Extenal tiling should I protect tiles from rain until grouting?

[FreeD]

Hi Richard.

I got this job through my website...it was supposed to be a straight forward regrouting job but on arrival I walked over the tiled surface and all tiles had de bonded from the substrate...I literally picked them up in front of the customer. They were good quality ceramic tiles that the customer wanted to keep as they matched other tiles in the house. So I offered to clean the adhesive of the back and relay. I contacted BAL technical and gave them the details of the construction of the flat roof and they recommended lightly abrading the fibre glass and then fixing with BAL fastflex. The roof is constructed with a fall to the gutter.

My plan was to use an acid cleaner like Aqua Mix heavy duty tile and grout cleaner. Do you think I risk damaging the adhesive with this? What cleaner would you recommend. I did think of a pressure washer but with it getting close to bad spells of weather i'd like to keep the tiles as dry as poss.

Was going to use sealguard spray to seal grout.

 

[Richard Edwards]

Hello Free D

I assume therefore that from your post, you have relayed the tiles with Bal fastflex already and need to clean the face of the tiles before grouting ?

Acid based cleaners are ok for the ceramic / porcelain tiles but you will risk attacking the cement in the ady and really the tiles should have been throughly cleaned before laying. You will have to clean each tile now or still opt for the pressure washer, being carefull to avoid blowing away the ady as this product never really goes solid - ie always softish and flexible - hence why it works so well in the app you have.

Algae alone can be killed with biocycide - ie beach solution.

More than that I cannot add at this stage.

Good luck with it

 

[FreeD]

Thanks Richard and others for your help...think i'm going to try and avoid an acid cleaner and try and obtain a neutral cleaner of some kind. Should have cleaned them before they went back down. Will no for next time this is my first external job so bit of a learning curve!

Cheers

Aaron