Mosaic's

A wee question for you all. As i have never had to do a full wall in mosaic's, only borders. I wondered how you stop them from slipping, you couldn't use spacers. Is it just that with a 3mm trowel makes it harder for them to slip, or do you mix your addy i bit drier? i don't have a mosaic job coming up, just wondered how it's done.
Cheers, Edd

hi eddie,i use stiff mosaic fix mix and if extra hold is needed i tap nails in to hold the sheet in place and remove once set,,dont know if this is the way its meant to be done but it works for me

I have recently done my first mosaic job, in my own bathroom. My house is a test bed to help me learn.

The key to mosaics is preparation. You need a flat surface with no lumps or bumps for the tiles to lie flat. It needs to be 10 times flatter and regular than a surface for say 6x6 tiles.

Bal do a product called Mosaic Fix. Some here think it's expensive and I think the Mapai equivilent is cheaper, but I can't get Mapai from CTD down here.

As kilty has said, the adhesive is quite good at holding them in place. The secret seens to be to put the right amount on to get full coverage and not a lot more, so you don't have an issue with grouting. If you get this right and press each tile home then the tiles will stay in place no problem.

One tip that Nick (Leatherface) told me when I posted my bathroom pick here, was to start from the top of the tiled area and work down.

Neale (Sir Ramic) also told me a good way to get them nesting nicely to hide panel joins. Remove alternate mosaics from each sheet where it buts up to the next sheet, so in effect you'll dovetail the sheets. Just keep an eye on the horizontals and verticals and it will work.

BAL Mosaic Fix has a long working time so you'll have plenty of time to do the job, so take your time.

One final tip I picked up here - when the tiles are fixed in place but before the adhesive dries off, use a small paint brush dipped in water to chean out the adhesive from the grout lines. I used a 1/2" brush that I cut short for this very job, works a treat.

When I last did a mosaic baorder I must admit I used a tubbed adhesive, as this was going on the walls anyway. It worked fine. I guess that you could use a good tubbed adhesive for mosaics in the right situation, but I would use a premium mosaic adhesive for my first job, or if I wasn't sure of my ability to work fast.,

i always start at top of wall and tile in brick effect down using panel pins helps with slippage ..walls hav got 2 b flatter than a snooker table for good finish and using grout float as a boxing glove..:hurray:.

I have always found a shallow bed of adhesive(mapei d1) works then as quoted use grout float to make sure all mosaics are flat and even.all walls have to be spot on or else it really shows up.use mosaic trowel then no addy coming through.for bigger walls i use a sponge paint roller to get them flat it works every time

Remember to cross joint them, will make vertical lines not so visible

And if you got an overhead type wall to do- pre-set the mosaic on thin backerboard flat on the ground- once its dry and cleaned up- thinset the backer with the mosaic stuck to it right onto the backer on the wall. Add a few screws for good measure.

Sounds crazy- but when its thin glass 1/2"x1/2" mosaics with paper on the front- you don't even have mesh to help keep anything in place.

Thin glass mosaic border is perfect for pre setting on say 4" wide and 2ft long strips of backer board flat on the ground. Once dry- it goes in like a dream! No wedges and loading up thinset behind them. It keeps all tiles in place and brings it up level with the field tile.

:hurray: I love that America still uses feet & inches. I measure in feet and inches and my wife then converts it to metric :lol:

Not for glass mosaics that need white thin set but for other slippage problems you could try adding a bit of cement to the thin set as this will prevent slippage to a large extent.

Cheers guys, now i have a bit of knowledge, i will feel a bit better about doing my first mosaic, when it comes.

thaks again, Edd

batiling said:

I have always found a shallow bed of adhesive(mapei d1) works then as quoted use grout float to make sure all mosaics are flat and even.all walls have to be spot on or else it really shows up.use mosaic trowel then no addy coming through.for bigger walls i use a sponge paint roller to get them flat it works every time

Click to expand...

I really like that splash back, but i can't quite work out the socket in the bottom left hand corner, has it got a chromed mirrored front and is just reflecting the other wall? has the pattern been painted on it? is it clear plastic and has been tiled behind?

Also is it the light that is making it look all the same colour? or have the kitchen units been sprayed to colour match the tiles? or is that mosiac just messing with my head and none of the above is true??????

Socket is chrome mate and just reflecting and the units are high gloss white.this one really did my head in and it took me just as long to grout up and the mats just wouldnt match up so had to take seperate mosaics off the sheets and fill the joins up.but on the otherhand this was a tester for a nationwide building company and got plenty of work of the back of it

I really like the dove tail idea. Sounds like than would help..

Did very heavy thick mosaic stones with thick plastic matting and customer insisted on mapei grey adhesive. Had to use nails to keep from slipping, would have preferred use Ardex plus the admix to stop the slipping.....got better as I went along but still had to do a lot of grout cleaning after they dried. Had to let sheets dry before take off plastic backing otherwise stones come up....bit of a mare! :yikes: