MortarThePoint

Conversation with tiler went OK so that's now closed. I'll need to find another one though. Thank you for everyone's support!

He just did dabs onto the tiles and then stuck them, so far from what I'd expected. No it was bagged (Nicobond Standard Set Flex Pro S1) After removing the tiles I rechecked the walls with a 2m straight edge and they are perfect. Lots of effort was gone to by the plasterer to get them like that.

Took from about 7pm to 3am to take the tiles off and clean them and the walls. Back up at 6am for the kids school run. On fumes and a tricky conversation in about an hour. The weekend is almost here!

Taking tiles off

What would you do nod, relax or pull them off?

Sorry, I have now steered the thread to a new issue which is some dot and dab tiling

I phoned the tiler (he is a dedicated tiler and not cheap either) and he says that he has dot and dabbed them and that's the only way to get them flat. He's "been tiling for 40 years and never had tiles fall off. They will never fall off"

As it's all still wet should I pull the tiles off and if so how best to clean to save some and the walls?

From the BAL website: "BS 5385-1: 2018 advises: “Tiles with a surface area of less than 0.1 m², but which weigh more per square metre than 70% of the background’s capacity to carry the weight, should be solidly bedded e.g. the maximum weight of tile that can be supported by Gypsum plaster = 20 kg; whereas 9 mm thick porcelain tiles, which weigh approximately 18 kg/m², weigh more than 70% of 20 kg (14 kg) therefore, they should be solidly bedded regardless of their size”"

I didn't watch over him today and he was laying walls in 600x300 porcelain tiles (3.27kg each so 18.2kg/m2) and it looks like he has used a dot and dab method. See pictures below. I noticed this because I stepped into the room after he left and the whole room is making a bubbling/fizzing sound. The photo of a tile back is one that was lent against the wall. The other photos are taken looking at the edge of the tiled area. The tiles are 9mm thick. Half the room is plasterboard, the other half is rendered blockwork. @Nickfromwales @nod urgent advice please 😱

Well that conversation could have gone better. I said he didn't need to replace them to which he said he wouldn't be happy knowing they are there, but he'll finish up where he has already started and step out on the rest of the job. A shame as I think he's a good tiler and normally seems like a nice bloke too. No raised voices on either side and I approached it as being a tad apologetic to raise the issue. I've a big area (72m2) of hard to lay tiles that I need to have confidence in and if I can't talk quality with the tiler it's an issue.

The substrate was bang on flat. Blockwork was good, but then the plasterer rendered. The plasterer fixed beads at top and bottom of the wall with adhesive making sure straight with a straight edge. Then when he rendered, he ruled/'screeded' the wall between the two beads. The worst section of wall is half height tiled. If I put a 2m straight edge on the skim coat above, it's bang on and that would be worse than the underlying render as the skim wasn't ruled/'screeded' between beads like the base render was.

It's hard to get in a photo. Tiles are 300*100. In the second photo below (with short straight edge) the right tile is reflecting the straight edge and the fact the reflection doesn't touch the actual straight edge makes it more obvious.

How big a deal is that. Will he get the hump or is it standard work?

The edges don't align and the walls were very flat (rendered). I don't like the levelling system so much, but this feels too far from tolerance as I can pick it up with an inexperienced eye.

@Nickfromwales and @nod you know what quality to expect. Do I need to have a word with the tiler or am expecting too much? To be clear, the issue was spotted by eye in a number of places before trying a short straight edge on it.

Has our first room tiled and noticed that some tiles out sticking out or sunken slightly. Below is one of the worst examples where it fits a 2mm packer.any fit a 1mm packer though. The tiles themselves seem to be very flat, so are laid unlevel. The tiles are 300mm x 100mm. What's an acceptable tolerance here? Am I fussy or is this not good enough?

Does anyone have a good source of information about design flow rates through different sized waste pipes? The closest I have found is NHBC say drainage pipe runs should be designed to maintain a self-cleansing velocity (0.7 m/s). That's drainage rather than waste, but hopefully 0.7m/s still applies (about half of walking pace). Using that and the ID of each pipe size I can work out some flow rates for various 'fill levels': PIPE ID. C-A. FILL. CAPACITY 32mm. 8cm2. 50%. 17L/min 32mm. 8cm2. 20%. 7L/min 40mm. 13cm2. 50%. 26L/min 40mm. 13cm2. 20%. 10L/min 50mm. 20cm2. 50%. 41L/min 50mm. 20cm2. 20%. 16L/min A pipe filled to a quarter of its depth is 20% full by area. I've just used nominal pipe IDs. I presume things get a lot more complicated what the pipe starts to get full, hence limiting FILL to 50%. A 26L/min feels high for 40mm pipe but that's what the numbers suggest and it tallies with this McAlpine shower trap. Should mean a 12L/min shower will be absolutely fine through 40mm (1.5") waste pipe. Does that bear true through experience?

I can appreciate you want something that goes off through reaction rather than simply drying out since it's between a waterproof tile and waterproof tanking. Do the ready mix ones go back to sloppy when they get wet too (i.e. not waterproof)? Leaving grout off for a while sounds a good idea when tanking has been used to let the moisture out. I can see it would be slow though as the moisture has a fair way to go, particularly on larger format tiles.

I've got a tiler coming so hopefully he won't want to use that. Is that stuff more for the DIY market?

Here's a good comparison and Neutral Cure appears better for my needs.

I've fitted Classi Plus tape to the edge of the bath against the wall. The wall has a slight bulge in the middle so at the ends of the bath there is an approx 3-4mm gap (image below). The Classi tape itself is thicker than I'd like, but that's what it is. My main question is can the tiler build out the wall here to compensate? @nod is that standard stuff or am I facing a problem?

It is tempting to try to avoid it. My screed has been down for two years now (UFH heated for a year when weather needed it) and it adds about £2,000 to the overall tiling cost. It would be gutting to have cracked tiles though.

CTD has closed down near us. I think it's been bought by Topps Tiles

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