Tiles do not stick, tried everything

[GrahamG]

Hi,

I hope someone can explain where I am going wrong (also the grief I'm getting from my wife is amazing.), I seem to be having massive problems getting tiles (20cm by 50cm)to stick to a plaster wall, I have tried Mapei Ultimate Shower Proof and Mapei Ultimate Supergrab, this is the order of things have been so far

Plaster Wall:-

Mapei Ultimate Shower Proof: Tiles came off after 2 days, as Tile adhesive was damp
PVA'ed the wall, use Mapei Ultimate Supergrab: Tiles came off after 2 days, as Tile adhesive was damp
Sugar Soaped the walls, allowed to dry, then used Mapei Plaster Primer allowed to dry, used Mapei Ultimate Supergrab: Tiles came off after 3 days, as Tile adhesive was damp.

I have included a pic, of the wall so hopefully that might explain better.

From the picture, I can see that i have not had good grab, but the Tile adhesive was all damp

Also can I reuse the tiles , as i have scraped the damp plaster off?

Any tips, tricks gratefully received, I need to earn my "man card" back in the eyes of the wife, 🙂

Thanks for looking

 

[Porcelainwood]

Are your tiles Porcelain ?? or Ceramic If Porcelain should really use a powdered adhesive as opposed to a ready mixed

 

[GrahamG]

Hi,

There are ceramic wall tiles bought from B&Q, KonKrete Wall Tile

Graham
[automerge]1583671876[/automerge]

Hi,

There are ceramic wall tiles bought from B&Q, KonKrete Wall Tile

Graham

 

[Sean Kelly]

Adhesive (ready mixed) is only suitable for ceramic wall tiles of 300x300 (millimeters) or less. Most tilers would not even use ready mixed adhesive on this size tile. The reason being is that the ready mixed adhesive cures (gets hard) by air. Powered adhesive (mixed with water) cures by a chemical reaction.
Basically, you are spreading your tile adhesive on your wall and sticking a big tile on top. The air cannot get to the middle of your tile.

You have to get a powdered adhesive and mix it with water. Back butter your tile too (like you would butter bread).

Scrape that adhesive off the walls and your tiles. Prime the walls and you are good to go. I would use a 8mm or10mm notched trowel (depending on how flat your walls are.

 

[GrahamG]

Thank you for the info and why it’s not been working, I will go and buy some powered adhesive today and post the results here.

👍

 

[hmtiling]

To add pva is not a suitable primer. Use an acrylic prime of sbr diluted to ratios stated

 

[GrahamG]

thanks for the info, will grab some of that as well

 

[Rae]

Powder adhesive ,sticks ceramics very easy as so porous

 

[TimmoB]

This is the product info for Mapei ultimate shower, it says up to 600 x 300.

Product information
This wall tile adhesive is water resistant and suitable for ceramic and mosaic tiles.

Suitable for Ceramic
Water resistant
10 years guarantee
Features and benefits
Ready mixed wall tile adhesive D2T
High initial grab & non slip formula
Suitable for tile sizes up to 600 x 300mm
20-30 minute opening time with a 30-40 minute adjustment period

 

[Ann Rolph]

Some of my ceramic floor tiles are not completely stuck to the floor they sound hollow when you walk on them, is there anything I can do?