# Forum Home Renovation Tiling  How much is too much tile adhesive, and will it cure?

## nath180

Hi all, 
Carried out the bulk of my floor tiling in the bathroom over the weekend, with mixed results. 
After a lot of reading since, I have figured that I may have applied too much tile adhesive when troweling. 
Rather than scraping the notched trowel high points directly to the waterproofed cement sheet, I left a thin (maybe 2-3mm) layer and then the notch above. 
Turns out I probably should have been scraping the high points hard to the floor. 
Will the excessive amount of tile adhesive be an issue, other than taking a bit more time to cure? (I used Dunlop super tileset, 10mm notch, 300x300 tiles). 
Your experience, thoughts and comments would be appreciated. 
Nath

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## OBBob

It's Tuesday... has it not cured yet? I would have thought I'd be fairly forgiving really.

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## nath180

> It's Tuesday... has it not cured yet? I would have thought I'd be fairly forgiving really.

  I checked it this morning but still seemed a little spongy/rubbery when putting pressure on alternating sides of the tile. 
Tiles went down around 2pm on Sunday. 
Fairly forgiving?

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## OBBob

Give it a bit longer and try not to stress.   :Biggrin:  Pretty sure you won't get them back up again now anyway!  
Does it look good?

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## nath180

> Give it a bit longer and try not to stress.   Pretty sure you won't get them back up again now anyway!  
> Does it look good?

  Will try and be patient! Yeah doesn't look too bad - as good as tiles can look without grout. Few small lips here and there, but only on inspection with a fine tooth comb.

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## Godzilla73

I used Dunlop adhesive once, it dries considerably slower than say Davco which i did the rest of the house in, it took a week to dry. I also think it's also more "rubbery" than others, i have one spot where i know the glue was thicker and the grout has started to crumble. This hasn't happened in the same situation with Davco.

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## OBBob

Hmm... well that's one possible issue. I'm not sure if there's any additive worth using to increase the flexibility of the grout to counteract this?

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## nath180

> I used Dunlop adhesive once, it dries considerably slower than say Davco which i did the rest of the house in, it took a week to dry. I also think it's also more "rubbery" than others, i have one spot where i know the glue was thicker and the grout has started to crumble. This hasn't happened in the same situation with Davco.

  This seems to run true for me too. I used some left over davco on a few of the tiles and Dunlop on the rest - the davco seems to be less rubbery/spongy than the Dunlop. 
Tiled the edge tiles last night, painful as I had to continue the same amount of packing up of the tile adhesive otherwise the lipped edges were far too much. 
Will be definitely using davco on the walls, 6mm trowel and a world of pain to lay floor to ceiling 200x100 subway tiles.

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## OBBob

> ... a world of pain to lay floor to ceiling 200x100 subway tiles.

  
Feel your pain! It seems like such a good idea when you first take it on! 
At least they are smaller and there should be less cutting. Also, being wall tiles the cutting is much easier.  
Good luck.

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## METRIX

> Feel your pain! It seems like such a good idea when you first take it on! 
> At least they are smaller and there should be less cutting.

  This depends on the pattern chosen for laying, if it's offset "brick pattern" then every second row will need cutting at the near wall, and the alternate rows at the far wall.

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## OBBob

> This depends on the pattern chosen for laying, if it's offset "brick pattern" then every second row will need cutting at the near wall, and the alternate rows at the far wall.

  Ok,  correction,  less cutting relative to the the quantity of whole tiles.

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## mudbrick

2-3mm extra is nothing to worry about it will dry. Warm weather will help speed it up.

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## Oldsaltoz

The only other possible cause it the the glue came pre mixed in drum. 
Premixed tile glue should never be used in wet areas primarily because it has an inhibitor to stop it going off in the drum. If is sitting on a waterproof membrane that will not allow the premixed glue to breath then adding a tile on top further limits it's ability to breath, the glue can take a very long time to cure as the conditions now are much the same as they were when in was in a sealed container. 
Premixed is fine on concrete but not for wet areas. 
Good luck and fair winds.   :Smilie:

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## phild01

> The only other possible cause it the the glue came pre mixed in drum. 
> Premixed tile glue should never be used in wet areas primarily because it has an inhibitor to stop it going off in the drum. If is sitting on a waterproof membrane that will not allow the premixed glue to breath then adding a tile on top further limits it's ability to breath, the glue can take a very long time to cure as the conditions now are much the same as they were when in was in a sealed container. 
> Premixed is fine on concrete but not for wet areas. 
> Good luck and fair winds.

