Tiling Over DITRA, need to clean excess out of little square cutouts? - TilersForums.com

[halate]

Hey There,

I'm tiling 3' by 6" ceramic tiles over DITRA in a herringbone pattern. I can only do several tiles at a time, because of time constraints. So I do a little area and place the tiles, but of course there's all the excess thin set from either spillage or just going a little too far, beyond where I'm placing the actual tile for that day.
Normally cleaning up the extra thin set is not a problem, to make the area clean for the next day. But with the DITRA this is a major pain, because of all the little square cutouts in the DITRA itself. Does anyone know if I have to clean that out all the time, or can I just leave the thin set in the little cutouts, and when it comes time to tile, I can just put the thin set over that?

Any help appreciated!

Cheers

 

[bsc ceramics]

You dont have to clean out the squares just scrape off any excess adhesive

 

[Micah J]

You dont have to clean out the squares just scrape off any excess adhesive

Great, thanks so much!

 

[Travee]

You could float the whole thing with Thinset to fill in all of the ditra holes using the flat side of a trowel. Using a 3x6" ceramic on the floor? Very strange. If you need to speed things up while you are setting, leave the edges and just focus on setting the inside of the pattern correct and square. Maybe use a drywall knife or putty knife to clean the perimeter edges then come back the next day and fill in the perimeter cuts.