Which mosaic trowel?

[burncross]

What sort of mosaic trowel do most of you use?
The 3mm square notch or 3mm V notch?

 

[grumpygrouter]

Square for me,

 

[White Room]

If the mosaics are really thin I tend to use the flat part of the trowel, Save all that addy creeping into the joint area

 

[doug boardley]

same as grumps for me

 

[DHTiling]

I have one of these......

Rubi Stainless Steel - 3 mm x 3 mm


Rustproof stainless steel blade

Comfortable and durable rubber grip

3 mm square notch, ideal for mosaics

Rubi's top of the range trowel


Dave has a very good selection of trowels.... TradeTiler.Ltd Trowels

 

[grumpygrouter]

I have one of these......

Rubi Stainless Steel - 3 mm x 3 mm


Rustproof stainless steel blade

Comfortable and durable rubber grip

3 mm square notch, ideal for mosaics

Rubi's top of the range trowel


Dave has a very good selection of trowels.... TradeTiler.Ltd Trowels

Thats the very chap that I have in my toolbox dave.

 

[doug boardley]

I can't get to grips with rubber handles (no pun intended), stems from once using a cheap plastering trowel (CK I think) once when I'd left me lovely wooden handled marshalltown at home:conehead:

 

[DHTiling]

Doug...i used to use wooden handled trowels all the time...till i tried one of the new rubi type.....very comfy....

 

[doug boardley]

well, you've only given me good advice so far....( hope that doesn't sound crawly lol!)

 

[sWe]

3mm square-notch for mosaics thicker than 4mm, and v-notch for those thinner than 4mm, but not always. More on that soon.

Those thinner than 4mm tend to be no bigger than 20mm, and if the substrate is flat enough, the 3mm v-notch will probably work better than square notched, ie minimizing addy pusing into joints, while still achieving good coverage. This is especially relevant when the mosaics have paper or plastic facing (as opposed to net backing), because you REALLY want to minimize the risk of addy pushing into the joints when working on mosaics, as cleaning out excess addy is a real time sink if you get sloppy.

If the mosaics have net backing, it tends to minimize axcess addy in the joints, as it helps containing the addy, but not so with paper or plastic faced mosaics. Make REALLY damn sure the substrate is flat when working those kinds of mosaic, as you could end up spending hours raking out excess addy otherwise, since you can't remove it straight away without removing the facing, which will take the tiles with it...

 

[Rob Z]

Speaking of mosaics and dealing with setting material oozing into the joints....do any of you have access to a product such as Laticrete 4237 admix?

Lat 4237 is a latex additive that has all the goodies in it so that when mixed with sand and cement it will make a thinset mortar. The neat-o trick with this stuff is that it can be mixed with sanded grout to make a color-matched setting material.

Set the tiles as you usually would, and allow the ooze to come up into the joints and strike it off with a grout float and a sponge, and then grout the next day with the same grout that was used with the 4237. The color match is perfect and there is no time spent raking out grout joints.

Even if Laticrete isn't available in the UK, hopefully there is a company there that sells a similar product for you to try.

 

[sWe]

That's kind of clever actually. Laticrete is availible in Sweden, but their products are hard to come by, as they don't seem to have any retailers, which means you have to buy directly from Laticrete. Next time I re-do my own bathroom though, I'm going to order some Spectralock Pro grout with glow-in-the-dark dazzle :santa_cheesy:

 

[BDS]

I`ve the same trowel as dave, love the rubi trowels so nearly all mine are rubi now apart from 1.and also have 2 19" rubi (like jcb buckets) trowels for when doing large floor areas :santa_cheesy:

 

[medlar]

3mm square notched rubi

 

[cornish_crofter]

I bought a 3mm square notched trowel from the TIP!

It cost me £1 but it came free with 3 G clamps, one pair of tin snips and a bradawl