# Forum Home Renovation Tiling  Is this adhesive suitable for attaching stone pavers to fibreglass pool coping?

## poolearth

I'm laying 30mm tumbled travertine pavers around the coping of our new fibreglass pool. The width of the coping is about 100mm of fibreglass and another 150-250mm of the concrete bond beam (varies as some sides are atop retaining walls). The stone tiles will span both the fibreglass and concrete and are 610mm long each. 
Clearly there will be some movement between the two substrates so some sort of flexible adhesive is required vs standard mortar. I'm planning on using the following:  https://www.parexdavco.com.au/produc...sives/smp-evo/ 
Does this seem suitable? The specs indicate that it's flexible and suitable for natural stone and in pool areas, but I'm not sure if it's flexible enough for an application like this. The fibreglass surface has been sanded to roughen it up a bit for hopefully better adhesion.

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## pharmaboy2

Would travertine be moisture sensitive or not? 
i went to a trade tile supplier in a quiet time, spoke to the guy who knew about these things and took his advice, he said Ardex77 for the concrete to bluestone (note, a moisture sensitive). Obviously sand the fibreglass, and use a flexible adhesive on the fibreglass because it doesn’t shrink or expand in heat and cold like the stone and concrete will.  Recommended a soudal product whose name escapes me

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## poolearth

According to a tile contractor here (Is travertine a moisture sensitive stone? - Ceramic Tile Advice Forums - John Bridge Ceramic Tile), travertine is not considered a moisture sensitive stone. 
Separate products on each tile for the different substrates is a bit of a pain - Is there really no single product for this type of application? At one point I was considering liquid nails landscape, which is a flexible silicone polymer apparently designed for stone adhesion, but it would require an enormous amount.

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## mudbrick

I'm sure you could buy a box of the liquid nails somewhere a bit cheaper?
sika 11fc is another likely suspect.

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## poolearth

I ran some numbers based on the Sika 11fc manual and it would require around 17 - 65 310ml cartridges  :Shock: . This is based on the recommended application of strips spaced "a few cm apart" (I assumed 40mm) and a the strips themselves being 5x5mm (17 cartridges) or 10x10mm (65 cartridges). Given the size of the pavers, it would need to be at least 10x10mm, so 65+ cartidges. 
So perhaps two adhesives is the go. SMP Evo on the concrete and Liquid Nails Landscape / Sika 11fc on the fibreglass. 
Below is a pic to make things clearer.

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## mudbrick

You're probably overthinking it by a lot. 
I wonder what a 'pro' pool builder would use? Probably some cheap mortar type mix with an adhesion promoter.
I used sika pro for the expansion joints in our pool coping when I got sika the original mortar cracking and falling out.
It sure isn't coming out any time soon!  :Smilie:

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## r3nov8or

Has the water side of that top edge got fibreglass under it? If so, you gotta clean it well. Back to clean fibreglass and then sand it and clean it again 
We chose Blizzard granite for our coping tiles 
I used :
- Sika Pro for the fibreglass, 
- Parfix Maxi Nails for the concrete edge beam (cheap and great for this, 'Concrete, brick..ceramics,' are listed in the first four mentioned in its specs), and 
- Parchem Emer-seal CR ('chemical resistant', expensive but worth it) for every tile joint  (instead of grout) and 'undersealing' the tile to fibreglass connection above the waterline. Mask well, and use backing rod to save on product here. Check if you need to use their sealer for your stone edges 
So basically it's a continuous expansion joint. 3 years ago. Not one issue 
I've seen so-called 'Pro' work have cracks in grout within a year. Nuff said

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## poolearth

Thanks for all of your advice.   

> Has the water side of that top edge got fibreglass under it?

  Indeed it does, the camera angle is not great. That's just a light dusting of concrete on some parts of the fibreglass left over from the bond beam pour. It'll be removed prior to putting the stone down. 
Will definitely not be using grout for the joins, will check out the Emer-seal CR. Re: sealing, I'll be dip sealing the stone with Dry Treat SK40 before setting them.

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## r3nov8or

I found Parchem Emer-seal CR difficult to source. There was a box of it at Danly in North Geelong at the time but it was destined for the LeisureLink pool complex, which confirmed I was on the right product track anyway, as does the data sheet. I work in Melb CBD most days so got the train to Parchem in Brunswick. A little cheaper that way too   http://www.parchem.com.au/public/pdf...eal-CR-TDS.pdf

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