size of the tile and condition of the walls. i.e. if the walls are a bit lumpy go up in size so that you can have an adequate bed thickness. If the walls/surface is billiard table smooth, you may get away with a smaller notch size as you will still get good coverage for a given tile size.

 

[charlie1]

Hi Harry,

kitchen splashbacks you sould use a 6mm. Bathroom use 10mm unless walls are in really good condition then you can drop to an 8mm. But as grumpy say's match the trowel size to the tile size ie- if you are setting tiles larger then 300x300 then the minimum trowel size you will use is 10mm no matter how good the walls are.

Remember if you are using larger than 6mm trowel you should use cement based addy as normal mixed (dispersion) addy will never cure.

Round notch trowels generaly give slightly better coverage too.

 

[pt44]

I wish you guys had told me all this a LONG time ago :'(

Its all good info. But after having spent a week laying 600x300 porcelain on walls, which were fairly good, but far from being a billiard table, using a 6mm square notched trowel - I now feel like a real plonker. No wonder I had to do a LOT of floating, to build things up.

What a great forum.

Paul

 

[grumpygrouter]

I wish you guys had told me all this a LONG time ago :'(

Its all good info. But after having spent a week laying 600x300 porcelain on walls, which were fairly good, but far from being a billiard table, using a 6mm square notched trowel - I now feel like a real plonker. No wonder I had to do a LOT of floating, to build things up.

What a great forum.

Paul

Guess what I am doing tomorrow? Now armed with my 8mm trowel and new billiard table walls:yes:

 

[DHTiling]

Guess what I am doing tomorrow? Now armed with my 8mm trowel and new billiard table walls:yes:

AHHH!!! Tilers dream.......:hurray:

 

[White Room]

Just use a trowel to the tile thickness/size and condition of the floor/wall. Mainly use the platinum now, Took some getting used to

 

[grumpygrouter]

AHHH!!! Tilers dream.......:hurray:

Yes Dave, i got in to see the job before any work was carried out, the guy is an architect so I told him how I would like things. He even listened to me and I've tanked his walls round the bath/shower! (cheers Tony!)