Thinset??

[Perfect Tiling]

Hi guys....Just been viewing the installation ot Ditra decoupling mat on you tube and it keeps mentioning thinset adhesive. Sorry to appear thick here but is thinset a particular type of adhesive or is it just a case of mixing your normal flexi addy with enough water to give the right consistency. The addy that I use is dunlop or BAL...thats all that is easily available in my area unless I do a 120 mile round trip. :mad2:

 

[DHTiling]

Thinset is just terminology for standard bed depth adhesive and this would be on average 6mm max, then you have thick bed from that 6mm up over in depth..

So ye, just your normal rapid or flexi set.. and not a PTB or thick bed adhesive.

 

[Rob Z]

Dave, where is that thread from long ago, where I defined the US/Canadian terminology?

Perfect tiling, "thinset" has come to be the generic word that it used for a cement-based setting material that is used to set tile or stone, or to install mats and membranes. By its name "thin", it is meant to be installed in a "thin" layer, and is almost always used as an adhesive only. The only thing that I would correct Dave on is the use of "thick bed". Thick bed in North America is what you call a "screed". Thick bed materials are rarely used to set tile directly, but when they are, a bond coat or "neat coat" is used to bond the tile to the still-workable screed (we say mud bed).

We do have products that are in between "thin" and "thick", and used for setting tile and stone, which we call "medium bed mortars". These have larger sand and other additives that reduce or elimnate shrinkage, and thus can be built up to ~3/4" under individual tiles.

 

[DHTiling]

We have adhesives Rob that bed to 22mm ( nearly an inch) in depth.. so in the uk they are thick bed..adhesives.

Then we have wet bed fixing and this is your mud fixing.

 

[Rob Z]

Hi Dave, gotcha...I thought you were referring to our terminology because of the thinset reference.

So your thickbed is our medium bed? Your wet bed fixing is our drypack. And you fix tiles and we set them.

If I ever come to work in the UK I better have a translator on site.:smilewinkgrin:

 

[johnryan]

when i worked in california, the guy i did a lot of work for made what he called thinset from silica sand, glue and cement. he said it was much cheaper than buying the bagged stuff and was just as good. he used it for what he called lick and stick, which was mostly natural stone coverings on vertical work. they use something similar in israel too.

 

[Rob Z]

Hi John

Laticrete makes a great product (liquid) called "4237". It has all the goodies in it, except the sand and cement. This is the kind of mix that the guy you knew was doing.

The other great thing about 4237 is that it has something like twice the amount of moisture retention chemicals in it. I've spread 4237 thinset over a mudbed and left it for 20 minutes while I had a phone call, then come back in and it was still as sticky as when it was troweled out. THis is a good product in hot climates like California, Arizona, etc.

Did you do a lot of mudwork in CA? There is still a lot of it going on there, less so in other markets in the US.

 

[johnryan]

i'm back in the uk now, and it was quite a while ago that i was in the states. i did a fair bit of that kind of work there, but mostly i was building garden walls in L.A. after the earthquake in '94. most of the lick and stick work i did, was brick and stone work, where they kind of cut the faces off the brick or stone so it was around 20mm and then used it like tiles if you know what i mean. mostly big fireplaces and exteriors of houses. loved working over there, especially the weather. only thing i wasn't keen on was the lack of holidays. i was even expected to work in between xmas and new years eve !

 

[Rob Z]

Hi John, I'm glad you enjoyed your time in the US, although I would want any visitor to this country to go other places, because southern Cal is such a wierd place and really isn't representative of the rest of the country. We call it "LaLa Land" :smilewinkgrin:

I have done that thin brick kind of work, it's a nice change of pace....although there isn't much of it here in the area where I live.

Regarding the lack of holidays....every year, I try to plan it so I can take that entire week off...it never happens! There is always something that comes up that has to be taken care off.

Maybe this year! :lol:

i'm back in the uk now, and it was quite a while ago that i was in the states. i did a fair bit of that kind of work there, but mostly i was building garden walls in L.A. after the earthquake in '94. most of the lick and stick work i did, was brick and stone work, where they kind of cut the faces off the brick or stone so it was around 20mm and then used it like tiles if you know what i mean. mostly big fireplaces and exteriors of houses. loved working over there, especially the weather. only thing i wasn't keen on was the lack of holidays. i was even expected to work in between xmas and new years eve !

 

[merlecollins]

I've always classed sand and cement or mud work as 'monolithic'
I sold all my Raimondi vibration/roller machines years ago....too much like hard work with the prevailance of better and better adhesives:lol:

 

[johnryan]

yeah, you're right about la la land :yikes:, though i did have a great time there. was there more for the travelling xp really, though i ended up working a lot. very impressed with the way you guys work too. also spent around 8mths in seattle as well, and preferred it there, except for the rain. beautiful city, and i was there over xmas, so even more spectacular than usual. hope to go back one day.
and your right about monolithic merle. i'm going back 15 years now when i was on sand and cement work. though i do still use it. guess i'm a bit of a stone age type myself.

 

[Rob Z]

Right now, about half our tile work is set over mud. On each and every job, I say to the guys when we're finished "MAN am I glad that's done!" :lol: It's a lot of work. But I really do enjoy it. The guy that taught me said he always refered to it as "putting a sidewalk on the wall" :smilewinkgrin:

I've always classed sand and cement or mud work as 'monolithic'
I sold all my Raimondi vibration/roller machines years ago....too much like hard work with the prevailance of better and better adhesives:lol:

 

[Rob Z]

Another thing we say about California is that it's like a bowl of granola cereal: "What ain't fruits and nuts is flakes" :lol:

We went through Seattle on our honeymoon in '94. Three days there-beautiful weather, hot, sunny, breezy. Not a drop of rain.

yeah, you're right about la la land :yikes:, though i did have a great time there. was there more for the travelling xp really, though i ended up working a lot. very impressed with the way you guys work too. also spent around 8mths in seattle as well, and preferred it there, except for the rain. beautiful city, and i was there over xmas, so even more spectacular than usual. hope to go back one day.
and your right about monolithic merle. i'm going back 15 years now when i was on sand and cement work. though i do still use it. guess i'm a bit of a stone age type myself.