50 mm travertine mosaic tiles

[postie]

Hi all
Just had to quote a job for about 13 sq/m of travertine mosaics in bathroom.
What would be the best adhesive and grout to use also they are 50mm wide and 10 mm thick will these be ok to go straight on to walls IE weight and will the walls need priming the customer said he would sand all the paint off ,and i guess i will have to wet cut the tiles . I quoted about £430 for this job with matrials on top does that sound about right as there are several cuts to make.

 

[Fekin]

I would use Bal's mosaic fix adhesive and Bal Superflex grout.

If theres paint on the walls, no matter how well the customers sanded them down, I'd still prime first to get that extra stick.

£430 works out at £33 a sqm, so it's not a bad price for you really, but I charge £30 psqm for bog standard large format ceramic mosaics, so as it's a natural stone you could still call £33 psqm on the low to middle side on price.

 

[postie]

Thanks Fekin how much adhesive and grout would i need and would i use bal prime APD .

 

[Fekin]

Bal mosaic fix is available in 20kg, 10kg & 5kg bags, and it will state on the packaging what surface area each bag will cover but remember it's going to eat up the grout with it been mosaics and 10 mm thickness.

Bal Prime APD
A modified acrylic polymer dispersion for use as a primer for a variety of backgrounds/bases prior to fixing ceramic tiles, mosaics and natural stone and prior to the application of levelling compound and the BAL WP1 TANKING SYSTEM. BAL PRIME APD isolates products containing calcium sulphate such as gypsum plaster and anhydrite screeds from cement-based adhesives, thus minimising the risk of reaction between the two materials.

So yes, I would have thought APD would be fine.

 

[postie]

By the way this is my first attempt at Natural stone and mosaics so ****ting it a bit TBH ,anyone got any tips on cuts etc ,especially around the window as i won't be using trim i will be butting the tiles together .

 

[Fekin]

Mitre them maybe ?, never used travertine myself yet anyway, lol

 

[brian c]

use dry cutter to score tiles and wet cutter to cut them,have plenty of water in your cutter,use a diamond wheel in the cutter.Use a mosaic trowel to apply the adhesive as the notches are smaller,use your grout float topad tile down.Use a piece of wood to cover the tiles topside of window ingo and hold in position with two pieces of wood which will be big enough to wedge on window sill.Use a flexible grout and try not to take the tile up to adjust once you have fixed it as the mesh at the back gets wet and mosaics start to come off.Good luck and let us know how it went.

 

[postie]

Thanks Brian by the way when having to cut the mosaics around obstacles do you offer the sheet up and cut the tiles out of the sheet that will need cutting around obstacles also how long do you recon it would take to do a bathroom of this size in these tiles many regards Edd.