tile adhesives

[tomny]

Some help/advice about tile adhesives please.

Tiles I am using are 400 x 200 mm, 6mm deep - so not too heavy.

Been following/reading all the advice on the forum about brands and types so have some idea. I get the impression that most of you experienced folks seem to recommend BAL products and powdered rather than ready mix. Heard Unibond is to be avoided.

Was planning to go with a powder mix - am doing bathroom I should have said. Planning to use Aquapanel in shower area.

Now my tile supplier who is a tiler himself says BAL is very good but the one he sells - 'Gripfix' I think, is nearly as good and about a third cheaper. He also says I'll be fine with a ready mix for all the bathroom. So am now a little confused.

Should I follow his advice or stick to my original judgement and use BAL cement based powder?

Does anyone know 'Gripfix' who can say whether it is good or what?

A second query - whilst I was in Topps looking at Bal adhesives (ready mix) I noticed that it said on the instructions that after tiling and grouting you would need to wait two weeks to have a shower!

Is this because its ready mix and so takes ages to dry?

Would you be able to use shower quicker with powdered adhesive?

What are the implications for my plumber who is fitting the shower, of drilling through tiles to fit the sides of the shower? Could the adhesive still not be properly set even after a number of days?

Sorry, so many questions but many thanks if you can help.

 

[gcol]

Been following/reading all the advice on the forum about brands and types so have some idea. I get the impression that most of you experienced folks seem to recommend BAL products and powdered rather than ready mix. Heard Unibond is to be avoided.

Well I for one don't like Unibond stuff, and rate Bal gear highly.

Was planning to go with a powder mix - am doing bathroom I should have said. Planning to use Aquapanel in shower area.

I would recommend using plasterboard and a tanking product instead. Plasterboard and tanking give a totally waterproof and sound surface to tile onto - Aquapanel will not turn to mush when wet but will absorb and transfer moisture and so is "water resistant" but not "waterproof" like a properly tanked wall.

Now my tile supplier who is a tiler himself says BAL is very good but the one he sells - 'Gripfix' I think, is nearly as good and about a third cheaper. He also says I'll be fine with a ready mix for all the bathroom. So am now a little confused.

Well he's going to recommend the one he sells isn't he?
There's nothing to say you have to use Bal - having said that, if you're tiling onto a timber floor, I strongly recommend you use the best adhesive you can get.
Ready mixed is more suited to smaller tiles - it dries by evaporation mainly, so if you have large tiles, the moisture in the adhesive struggles to get out of the grout joints (moisture is also wicked away by the wall but to a much lesser extent than through the grout joints). With smaller tiles the adhesive will dry out quicker.

Should I follow his advice or stick to my original judgement and use BAL cement based powder?

Using a powdered adhesive is more messy but will result in a far better bond - the choice is yours.

Does anyone know 'Gripfix' who can say whether it is good or what?

Not used it.

A second query - whilst I was in Topps looking at Bal adhesives (ready mix) I noticed that it said on the instructions that after tiling and grouting you would need to wait two weeks to have a shower!
Is this because its ready mix and so takes ages to dry?
Would you be able to use shower quicker with powdered adhesive?

It says the same on Bal's powdered gear too. What I can tell you is that this advice comes from a recommendation by British Standards - what I can also tell you is that if you tile the walls with pre-mixed on day one, grout on day two (assuming you're tiling onto an absorbent surface - Aquapanel, plasterboard, plaster etc), silicone the edges on day three, you can use the shower on the following day. If you tank the walls (and you should around showers), leave the tiles three days before grouting.
If you use powdered, you can grout on day two, silicone on day three and shower the next day. If you use rapidset adhesive you can grout the same day, silicone on day two and shower on day three.

What are the implications for my plumber who is fitting the shower, of drilling through tiles to fit the sides of the shower? Could the adhesive still not be properly set even after a number of days?

With pre-mixed, it's quite possible that the adhesive will be still quite soft in the middle of the tiles, however, the adhesive should have set enough around the edges of the tiles to be held firmly in situ. The grout locks things up and dries quickly too (always use a powdered grout - this is essential).

Sorry, so many questions but many thanks if you can help.

No worries, it's only Nigella Lawson on tv.

 

[jefoss]

if i were you id listen to gcol, the only thing i should add is that gripfix is rubbish.

 

[flyingcat]

learned a lot from gcol's reply on this post. I am a newbie to this forum and am retiling my bathroom this week.

gcol said use plasterboard and tank it in the shower area. I wonder if I can just plaster the wall and then tank insread of using plasterboard? which way is better?

thanks.

 

[gcol]

If your wall is plastered you can tank that no problem. There's not a lot of difference really but a plasterboard wall can hold more weight in tiles than a plastered one.

 

[flyingcat]

thanks a lot!

 

[BAL TAS 2]

Hi there just reading some old posts gcol's advise is good & would just like to ad the weight of tiling should not exceed 20kg/m2 for plaster and 32kg/m2 for plasterboard backgrounds, which relates to ceramic tiles of up to 8mm and 12.5mm and marble/natural stone up to 7mm and 10mm respectively.