  OP used: *DUNLOP*® *SUPER TILESET,* a polymer fortified cement-based wall and floor tile adhesive.

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## METRIX

> The only other possible cause it the the glue came pre mixed in drum. 
> Premixed tile glue should never be used in wet areas primarily because it has an inhibitor to stop it going off in the drum. If is sitting on a waterproof membrane that will not allow the premixed glue to breath then adding a tile on top further limits it's ability to breath, the glue can take a very long time to cure as the conditions now are much the same as they were when in was in a sealed container. 
> Premixed is fine on concrete but not for wet areas. 
> Good luck and fair winds.

  That's an interesting point.

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## phild01

> That's an interesting point.

   And true, the glue needs some exposure to air to set and a lot of tiles do not provide this, with waterproofing on the opposite side you just gotta hope it will set eventually.

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## mudbrick

Does this suggest that it's general better to use a powder type adhesive that you mix up with water yourself?

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## Oldsaltoz

> Does this suggest that it's general better to use a powder type adhesive that you mix up with water yourself?

  I suspect the premix glues will work fine provided they are used in conditions that will not inhibit the curing, It's more a case of do not use pre mix on a sealed surface like waterproofing. 
Anything that will not allow the moisture to get out in a reasonable time will be problem. 
Many years ago a client called me to ask if the glue he used might have reacted with the waterproofing, causing a delay in the setting of the glue.
The tiles had been down for a week at that stage and could still be moved. 
He was confused because the tiles in the toilet had set and was the same glue. 
I looked up the job and found I had not worked in the toilet at all, in fact I did not knw he even planned to any work in that area, it was down the hall about 4 doors away from the bathroom. 
Turned out he had tiled the toilet floor without waterproofing it, and was an upper timber floor. he was even more unhappy when I informed him that it was only a matter of time before these tile came loose or cracked because of the movement in the timber. 
The pre mix glue on the timber dried because it's moisture could escape through the timber and small caps. 
Bottom line was rip the lot the lot up and start again. 
Good luck and fair winds.   :Smilie:

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## phild01

> Does this suggest that it's general better to use a powder type adhesive that you mix up with water yourself?

  These are cement based glues that chemically set and are the ones to use.

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## nath180

> OP used: *DUNLOP*® *SUPER TILESET,* a polymer fortified cement-based wall and floor tile adhesive.

  Yep, I haven't used the premixed stuff - but for the shower base I went back to davco ultraflex. 
Happy to report the adhesive has dried however given the thickness there are a few lips here and there. 
3 lessons learnt for all those reading. 
1. Mix the adhesive on the thicker side than the watery side of 'toothpaste' consistency. Tile will sink in less and it goes on easier.
2. Trowel down a good coverage of adhesive first, then even it out scraping the notches to the substrate (careful not to scrape waterproofing over silicone), then remove the excess.
3. My 300x300 tiles had an arrow on them, apparently this is to lay in all the same direction. Not usually part of the instructions! That wasn't known until I had put them down. I have the pattern at least running in the right direction. 
I grouted last night, a true test to see how DIY your job is. 
60x47 hexagon mosaics for feature wall and then subway tiles on the wall now left to do. 6mm trowel for the lot. 
Thanks all for the friendly advice.

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## nath180

And another lesson learnt. Don't use sikaflex 11fc to hold down a small cut piece of tile in a shower base, its too flexible! 
Tonights job is to remove sikaflex and try reapply tile adhesive to stick down the 1.25cm triangle piece of tile.

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## LordBug

From past experience of my very first ever time attempting tiling, the dunlop adhesive that I used to pack a tile or two in the shower at the edge to maintain the fall set nicely and hasn't shown any signs of failing.
Shan't be repeated in the next attempt of the bathroom, coming soon  :Tongue:

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