First tiling attemp - Grout/adhesive/Trim/Spacers ????

[bilabonic]

Hi All

Going to have a bash at tiling around kitchen from worktop to wall cupboards and also extractor/cooker area. I have the tiles which are 'bumpy plain white' from Wickes, measuring 20cmx20cm. I intend to use white grout.

The area is only 3/4 sq m.

What grout/adhesive do i need ? Ready mixed or powder...

What size spacers do i need ??

What size trim do i require ???

Also where is the best place to purchase items ????

Cheers

[royaloakcarpentry]

Certainly not Wickes for tiles lol........too late now, good luck with them. Although, as long as they are not in blue boxes with Wickes labelling you may be ok.

You will be ok for a tubbed adhesive with those sized tiles.

Just as easy to direct you to Topps tiles, as anywhere.

1 tub of adhesive. 2.5 Kilo of powdered grout. 2.5mm spacers. Trim will be a couple of mm bigger than the tile thickness.

Topps will be Bal products which are good. Nichols and Clarke do Nicobond which is also good.

[Beachcomber]

Certainly not Wickes for tiles lol........too late now, good luck with them. Although, as long as they are not in blue boxes with Wickes labelling you may be ok.

Whats wrong with them?

[royaloakcarpentry]

Beachcomber..................The only thing wrong with Wickes tiles is that I was unfortunate enough to have to use some that the client supplied on a recent bathroom which I did. They don't cut cleanly (and that is with just under £300 tile cutter) the ceramic peels off along the cut, some only snap along part of the score line and this leaves you to snap the rest off. All in all they saved by buying cheap crap tiles but it cost them an extra days labour for the tiling.

Oooops, nearly forgot, they are very brittle too.

[wine~o]

When I did the bathroom tiling in my previous house I had no problems at all with wickes tiles...on a "plasplugs" cheapie tile cutter...

Perhaps ROC was just unlucky??? dodgy batch??

[royaloakcarpentry]

These were their own branded tiles.

[Beachcomber]

Perhaps ROC was just unlucky??? dodgy batch??

Must admit, I've not had that much trouble with them - they are very brittle making curved cuts tricky but other than that they've not caused too much bother.

Although I do dtotally understand the but-clenching panic you feel when a customer says 'it's ok, I can supply the materials'!

[Colour Republic]

To be honest I would not recommend Topps for a DIY'er as the addys are way over priced for BAL. Topps have a habit of marking up the addys and grout to Joe public, fine for tiles, poor for addy

[DIY_Johnny]

for 3 or 4 m2 you can get a small bag of Mapei adhesive from Screwfix, its handy

Must admit, I was happy with Wickes tiles, managed to get curved cuts first time, perhaps its was the specific tiles, dunno.

I found topps very expensive for the trim and BAL SBR & APD, a lot dearer than else where although they do have a good range of trims