Trying to learn from my mistakes here......

[vosnack]

mix the adhesive thicker,lay tile butted up to front row your working off and drag tile back and press if you push it towards the row of tiles it will squeeze out the joints

hope this makes sense

That's exactly what I was about to write. That's the best way to do this. I sometimes simply use bucket trowel to spread adhesive if it's no use with the tile trowel.

 

[cornish_crofter]

hi cornish,dont make it too thick just to the right consistency but when you go to lay it lay the tile tight to the one previously laidand drag back towardsa you,this will drag the edge adhesive away from the joint you are workin gon and stop thr addy squeezing through

That's what I was thinking from your last post, so if/when I apply a little too much adhesive, the excess is pulled away from the edges rather than pushed onto them.

It just gets difficult when you do the last tiles around the edges. I always do the cuts last (apart from those on the former), and they're usually around the room.

 

[mikethetile]

persevere Hugo

youve learnt about the prep now and wont make the same error again, its a learning curve so dont beat yourself up about this

we all learn the hard way but come right in the end

 

[Ken Bruty]

Hi Cornish, we've all been there in the early days, don't worry it becomes second nature, you have to invest in yourself to start with (i.e. the jobs always seem to take longer than you imagine), but it's all part of learning the trade, quality first, speed later mate. I find if I'm building adhesive up, firstly trowel the floor, then trowel the ribs the same way on the back of your tile, this should bring your adhesive up 6-8mm depending on your trowel, then, when you press the tile down you have more control of the adhesive spreading evenly underneath, and you get more opportunity to adjust it if necessary up or down without losing coverage, then as kilty says, butt the tile up against the last and move away as you're bedding so that the movement sucks the adhesive away from the joint, these small details work for me every time. I find a quick way to build the adhesive up thicker than this (providing the manufacturer allows this in the adhesive spec!) is to spread adhesive on the floor with the flat part of your trowel or using the flat edge on your bucket trowel to the same level as the bottom of the previous tiles around and pull the trowel flat away from them, therefore creating a flat bed, then trowel the ribs straight on the back of your tile to be laid and press on to the bed you just created, clean job done! Also a tip for you, if you don't already know, is to always trowel out your adhesive in straight ribs when fixing as this allows any air to be squashed out from under the tile, therefore preventing lippage and tile corners being sucked down as the adhesive sets. Hope that helps mate and don't give up, it takes a lot of practice.:smilewinkgrin:

 

[heavytrevy]

Laying onto screed I use a 12mm min or a 15mm if its rough , it will save u alot of time.
I do loads of wetroom floors and it all comes down to experience, you need to get your eye in .

 

[cornish_crofter]

Thanks all

With the last few tiles I basically used the flat part of the trowel to give myself a flat bed then applied more adhesive with the ribbed part.

I think my problem was that I was trying to apply too much adhesive at once. The last wetroom I did I ended up using profix rapid set SPF to smooth out the rough concrete, then when this had gone off I then applied more SPF to lay the former down. That actually worked really well.

I guess for large areas, you could use a straight edge with a level on top to level out the adhesive, let it go off for about an hour then apply more adhesive on top and lay the tiles as normal.

 

[S.L.]

You need to find out where the "high point" in you floor is and start there!, you can add material but you cant really take away

I learnt this the hard away. grinding 2mm off the back of 600 x 300 porcelain was not fun.