Please confirm before i buy

[SB4U]

Hi. I'm going to get started tiling in my en-suite soon but just wanted to check my adhesive choice with you before I buy.

The tiles are 300x600x9 ceramic and the walls are unskimmed plasterboard in the dry areas, and aquapanel with impey waterguard tanking membrane over in the shower area.

I've gathered from browsing this forum that I need to use single part flexible cement based adhesive so thought I'd get Mapei Mapeker Rapid Set Flex Tile Adhesive (Grey) from Screwfix as it seems pretty good value. I'd intended using a 10mm notched trowel and back buttering the tiles too. Am I on the right track?

Can you also tell me if I need to use any primer on the bare plasterboard too?

Many thanks
Steve

 

[Dan]

What price are you paying for the adhesive?

 

[SB4U]

It's £12.79 for a 20kg bag at the moment. I like getting stuff from Screwfix as it's really close to where I live and they're cool about taking unused stuff back.

 

[Dan]

Not sure what the going rate is but wondering if CTD might be cheaper.

You're not trade, right?

 

[SB4U]

No I'm not trade mate. Do you think that that Mapei is the right stuff or should I use something different?

 

[Dan]

I wouldn't want to provide advice in this thread mate I've not purchased adhesive for years, and not tiled for years longer, so I'd be worried my advice want's right and you acted on it.

Wait for the lads to get in from work and chip in.

 

[Andy Allen]

I would go for slow set reather than rapid set......what colour grout do you intend using?

 

[SB4U]

@Andy Allen You're probably right. I did wonder if slow set would be better for me as I'll probably take ages faffing with each tile. I can't see any at that sort of price though. Any suggestions?

 

[Andy Allen]

I use weber set plus....tilemaster also seems to be popular at the moment.
If your using a light colour grout go for white adhesive. ..

 

[White Room]

As said slow set, don't become a victim of rapid set🙂

 

[SB4U]

Thanks guys. I've just been searching online to see where I can get the Weber stuff from but I'm not having much luck as a non-trade customer unless I pay a fortune in postage. There looks like there's some non-Topps tile warehouses in Brighton, one of which, called MasterTiles, looks promising if their website is anything to go by, so I'll give them a ring or drop in this week.

Do you have any other recommendations of suitable adhesive for my tiles if they don't stock the first suggestion?

 

[Andy Allen]

Basically any powdered slow set adhesive. see what you can get locally. Post the name of it on here and im sure someone would of used it and tell you what its like.
Have you got any tile shops in your area?

 

[SB4U]

Thanks Andy. Only Topps or the DIY stores really. I'll try that MasterTiles place this week to see what they do too.

 

[Dougs Third Go]

yep, a slow set would be my choice, as for priming the plasterboard, it certainly wouldn't do any harm. If you're using the impey waterguard membrane to tank the walls just bear in mind that it'll only safely bear 30kg/m2.

 

[SB4U]

Thanks guys. Went down to the tile warehouse in Brighton today and they've recommended Nicobond Standard Flex which seems to tick all the boxes. I think I'll get that unless anyone here thinks it's a terrible idea. There's a Nicobond primer available too so I'll use that on the plasterboard.

@Doug Boardley. The tiles and adhesive should be about 24kg/m2 I think so I should be ok.