Fitting Pebble Mosiacs to a floor

[andleivers]

Hi Fellow Tilers.

I have a job in the next couple of weeks laying a pebble floor. The pebbles are supplied stuck to mosiac matting. Its the first time I've come across this sort of material and would be grateful to any of you who have experience with pebbles pointing me in the right direction.

The floor is wooden and I'm thinking of first covering with a hard backer type boarding in order that the surface is flat and then lay the adhesive (single part flexible) as I would a normal mosiac with a 3mm trowel. Is the adhesive bed going to be thick enough?

Secondly the stones will need to be sealed. It is better to do this before or after fitting?

Any help/ tips would be much appreciated.

Cheers

andleivers

 

[IvegotsTILE]

Your on the right track mate,just make sure you seal them before you lay them and after grouting.

 

[Defy]

Pebbles dont really need sealing b4 mate and I would use a 6/8 mm trowel. lay your flexible then push the pebble sheet into it with a grout float, whipe away any adhesive that might come to the surface with a sponge. If its to be grouted white I would look at Nicobond mosaic adhesive/gout which dries bright white and is a powder base (will need enhancer 2002) If there are large grout gaps I would look to Mapei ultracolour as its flexible and will go to 15mm. When its dry which will take a week as the pebbles dont absorbe like ceramic then seal them.

 

[Daz]

I'm with Defy on this one.
I did a pebble wall border last week and followed, pretty much, the exact same process. The stones don't absorb water like you would expect so only need to be sealed when the grout is dry.

I would add that you should consider using a white addy to ensure that the natural pebble colour stands out.

Good luck.

 

[Pawelzik]

Pebbles dont really need sealing b4 mate and I would use a 6/8 mm trowel. lay your flexible then push the pebble sheet into it with a grout float, whipe away any adhesive that might come to the surface with a sponge. If its to be grouted .....

Same so in Germany but with this difference: a) The tiler took a white fast flex adhesive, the fast setting shall prevent the pebble against rolling off its place while you work on it and accidently push the pebble by laying your knee or hand on it. b) The tiler didn´t wipe the over-amount of adhesive away but wiped only little and did use it as the grout. Martin

 

[andleivers]

Many thanks for your advice.

I certainly feel more confident now in doing the job correctly.

Cheers

 

[grantee]

I'm about to fit same sort of idea to a wall for a shower enclosure. The wall is just standard plasterboard. Being a novice, do I fit the shower screens to the tiles or tile upto the inside of the screens? Do I need any special adhesive as they are pretty hefty mats! I've bought UniBond Anti-Mould shower and bathroom waterproof adhesive and grout. I bet your gonna tell me it's a big mistake huh? Any help would be fantastic.

 

[Holohana]

reckon it will take far more grout than you'd expect too given all the larger gaps. Make sure you dont lose out on that. Adhesive, id say bal mosaic fix or maybe get away with bal whitestar perhaps?

 

[MICK the Tiler]

If i'm fixing to walls as in a whole feature wall I'd use a white non-slump with a 6-8mm trowel depending on the size of the pebbles and seal after grouting.

For floors I use flexable single part with 6-8mm trowel depending on pebble size and seal after grouting.

One more tip, these sheets always tend to be too consistent around the edges of the mats and once grouted tend to show up the individual sheets in the finished job. To counteract this I will order 3 extra sheets and as i'm laying remove some of the perimeter stones and replace with some from spare sheets just so you can blend from sheet to sheet without being able to tell where the first sheet ends and the next sheet starts. (The devil is in the detail)

Go forth and fix "LITTLE PEBBLE"

 

[sibs]

I'm about to fit same sort of idea to a wall for a shower enclosure. The wall is just standard plasterboard. Being a novice, do I fit the shower screens to the tiles or tile upto the inside of the screens? Do I need any special adhesive as they are pretty hefty mats! I've bought UniBond Anti-Mould shower and bathroom waterproof adhesive and grout. I bet your gonna tell me it's a big mistake huh? Any help would be fantastic.

Ok gonna try my hand at this.... Personally I would use a separate adhesive and grout of good quality. Re the shower: It usual to fit the shower screen over the tiles and I would say if you possibly can, do this. You may be able to get around any small gaps with the Silicon but it depends on how much lumpy bumpyness there is. I'm sure a more experienced person will be able to give you more advice.

 

[grantee]

The bal mosaic adhesive sounds like the fella but is it flexible enough. One thing i've been told is it must be flexible!

 

[DHTiling]

The bal mosaic adhesive sounds like the fella but is it flexible enough. One thing i've been told is it must be flexible!

BAL Mosaic-Fix Tile Adhesive

A bright white,highly flexible non-slip, water and frost-resistant, cementitious wall and floor tile adhesive specially formulated for fixing mosaic tiles including glass mosaics. It is also suitable for fixing ceramic wall and floor tiles, metal or glass tiles, marble, terrazzo, and natural stone in interior and exterior locations. Suitable for use in swimming pools. Can be used on most surfaces including MDF (in internal dry areas).