DIY octopus mural from glass penny tile

[Sharon @ LATICRETE]

Sorry if I confused you.
The TDS I shared says that if you want the thin-set to be the same color, then you would use color packs. You would still use a colored grout. It is not a one step process. We tile over our foam boards and sheet membrane with modified thin-sets.

[cx]

Sharon, part of the problem Anya will have in setting her very thin glass tiles is keeping enough depth in the joints for adequate grout thickness. That's why I was recommending your old one-step method.

I see now that the same confusing language is used in the TDS you linked indicating that two separate materials and two separate preparation steps are required for the one-step method. Y'all might wanna work on that wording a bit.

Anya, if you'll read the linked TDS you'll see that their (Laticrete) current recommendation is to mix your grout and apply it to the back of your face-mounted tiles, then apply the still mounted tile section over the thinset mortar you have notched into your substrate. Done very carefully and with just the right mixture of thinset mortar and just the right notched trowel, I can see that working.

I think I would be inclined to notch the substrate and then knock down the ridges before setting the tiles, though. I would suggest you mount a few small test samples and experiment a bit with your setting before you commit to the shower floor and your final pattern. Timing of the removal of the face mounting is always critical in that type installation, but with two different materials curing under the mounting I can see it being even more critical. But I'll bet you can figure it out in a couple test tries.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[strangerousanya]

Thanks, CX, that helps a lot.

Can you please explain what you mean by "knock down the ridges"? I've heard the term a few times and I can picture the end result but not how you'd actually do it.

The clear mosaic tape I'm now leaning toward cannot be removed until the mortar has set at least 24hrs, so I wouldn't have any room for error to correct things. I presume I could always apply more grout if needed at that point? but couldn't remove any grout or mortar that ended up in the wrong place.

[MAPEI - Technical Service]

Anya,

I second CX's recommendation to knock the ridges down. This is essentially where you spread the mortar with the notched side of the trowel, and then come back with the flat side of the trowel at a very slight angle and collapse those ridges down into one smooth layer of mortar.

This will really help you get as close to 100% coverage as possible, and it does help with (but won't totally avoid) the mortar bleeding up between the glass pieces as well.

I hope that paints enough of a picture!

[jerrymlr1]

Hi Anya. If you don't want to set these individually, which is probably the easiest way to approach this in my opinion, I think your best bet is to mount them on paper. I have done this in the past by making my glue from a flour, sugar, and water mix. You would mount them upside down gluing the face to the paper. They can be maneuvered easily for a short while after placing them, unlike mounting to adhesive tape where they can't be slid say a 1/16". Round penny tiles aren't the easiest to be spacing freehand though. If I had to do something like this I would somehow make a rack that holds a square foot of tiles and proceed from there. That's a whole different world.....
So you are removing them from mesh backing? I would soak each sheet in warm water and just peel them off. You could use scotch brite pads the remove the remaining glue from the tile. If you move forward with this plan on doing a lot of "individual" steps with the tile. Time consuming to be sure.
Also, if the tile is paper face mounted you can do the one step backbuttering method where the thinset is spread and the tile sheet is backbuttered with the grout. I use a 3/16x1/4" v-notch trowel. The ridges from the thinset still need flattening even when backbuttering because if you don't, air gets trapped underneath the sheet and you end up with air bubbles that can be problematic.
I would probably use Custom MegaLite thinset and Laticrete Permacolor grout in a shower floor.
The other way of doing it with plastic face mounting cannot be backbuttered like you said, but can be set using a good thinset and grouting later. Just plan on doing a lot of dremeling thinset from the joints. Either way, you will have some detailed work ahead.

[Carbidetooth]

Anya, I can see how something like this would be helpful for layout. I know somebody who could make one sized to fit tile you choose.

[jerrymlr1]

Originally Posted by Peter

I know somebody who could make one sized to fit tile you choose.

Very handy tool if you can get that done. The tiles would need to be offset so's they are much closer like the mural shows. If you could mange to get a tray made I could get you some paper with the adhesive already on it. Just sponge a little water on the paper and place it on the tile and you're good to go. I've done my last 2 pools by mixing 5-10 different colors of Bisazza and re-papering the tile. Around 2300 sq ft.

[Carbidetooth]

Jerry, I was being a little facetious with my "I know a guy".

I can cut up to about 60"x 98" on the CNC router. Conceivably could cut large enough for whole floor in XPS foam or something else, I suspect shipping would be a problem.

A project I've never embarked on but the idea is intriguing to me. Ultimately, I'd need a client first or be willing to do in my own house, I guess. A prospect I seem to have difficulty with.

Mo' betta rendering with 1/8" grout joints:

[jerrymlr1]

I think all you would need is a 12"x12" tray or something similar in size. CNC? Wow! Nice toy. That's how I have my radius trays done but I pay someone else to do it.

[strangerousanya]

I'm back with a much overdue update! (We are homeschooling a 2nd grader and 5th grader while working our own jobs from home, so the bathroom project only gets a few hours each weekend.)

We decided to stick with the original glass tiles from Tilebar (https://www.tilebar.com/loft-royal-b...ass-tiles.html) because I couldn't find any loose penny tiles in the right variety of colors.

My husband 3D printed me a jig/template in which to set the tiles so I can face mount them with the clear Tile Tape I mentioned previously (https://smalti.com/mosaic-face-mount-tile-tape.html). The picture below is only 1/4 of the final jig which is just over a foot square.

And finally, we just finished our first very small test set using MAPEI Adesilex P10 with Keraply. (We decided against the "1-step method" because we were concerned it didn't leave enough room for error with our beginner skill level, since we can't pull the tile tape off until the mortar has completely set.) I made up two very small sets of penny tile (two, so I could practice aligning the seams correctly) and stuck them on a spare piece of hardi board. I know there's a bit too much squeezed up between some of the tiles and in the future I will scrape that out, but for a first test I'm pretty happy with it. We'll see how it sticks after a couple days!

For this first test, I left the glue residue from the old mesh backing on the tiles. We did experiment with sanding it off but it takes a LONG time and there are almost 5,000 tiles in the entire design. So I'm hoping they will stick okay with the glue left on, but if not we'll do another test with sanded back tiles.

No new questions (yet), but I'm open to comments and suggestions!

[strangerousanya]

Helloo! Not sure anyone remembers my original post but we’ve finally finished so I thought I’d share the end results. Actually it was mostly done over a year ago but we only put the finishing touches on this weekend and I didn’t want to take pictures before then LOL!

For the mosaics, I went with my original choice Loft glass penny tiles, with Mapei Adesilex P10 mortar and Keraply additive. All the tiles were grouted with Mapei Flexcolor CQ.

We tore out the old bathroom down to the studs (took out a few partial walls in the process), and built it back up, almost entirely by ourselves - demo, new subfloors, walls, plumbing, electrical, design, and tile - so much tile. The shower floor mosaic alone has over 3000 tiles. Only the the granite and the shower glass were installed for us. (Thanks to advice from other posts here, I called 4 different glass companies until I found one who wouldn't drill into our curb!)

The mosaics came out just about perfect. The large hex tile on the walls and floor was much harder to work with than we expected, but we got through it. Don’t look too closely at our uneven grout joints especially on the floor but there are a few spots where I am particularly proud of our tile design and installation of the larger hex tiles - a few of the green tiles “fold” around a corner, and I think they came out really nice.

I cannot thank you all enough, for answers in this thread and the vast wealth of info elsewhere on this website - we made EXTENSIVE use of all your shared knowledge!

(Finally, a cautionary comment for any other first-time DIY tilers considering large hexagons - DON'T!!)

[cx]

Impressive, Anya.

[Snets]

That’s pretty amazing. Very impressed! And you are right about the large hex tiles, they just wander, ask me how I know, lol.

[AR]

That is absolutely incredible art work and craftsmanship, Anya. Your bathroom looks like a beautiful under-sea escape! I can only imagine the patience needed to pull that one off.

[Tiger Mountain Tile Inc]

Looks phenomenal! This should get added to one of the albums.