Floor tile adhesive

aardvark65

Hi we have bought ceramic floor tiles to fit to a concrete kitchen floor. The tiles were a good price but adhesive seems to be a total rip off!
Any advice on a good value adhesive? Salespeople obviously push high price products but it just has to work and not end up costing more than the tiles!!
We need approx 12 square metres worth.
Thanks for any advice.:D

southcoastrgi

yes just buy some cheap stuff b&q will do then come back on here in 6 months & ask why your tiles are breaking & loose & now you have to rip the whole lot up, do it properly & only do it once

aardvark65

I was hoping for helpful recommendations rather than abusive comments, but if that makes you feel superior good luck to you.:rotfl:

Oli.s

aardvark65 wrote: »

I was hoping for helpful recommendations rather than abusive comments, but if that makes you feel superior good luck to you.:rotfl:

His / Her wording may seem abrupt, but as a professional tiler I can assure you the point is valid.

Buy cheap but twice, and if you want a proffessional job, use proffessional materials.

You need a powdered cement based adhesive, try your local CTD / Topps / Tile giant or whatever you've got.

You'll probably be looking around £20 a bag, you'll need 3 20kg bags.

Get a slow setting adhesive, single part flexible, and mix half a bag a time, lay and then mix some more.

Tubbed adhesive, despite what they may claim is not a proffesional product, log onto any tiling forum and ask the same question to confirm if you want some reassurance.

Webber, Topfix (topps own brand), or mapei should be a fair price, bal is usually expensive.
Oli

southcoastrgi

aardvark65 wrote: »

I was hoping for helpful recommendations rather than abusive comments, but if that makes you feel superior good luck to you.:rotfl:

i wasn't being abusive at all, you moaned about the cost of quality adhesive & just wanted to bye cheap stuff that didn't cost as much as the good deal you had just got on tiles, so i just pointed out what is likely to happen if you did, just because you got a good deal on tiles it doesn't mean you are going to get a good deal on good adhesive, there is good reasons why a quality adhesive & grout has a premier price

LEJC

I can only echo what the others have said...and i am not a pro....but over the last few months ive spent a fortune on the bits that go towards laying tiles....and many a time ive moaned that the stuff to fix them costs more than the actual tiles....

We have just laid some of the really cheap b & Q ones in our kitchen and utility as flooring and the most ridiculously cheap "metro " style ones on the walls....total outlay for all well under £100 but what we didnt compromise on was what we used to stick them with or grout them with....the result so many positive comments and people are actually staggered when we tell them how much a square metre they cost, but its all in the fixing!

We used mapei

keystone

Just don't use the Mapei that B&Q sell. Buy the proper stuff.

OP if its concrete you need it to be flat (not necessarily level but certainly flat) and you may need to stick some SLC down first. If the concrete was trowelled don't bother with the SLC but do give at a coat or two of acrylic primer first.

The person that suggests using PVA to prime gets a hefty slap!.

Cheers

Leif

Do not use Unibond cement based adhesive. As far as I can tell it does hold the tiles, but the drying time is 4 times longer than it says on the packet. And they say to seal concrete/screed with PVA, which is not good.

LEJC

keystone wrote: »

Just don't use the Mapei that B&Q sell. Buy the proper stuff

Actually we found that the small independant tiling places were very helpful when buying the grout and bits and bobs...and probably were better in terms of discount or addiitional products offered than B&Q...they just couldnt match anywhere near the tile price....so we probably got the best of both.

drummer_666

there are about 25kg bags in wickes about £15 for the non rapid set. rapid set is cheaper, but not good unless you're experienced with tiling

think its about £13 for a 12.5kg bag

aardvark65

Thanks we bought the wickes one - had good reviews online too. All going well so far!