My 3 Year Bathroom Remodel

[tillytiles]

Thanks, CX.

By flexible sealant you mean silicone? Or polyurethane? I wouldn't use regular caulk. I saw a link somewhere on this forum before to a store that sells silicone in tons of various colors to best match the grout but can't seem to find it.

Just to clarify what gets silicone: bathtub to wall tile joint; vanity top to wall tile joint; all vertical inside corner joints; floor tile to wall tile joint; and the jolly cap to wall joint. Am I missing anything else?

Would you then paint the walls before putting on the jolly cap? Especially if you're using non paintable silicone sealant in that joint.

[tillytiles]

Reviving thread for previous questions Also wondering if you guys can suggest any creative secure ways to store shaving razors in a niche. I use a heavy duty stainless razor and am terrified of it falling off of the niche edge and nicking the tub enamel.

Anyone have any advise on something that maybe securely attaches to the tile...sort of similar to the hooks from TileWare that attach behind the tile since I cannot drill in the niche with not much behind it but insulation

[cx]

1. Anything that says it meets ASTM C920 for a flexible sealant. Your silicone and urethane may both qualify.

2. The ceramic tile industry requires the use of such a sealant in the tile surface any place where the tile backing material makes a change of plane and any place where the tile surface meets a dissimilar material. All the places you mentioned likely qualify.

3. I would.

4. Put a placard on the tub saying "Beware Falling Razors?"

My opinion; worth price charged.

[tillytiles]

haha - thanks, CX. will order signs or attach razor to fishing line

[tillytiles]

Has anyone used the 3M marine adhesive to mount accessories like hooks and such to ceramic tile in a shower? Or another adhesive you’d recommend.

I just don’t trust those peel and stick adhesives…they eventually fail and things come crashing down. I cannot drill into tile on niche because it’s on a divider wall with only Wedi behibd the tike and finished drywall on the other side over the Wedi.

[diydanny]

Hello,

Wanted to jump in here and recommend using 100% silicone caulk to mount your hooks to your clean tile and use plenty of painters tape to secure the attachment for 24 hours.

Additionally, this thread and your project helped me during my very similar tile job I recently completed. Thanks buddy.

[tillytiles]

You are welcome, Dan.

So I ended up epoxying a small return piece, leaving a grout line on the miter joint. There was no easy way to attach it with thinset. Have no idea how it will hold up long term. Hopefully once the grout fills everything in, it will hold it in place pretty good. In retrospect, this would have been much easier to lay down the long jolly and tiny return in front of me on a workbench, attach both along the bottom with a drop of superglue, leaving a gap for the miter grout line. And only then taking the whole thing and putting on the wall with thinset.

*the nasty gouge above the jolly trim is from me having to cut off a pierce of the metal corner bead. Will have to patch that boo-boo up.

[tillytiles]

ps for the mods - why does vbulletin insist on flipping all portrait oriented photos onto their side automatically?

[cx]

Seems to be because Vbulletin knows you're posting a photo you took with your telephone and Vbulletin, being the sensitive program we know it to be, figgers if you held your phone like a phone instead of like a camera, it (Vbuletin) would need to correct the result photo by turning the photo 90 degrees CCW. Or somethin'.

We're told that if you turn your phone sideways like a camera, your photos will be in the correct orientation when you post them here. I've never tried posting a photo here from my ridiculously overpriced and over complicated phone, so I can't confirm or deny that claim.

[tillytiles]

Has anyone used Spectralock pro premium grout as an adhesive for glass paper backed tiles? Reason I ask is because setting these particular tiles is a major pita in terms of keeping the thinset out of the grout lines due to the beveled shape of the tiles (see my previous posts on that).

I figure if Spectralock could be used as an adhesive to begin with, it would make it much easier because the exact same product would be later used to grout.

Spectralock doesn’t specifically say anything about using it as an adhesive. I know Ardex WA epoxy grout officially doubles as an adhesive so I’m just curious.

Or maybe I just use Ardex to begin with? Is Arden WA comparable to Spectralock pro premium? Thank you!

[tillytiles]

bumpy bump....

[cx]

You're actually dealing with paper faced mosaics, rather than paper backed mosaics, yes, Benjaminn?

I think your best resource for information not included in the TDS for the product would be the Laticrete technical department. I don't know why they would tell you not to use the product as an adhesive, but there's probably a reason it's not included in their published instructions.

Even if they do verbally approve it for your particular application, I'm seeing it being a pretty significant PITA to set and grout your paper faced tiles all in one operation, which is the only way I see your plan to use the grout as the adhesive working well. There's really no time with those epoxies where the material has firmed up enough to remove the paper, but still sufficiently workable to adjust the tiles and, in your case, shape and clean the grout.

But maybe they've had this request in past and do have a plan for such use. Please do tell us what you find out.

My opinion; worth price charged.

[Davy]

In my opinion, the key to installing any mosaics is to make sure your substrate is as flat as possible before you start installing the tiles and to use the smallest notch trowel possible yet still get good thinset coverage. Many times I use a 1/8 notch trowel to set mosaics.

Also, Pro-lite thinset mortar is smoother with less grit than Versabond and many other thinsets. It also tends to hold the tiles up better with less sag.

[bottlefed]

I did a large section of very thin glass mosaic tile for a feature on tub surround (customer designed and purchased) and used a 1/8th v notch to meter the thickness of the thinset (Pro-lite Dave mentioned) and then knocked down the top of the ridges with a 6 inch drywall blade and had good results with very minimal thinset between the pieces. I would not suggest this for anything larger than small mosaic as this leaves no channels for air to escape but with the small mosaic this did not seem to be an issue.