How thick should the adhesive be?

adelast · Oct 12, 2021

Hi everyone,

I am planning to perform my first tile DIY project and I have few questions regarding adhesive thickness, three to be exact:

1. I will attach 6mm backboards to a masonry wall, how thick should the adhesive be?
2. The tiles that will be attached to the backboards will be approximatively 301mm long, 75.4mm wide and 8.5mm thick, how thick should the adhesive be? They will be put with 3mm spacers in a herringbone shape
3. I haven't decided the size of the floor tiles but they will be hex tiles of medium size, how thick should the adhesive be?

Many thanks!

Kevbos · Oct 12, 2021

adelast said:
Hi everyone,

I am planning to perform my first tile DIY project and I have few questions regarding adhesive thickness, three to be exact:

1. I will attach 6mm backboards to a masonry wall, how thick should the adhesive be?
2. The tiles that will be attached to the backboards will be approximatively 301mm long, 75.4mm wide and 8.5mm thick, how thick should the adhesive be? They will be put with 3mm spacers in a herringbone shape
3. I haven't decided the size of the floor tiles but they will be hex tiles of medium size, how thick should the adhesive be?

Many thanks!

Hello adelast. I would just like to say you are taking on some particulary hard methods and styles of tiling for a beginner!! Firstly I would advise thicker boards or even better rendering the walls instead ??

adelast · Oct 12, 2021

Hi Kevbos thank you for your reply!
Unfortunately the en-suite is extremely small and having a ticker board would reduce the living space. It's so small that when using the toilet your face is very close to the sink and even one or 2 cm more can make the bathroom unusable. The en-suite had a leak in the shower due to the fact that it wasn't tanked properly, water was going inside the grout lines into the walls and finally under the shower tray causing damage into the living room below. We bought this property recently and this is the first room I am planning to renovate as it's the smallest. My priority is to make it leak proof so I have decided to use the backerboard mainly for that, I bought some like the one in the attached image

Tiler87 · Oct 13, 2021

adelast said:
Hi everyone,

I am planning to perform my first tile DIY project and I have few questions regarding adhesive thickness, three to be exact:

1. I will attach 6mm backboards to a masonry wall, how thick should the adhesive be?
2. The tiles that will be attached to the backboards will be approximatively 301mm long, 75.4mm wide and 8.5mm thick, how thick should the adhesive be? They will be put with 3mm spacers in a herringbone shape
3. I haven't decided the size of the floor tiles but they will be hex tiles of medium size, how thick should the adhesive be?

Many thanks!

Hi Adeblast, if the masonry wall is sound and fit for tiling why not go with a waterproofing kit instead of backing board? But if you're going with a board I'd look up manufacturers recommendation on trowel size (I'd imagine 8mm or 10mm trowel in one direction and rock side to side to collapse trowel ridges) and when installing take the board off to check your coverage.
This is from the akw website regarding warranty and installation so be careful!
Warranty
No warranty is given nor is it implied that
any building material product we offer is
fit for any particular purpose. As we have
no control over the way our products
are used, customers must ascertain for
themselves that an item is suitable for
the intended purpose

Kevbos · Oct 13, 2021

adelast said:
Hi Kevbos thank you for your reply!
Unfortunately the en-suite is extremely small and having a ticker board would reduce the living space. It's so small that when using the toilet your face is very close to the sink and even one or 2 cm more can make the bathroom unusable. The en-suite had a leak in the shower due to the fact that it wasn't tanked properly, water was going inside the grout lines into the walls and finally under the shower tray causing damage into the living room below. We bought this property recently and this is the first room I am planning to renovate as it's the smallest. My priority is to make it leak proof so I have decided to use the backerboard mainly for that, I bought some like the one in the attached image

And you are planning to stick this to brickwork ?

adelast · Oct 13, 2021

Kevbos said:
And you are planning to stick this to brickwork ?

Well think is a brick wall yes, it thin and not load bearing, I will first remove the old adhesive and then add new adhesive and attach the 6mm plastic tile board. Here are few pics of the walls

Jimbob12 · Oct 23, 2021

Couldn't you just use hardie backer boards and mechanically fix them. Or SBR the walls once you've removed all of the adhesive then use a 10mm trowel and apply an S1 flexible adhesive to stick the boards on. Once it's dry mechanically fix it into the wall. You can get 6mm hardie but should probably use 10mm with it being a wall I think?

angrypirate · Oct 25, 2021

Take it back to the brickwork, not just the black mortar/lime render. An hours work with an SDS, this will give you a bit more space to work with.

How thick should the adhesive be?

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