First marble job - advice please

[Tony Cooper]

Hello there lads,

At very short notice I've got my first marble installation (cappucino) for a bathroom, it's approx 14m2 walls and 4m2 on the floor. Apparantly the walls will have new plasterboard and the floor will be 12mm ply. I'll be using Mapei Keraquick S1 adhesive.

Will I need to prime the plasterboard ? or is it ok to go straight on and will I need to buy the latex additive for the floor to make it more flexi ? What size spacers would you suggest ?

Thanks for your help,

Cheers,

Tony

 

[Mike]

do you mean you're overboarding with 12mm ply? is the original floor solid? ply is not a good substrate to tile on. you'll have to check the weight limits for them marble tiles on the wall too

 

[paul78]

when you say apparantly....... im assuming you havnt seen the job???

id be careful if you havnt especially with plasterboard walls, ie dot n dabbed? screwed to batons etc.
floor overboarded with 12mm ply? screwed down correctly?

be very careful as it will come back to the tiler in the end, and if you havnt prepped it then you dont know if its been done correctly!!

 

[Huggy]

Tony If your doing a Marble job dont forget to seal the tiles . Most tile shops should keep you right on what sealer to use

 

[DHTiling]

Tony If your doing a Marble job dont forget to seal the tiles . Most tile shops should keep you right on what sealer to use

What do you use.?

 

[Del W]

Suggest you look at the job first before saying youre going to do it.

 

[Tony Cooper]

Hi Lads,

Thanks for the replies, good points there.

Paul78, you make a point of how the plasterboard has been fixed, is it a problem if it's just been dot and dabbed ? If it has, can you still put marble tiles on full height ? Do I need to prime the walls first ?

Huggy, the sealer I've been advised to use is called 'Universeal All-in-one' so hopefully it's fit for purpose.

I'm looking at the job on Tuesday so will be able to make a judgement call then.

Thanks again for the advice.

Cheers,

Tony

 

[diamondtiling]

The weight of the tiles will be considerably heavy, dot and dabbed plasterboard is not acceptable. Mechanical fixings have to be used to strengthen them. Universal sealer? never heard of it and it sounds a little suspect. Marble has its own specific sealers, have a look at LTP's range.

The ply is not a great tiling surface, backer boards are far superior. Is the customer doing this on the cheap? if so I would leave well alone.

Here is chinese marble fixed direct to a concrete floor with 2mm spacers, these were really heavy and I would not have wanted to fix them to any type of plasterboard, block walls, tile backer boards (mechanically fixed) or sand and cement screed would provide a better surface.

Picture 1 of 9 from Chinese marble