Tile adhesive showing through

petebates26

Hi,

A friend of mine has just had his bathroom tiled. It looks like the tiler has only dotted the tiles with adhesive - 4 spots in the corner of the tiles and one in the middle.

Now that it's finished, the adhesive is visible through the tiles.

So, 3 questions really: -

1. Is this usually caused by the wrong tiles, the wrong adhesive, or the wrong method of application? (I've only ever seen a solid bed of adhesive used - I don't know if this dotting method is standard practice)
2. Is there anything that can be done about this, or is it a case of either putting up with it, or removing them and starting again?
3. Would you expect the tiler to bear responsibility (and therefore cost) of sorting it out?

Thanks all

Plumberman

What kind of tiles are they?
I can only imagine glass tiles showing the adhesive underneath.

As for the tiler being responsible, if I left a job with tile adhesive showing through the tiles (not that I would) I would be expecting a phone call from an unhappy customer.

ariba10

I do not know of transparent tiles (I have been known to be wrong)

I wonder if it is condensation that is showing?

ormus

ive seen this same problem myself.
a lot of the cheap imported tiles can be very thin and not very good quality. when they are wetted from the rear, they can appear to be semi opaque.
hence the spots showing thro. using a proper tile spreader (proper method) for the adhesive will lessen the problem.

petebates26

The tiles are ceramic - Not 100% sure, but I think it's these ones - or something very close. And this was the adhesive used.

As to it being condensation - they've been on a week now - if it is condensation, how long would you expect it to take for everything to fully dry out? Do you think it's worth waiting to see if some further drying time resolves the problem before doing anything about it?

birkee

Perhaps some people know different, but I have never heard of adhesive showing through tiles before.
Sounds like they couldn't be laid well if you tried, whatever method you use to apply the adhesive.
I'd say poor quality tiles that are too thin...... I notice the tile thickness is not specified on the ad of the link you provided.

petebates26

To be honest, they didn't look too thin - I've emailed tile giant to find out how thick they are - I'll let you know when I get a reply.

birkee

They have got to be translucent, for adhesive to show through. Ceramic tiles that are translucent? Bone china maybe, but ceramic? Very odd!

petebates26

I've just had a reply from Tile Giant stating that the tiles are 10mm thick - does that sound particularly thin?

Plumberman

10mm is thick for a wall tile!

Are they wall tiles or floor tiles?

petebates26

Wall tiles - although they are listed as floor tiles on the link above (which is why I'm not 100% sure they're the exact ones) - and the salesman advised they were fine for use as wall tiles.