Price for Tile Installation?

Tilers used a 50/50 mix of glue and cement on my house some of the tiles have popped. If they ask for cement tell them to bugger off.

 

I know a recent tiling job where the white tiles have grouting that is white and cream and grey/black! The grey floor tiles have a mixture of cream grout with many patches of black. I think the tiler never washed his hands and brushed the floor when the grouting was wet.

I have done my own tiling before and never once did I get a range of grout colours. What are they doing here??? It seems impossible to trust anyone to do anything.

 

Would the patches of black / grey be the cement? didn't clean out the gaps before the grout maybe.

 

If the floor is not level, use a self-leveling mix or (my preference) a mud bed to level and bring to height. Many folks try to get by with cement for a tile adhesive, which is either due to cost, uneven floor or both; the tiles won't bond correctly and will pop up. Once things are level use a quality tile adhesive and your tile floor should last for a very long time.

Shawn

 

No - I am aware of that problem (like volcano peaks coming out of the sea). This is all surface muck on top of the correct grouting. Add to that the fact the spacing between tiles is haphazard, the tiles are not level and edging is grout (now coming off) instead of a proper edging and you see that the tiler was anything but a tiler.

 

I think the best way to fix that is with a jackhammer.

 

I don't know the tiler as it's not my house - but if I find him I'll use the jackhammer on his head. Thanks for your advice.

 

You can use cement when laying tiles But; it needs an admix added to it, I believe Zenith or its sister company R Marketing has it, most tile adhesives are Portland Cement based, one good reason for tiles lifting (even the Great Pinoy Tilers do not know this) is; the way they lay down the adhesive, if they make a swirl with the notched trowel that traps air, the furrows a notched trowel leaves should be straight and run towards the tiler, that way the air escapes, also once you get above a 30cm tile, you should also consider applying a thin layer of adhesive to the back of the tile (buttering) some Pinoys also also immerse the tiles in water, not good for ceramics but may apply to quarry tiles?

 

This was explained to me by a Philippine builder as needing to wet tiles if using mortar (because of the tiles absorbing water, as mentioned already on this thread) but not to do so if using tile adhesive. It seems that those tiles that are wetted and then laid using tile adhesive soon pop off.