B&Q Glass Mosaics - adhesive thickness & cutting - TilersForums.com

[Andyb4799]

Hi - am in the middle of finishing off kitchen revamp and now need to complete tiling using glass mosaic tiles held on 30cm x 30cm mesh. 2 questions, answers to which would really help me out please.... 1) how do you get a consistent layer of 'solid bed' adhesive on a wall that's not too even, and 2) the best way to cut these little blighters - can I use my normal 'wet' electric tile cutter as works great on ceramic tiles or is there a better or more accurate alternative? The window surround is approaching fast and I need to get this right!!!!

 

[grumpygrouter]

Firstly welcome to the forums. Secondly, to be fixing mosaics you really do need to have as flat a surface as possible and you should address the unevenness of the walls before you start. When it is flat you then don't have the variation in bed thickness to worry about. Use a 3mm trowel and something like Mapei P10 or Bal Mosaic fix as your adheseive. Pad your tile sheets into the adhesive bed with a soft grout float. Cutting them is a different matter. To use your wet cutter, you will prob need a blade suitable for glass.

 

[faithhealer]

Concentrate on getting the wall as flat as possible because 'floating' mosaics don't look very good

 

[jamie B]

totally agree with the above posts. There's nothing worse than trying to fix mosaics on uneven walls! You won't be able to pack the sheets out as you would a solid faced tile and you'll get in a real mess with the adhesive in the joints, Spend extra time preparing the walls and it will pay dividends. When it comes to fixing, again spend some time setting out as well as possible to minimise cutting. A good trick also is to cut the mesh with a stanley knife once on the wall as required enabling you a bit of play on the courses and therefore can be 'pushed' around a bit to avoid difficult small cuts!
As for cutting them, it's really a case of suck it and see...sometimes I find they'll cut best on a small dry rubi machine then broken with your hand snappers rather than the machines lever. In short it's usually more time consuming, but worth it for a good finish!...best of luck!

 

[Andyb4799]

Many thanks to all responses - wall ain't as bad as perhaps I made out but now reached the cutting point so will give the wet electric ceramic cutter a go and hope to keep my fingers intact!!!! If anyone has tried the cuter it wold still be worth responding please as I won't get to start until tomorrow night!

 

[hillhead]

Definetly the dry cutter for me,done plenty of glass and found it works a treat.gentle persuasion with glass goes a long way.

 

[White Room]

Montilit do a dry cutter that can be used on mosaic