Is Branded Tile Adhesive Better than Cheaper Alternatives?

mrobsessed

I'm getting a wall tiled including an area around a shower bath and the builder asked me to buy pre-mixed adhesive for the 10M square area. I was a bit surprised at the price of the stuff as I needed 3 tubs at between £10 (Wilko own brand) and £18 (Uni bond extra mould resistant) - each covered 4Msqu. Is there any real difference and should I get the cheaper brand and save some money?

The Branded stuff makes bold claims of being mould resistant and more waterproof - but is it really worth the extra money? For that matter is the stuff that comes as a powder and needs to be mixed with water any worse?

Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Mr O

keystone

Do you know what happened to the woman who didn't know the difference between vaseline and putty?............













keep scrolling












... her windows fell out!!!

He should be specifying what you buy to be able to give you a guarantee on his workmanship not letting you decide what to buy. The Wilko one will be carp, the Unibond one is carp. !!!!!! buy a proper one. BAL Whitestar if he must use tubbed. 10 litre tub will cover just over 6m^2 for a normal wall reducing to about 5m^2 for a "wet" wall. Prime first with APD or Primer G and tank the shower area. If your builder doesn't understand whats being said here don't let him do it and get a proper tiler in.

Cheers

mrobsessed

keystone wrote: »

Do you know what happened to the woman who didn't know the difference between vaseline and putty?............

keep scrolling

... her windows fell out!!!

He should be specifying what you buy to be able to give you a guarantee on his workmanship not letting you decide what to buy. The Wilko one will be carp, the Unibond one is carp. !!!!!! buy a proper one. BAL Whitestar if he must use tubbed. 10 litre tub will cover just over 6m^2 for a normal wall reducing to about 5m^2 for a "wet" wall. Prime first with APD or Primer G and tank the shower area. If your builder doesn't understand whats being said here don't let him do it and get a proper tiler in.

Cheers

Is there any need to be so aggressive? I'm asking 'cos I don't know, so stop pretending anyone who is not as well versed as you is an idiot. I don't even know what 'tanking' the shower means, so this is little use to me. I'll go to the place I got the tiles and ask them '!!!!!!'...

Rude jerk

southcoastrgi

KS isn't being rude he is quite right, if your builder doesn't know what adhesive he should use then he shouldn't be tiling, tanking is waterproofing the wall in your shower area, if you just use plain plasterboard you will have no end of problems but again your builder should know this,

what type of tiles & what size are they ?

greatgimpo

Another vote for Keystone.

booty40uk

Spot on Keystone. Everything said in his post is 100% correct and I can't see anything aggressive in it at all.

jellie

I can understand where Mr O is coming from, however I took any annoyance in the response to be aimed at the person doing the work, not the person asking the question.

I wouldn't want anyone doing work for me who couldn't, or wouldn't, specify exactly what he needed to do the job properly.

Leif

mrobsessed wrote: »

Is there any need to be so aggressive? I'm asking 'cos I don't know, so stop pretending anyone who is not as well versed as you is an idiot. I don't even know what 'tanking' the shower means, so this is little use to me. I'll go to the place I got the tiles and ask them '!!!!!!'...

He wasn't being rude. He was being helpful.

mrobsessed wrote: »

Rude jerk

He was critical of your trade, not you.

Leif

Oh, and tanking means water-proofing the shower area. A lot of bathroom installers will not tank the shower area of a bath, although that does risk water penetration. Tanking is the placing of a waterproof layer between the walls and the tiles. I believe it could be a membrane, or a form of 'paint' for want of a better word.

tlh858

What's been said already is all correct.

The type of adhesive depends on many things - what the tiles are made of, the size/weight of the tiles, what the tiles are being fixed to, where the tiles are being fitted, etc.

As for the adhesive cost - this is tiny compared to the cost of redoing the entire lot when it fall off the wall in a few months time.

Personally, I would never use tub adhesive for a shower or bath area, and would not use any kind of plasterboard as a base either.

Tucker

Bal Whitestar is definitely the stuff you want, but it's probably more like £30 a tub.

It seems odd he is asking you to buy it and wouldn't inspire confidence that he will do top job. A bad shower job is a disaster you will regret.