www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi, I'm hoping you can help - bit of a disater on my hands!

Just had a new conservatory built and I'm doing the flooring. I've laid insulation, electric heated flooring and screeded it.
Now I'm tiling it with 30x30 ceramic tiles.

Did it Sunday and used B&Q pre-mixed tile adhesive and some supposedly amazing leveling floor spacers (plastic with wedges that bring each tile up to level with the next and stop lippage).

So it's around 11m2 and that's roughly 90 tiles I've laid and checking them today, I've pulled up 30 that are completely loose. There's virtually no adhesive on the back of the tile but it's firmly attached to the screeded floor.

Pretty much a disaster, either I've massively bodged up or the tile leveling cleverness has lifted some of the tiles off the adhesive and created a gap underneath.

Any words of advice?
Clean up the loose tiles, slap some more adhesive down and do it the old fashioned way? Start again? Get a professional in?!

Thanks,
Chris

I`d start by throwing away the adhesive and getting some decent powered stuff like BAL rapid set

bagged adhesive mate..bal/mapei and tiles showed be laid onto a solid bed ie 10-12mm notched trowel.

the stuff you get from the sheds is crap!!!

is it a concrete floor that was laid,did you let it cure before tiling just that you have said "Just had a new conservatory built ...

all of the above

I have never used these wedges you describe, but the tile is supposed to be pressured, wiggling it, into the adhesive. Wedging it away from the adhesive couldn't help imo.

I'm not a tiler though, so let's see who agrees/disagrees with me...

Hi mate, definitely get an bagged adhesive, I was tempted by a ready mix adhesive too but its really no trouble at all. A cheap paddle and bucket for a few quid and you're ready to go.

I used mapai and its simple to mix and apply.

Regarding spacers for the floor. I used spacers too, to keep one tile flush with another so two tiles sits on one spacers however the troweled adhesive was higher that the spacer so you had to push the tile down to the spacer and get a good cover. My made up system worked well actually

The only point of the spacer was to prevent me pushing the tile down too far as its a pain to get back up and it was my first time tiling. i sure the regular tilers never use it

Most, if not all of the ready mixed floor adhesives on the market are crap...........total crap. They take an age to dry, it at all, and the grab/suction on them is almost non exsistant.

Take them up..........clean them off, and floor, and use a powdered adhesive such as Bal.

MAKE SURE ITS FLEXIBLE

can we have a link to these spacers you were using? Never heard of them. Any spacers (flat or wedged) I have used are only for the grout lines, and not for leveling the tile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0g3GoIPjyo

think this is what he is on about the ..lash clips.

used them last summer,on a retail unit the builder supplied them, worked ok....but you still have to prep floor if uneven they wont "level" the floor for you.

Just as a followup - I removed all 92 tiles after four days of drying(!) very easily. Cleared as much of the crappy adhesive away as possible so I'm back to a nice level screed.

The bought Unibond rapid set powder adhesive and mixed it up. Secure and ready to grout within two hours. Although I wasn't ready - I still had a lot to cut!
Grouted yesterday - lovely solid tiled floor :)

So the moral is - not buy B&Q pre-mixed tile adhesive, it's crap and not cheaper at all!
Thanks for advice.

Hope it was Flexible