Adhesive application trowel vs buttered

[Fekin]

I know this really depends on the quality of the substrat that you tile on, but In general jobs you get, do you find you have more jobs that have a decent level\flat wall to tile on so the adhesive can be trowled on, or do you get quite a lot of jobs where the walls so bumpy and uneven you end up having to butter most tiles on.

Or if you do have bad wavey walls, do you try and level them off yourself before tiling them ?

 

[Varley]

If they are really bad it is best to get some prep work done, ie light skim or dot & dab etc

 

[BrhTiling]

I agree with varley... Pesonally I think anything more than a couple of mm and you have to do proper prep work otherwise they can look crap......

Plus I have not even heart the term 'buttering' before... I'm sure its something I do but don't know the correct name for. Lol...

 

[brian c]

Butter The Back Of The Tile.

 

[Varley]

It's jut a term for putting the adhesive on the back of the tile aswell as/instead of on the wall

 

[BrhTiling]

Oh right..... I do that all the time... not really to level uneven surfaces though...

 

[DHTiling]

Best to back butter as well as comb walls to achieve a solid bed fix, expecially in wet areas.. Bumpy walls don't you just hate them.........

 

[BrhTiling]

Yeah, I blame those dodgy plasterers....

And those muppet tilers who stick the tiles to the wall properly... I mean, don't they realise that there gonna go out of fashion and have to be hacked back off the wall (along with most the plaster!) to be replaced with the latest trend..... usually 900X900 electric blue glass tiles that are 28mm thick 😡

 

[Fekin]

It was on my tiling course when one of the tilers said about buttering the tile instead of just applying the adhesive straight onto the walls.

My tiling bay was really uneven and the guy on the course said in my case "there were 3 of us on the course" since my walls were so uneven I was better off applying the adhesive to the back of each tile in different amounts so I could level up the job as I went along.
If I have just used the 6mm trowel to apply the adhesive my tiles would of just followed the run of the wall and ended up with a rather large grout line after the window, so I was told on uneven surfaces like this I was always better off applying large amounts of adhesive to the back of the tiles so the extra adhesive would pack out the shallow dips in the wall.

Obviously the wall should of been nice and flat to start with since it was my first attempt at tiling, but that wasn't the case.

So all I was wondering was if many of you did this or if the walls were that bad, did you prep them in any way first.

Varley, when you say dot n dab, do you mean putting up plaster board then tiling. ?

 

[Varley]

Thats exactly whay I meant mate.

You can't apply tubbed adhesive to thickly remember, or it will not set. If walls are really bad and you need to apply thick amounts of adhesive to parts of wall you will need to use cement based adhesive.

 

[DHTiling]

Thats exactly whay I meant mate.

You can't apply tubbed adhesive to thickly remember, or it will not set. If walls are really bad and you need to apply thick amounts of adhesive to parts of wall you will need to use cement based adhesive.

well said that man. tub gear needs to air dry so if u put on thick it will need ages to set ,so 24hrs to grout forget it. so as var sez use cement based for fast track tiling on uneven walls... happy tiling.........🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

[guy1976]

It was on my tiling course when one of the tilers said about buttering the tile instead of just applying the adhesive straight onto the walls.

My tiling bay was really uneven and the guy on the course said in my case "there were 3 of us on the course" since my walls were so uneven I was better off applying the adhesive to the back of each tile in different amounts so I could level up the job as I went along.
If I have just used the 6mm trowel to apply the adhesive my tiles would of just followed the run of the wall and ended up with a rather large grout line after the window, so I was told on uneven surfaces like this I was always better off applying large amounts of adhesive to the back of the tiles so the extra adhesive would pack out the shallow dips in the wall.

Obviously the wall should of been nice and flat to start with since it was my first attempt at tiling, but that wasn't the case.

So all I was wondering was if many of you did this or if the walls were that bad, did you prep them in any way first.


fekin who told you to do it that way was it the person who was training you?

 

[Fekin]

Yep, the course instructor.

After spending just a few days on here I can now see how badly we were advised in some aspects of the course.
They didn't explain the difference between cement based and tub gear really, all they said was tub gear is more expensive because it's already made up where as powdered adhesive is cheeper because it isn't made up.

Quite bad really.

 

[guy1976]

sorry mate but im sure on here you will find on here all answers you never got told on your training

 

[Fekin]

I am already.
I feel I have learnt probably over double now to what I did on the course.

 

[GazTech]

Yep, the course instructor.

After spending just a few days on here I can now see how badly we were advised in some aspects of the course.
They didn't explain the difference between cement based and tub gear really, all they said was tub gear is more expensive because it's already made up where as powdered adhesive is cheeper because it isn't made up.

Quite bad really.

SHOCKING MATE!!!,It isnt about whats cheaper,its about what is the right choice for the job

 

[GazLC81]

SHOCKING MATE!!!,It isnt about whats cheaper,its about what is the right choice for the job

The better stuff is easier to use so saves you time and therefore money! I have found that out myself. I used cheap stuff on my own house and then Bal on my first wall job, Far far easier to use

 

[laurami tiling]

hate to say it mate but your course sounds crap and a waste of money, on the nett course addys was gone into fairly deeply in the classroom its proberly the main aspect of tiling .
wrong addy means the job will be poor and proberly cost YOU money in having to go back and put right

tony

 

[Fekin]

Yeah, the course does now sound crap in some major areas.

But on the other hand, I learnt how to cut and fix tile which I didn't before hand, so I guess it wasn't a total waste, and now I have a far better understanding on adhesives from here.