Tiles falling off shower walls

Mary T · Post by **Mary T** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 1:56 pm

Hi, I've put this question on the UHM tiling video on Youtube but just asking it here too - how hard should you press tiles onto the wall when you are tiling? We are tiling a shower wall, have not previously done any tiling at all. We are using a "shower trowel" with 5mm deep notches. Should we end up with cement that is about 2 or 3 mm deep after we've pushed the tile on ie flattening out the ridges and furrows? Two of our trial tiles have just fallen off the wall

wine~o · Post by **wine~o** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:00 pm

Tiling isn't necessarily as easy as you might think.

Info required from yourself. What tiles are you using (Size and type)

What adhesive (Tubbed/ready mixed or powder ? ) brand ?

What is the substrate that you are tiling onto ? and what if any primer did you apply ?

Do the tiles fall off straight away, or after a period of time ?

Finally technique, a slight twisting action as you apply the tiles can help spread the addy...

Mary T · Post by **Mary T** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:14 pm

Hi, thanks for coming back on this

wine~o wrote: Info required from yourself. What tiles are you using (Size and type)

Ceramic tiles 20 by 25 cms 7 mm thick

wine~o wrote:What adhesive (Tubbed/ready mixed or powder ? ) brand ?

Bal powder rapid flexible

wine~o wrote:What is the substrate that you are tiling onto ? and what if any primer did you apply ?

Green plasterboard, no primer (we are just using this for a test board, will be using aquapanel for the real thing)

wine~o wrote:Do the tiles fall off straight away, or after a period of time ?

They fell off after about two hours when we pulled the spacers out (suretile spacers as recommended by UHM)

I think you are right there is more to this tiling than I thought!!

wine~o · Post by **wine~o** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:21 pm

All the above sounds correct, Though a primer might be required to slow suction.. I can only imagine that you are adding too little adhesive to the water.. unless the plasterboard is flexing for some reason (It is fixed solidly ??)

A pic or two may help if you can, the plasterboard where the tile has fallen off and the back of the tiles that have failed..

Inky Pete · Post by **Inky Pete** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:34 pm

We need to know whether they fell off because the adhesive didn't stick to the plasterboard or to the tile.

Also, how long after the adhesive was mixed was it applied to the board and the tile stuck on - some of those rapid set adhesives can skin over and go off real quick if you're new to tiling and a bit slow as a result.

darrenba · Post by **darrenba** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:35 pm

I wouldn't use a rapid adhesive, it goes off too quickly for someone without tiling experience. A standard set adhesive would be better and leave it to go off overnight before removing the spacers.

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 5:36 pm

Hi Mary,

I like this http://www.bal-adhesives.co.uk/products/green-star/ it is easy to use, gives you time to work and has good suction. Shop around for the cheapest deal. Good luck with the job

DWD

Mary T · Post by **Mary T** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 5:42 pm

Thanks all for the advice, this is really helpful.

Wine~O, we never thought to take pictures but the plasterboard was fairly solidly fixed. I don't think we got the adhesive mix quite right on those tiles, felt a little stiff to me though it scraped easily off the plasterboard.

Darrenba, we will remember this for the future - we went to Topps Tiles and they only had the Bal Rapid, bit annoying. I don't know if their own brands are any good?

Inky Pete, the tile came off with a very clean back which we thought was odd, the adhesive stayed on the plasterboard though we were able to scrape it off quite easily, two hours into three hours setting time. We would have got the tiles up about 10 minutes after mixing - take the point about the rapid mix adhesive, we'll have to do this in small quantities till we get used to it, I think.

Inky Pete · Post by **Inky Pete** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 5:58 pm

Does sound like it had already started to go off.

I used this stuff recently and was pretty impressed -

http://www.diy.com/departments/mapei-fa ... 140_BQ.prd

B&Q often seem to have it on offer so if you were to return you unopened BAL stuff to Topps and get that instead you might even save a reasonable sum of money.

They aren't kidding about the 10 minutes usable time though!

darrenba · Post by **darrenba** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 6:03 pm

I use this these days from my local independent tiling supplier, has a pot life of 3 hours so no worries about it going off before being able to use it

http://www.tilemasteradhesives.co.uk/ad ... e-adhesive

wine~o · Post by **wine~o** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 6:22 pm

Topps do their own brand of slow set addy, about £18 for a 20 Kilo bag.. Buuutt they don't keep it on the shop floor, You have to ask for it at the counter.

I've used it a few times and it has been fine.

If you mix any addy too dry it will go off too quickly to bond to the tile/substrate, as the moisture will be sucked out by the plasterboard before the chemical reaction causes the cement to set. of course if you mix it too wet it'll fall off and/or slump when you put it on the wall..

Are you using a proper paddle mixer to make sure that it is properly mixed ??

Mary T · Post by **Mary T** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 12:01 pm

wine~o wrote:Are you using a proper paddle mixer to make sure that it is properly mixed ??

- We're mixing by hand. We think we got a better mix yesterday afternoon, were able to squash the ridges into the furrows and the tile has stuck on, fortunately

Thanks to you and everyone else for all the info and help on this ... we will be asking more questions soon though

wine~o · Post by **wine~o** » Sun Nov 01, 2015 12:08 pm

Mixing by hand ?? Don't envy you there, do you have a mains powered drill ??

Tiles falling off shower walls

Tiles falling off shower walls

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Re: Tiles falling off shower walls

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