Am I going to ruin my natural stone tiles?

Joined
7 Feb 2012
Messages
54
Reaction score
0
Location
Selkirkshire
Country
United Kingdom
About to start tiling bathroom floor and shower area, and kitchen floor and am spending lots on swish tiles and all the adhesive and cleaners and stuff that goes with them. Will this work:

Floor: old floorboards with some ply sections too. Will make sure all roughly level and sound.

Wall: fitted with 12.5mm Aquapanel, either with Aquapanel screws into studs, battens, or dot and dabbed with stainless steel hammer fixings through dabs. Feels solid.

Tiles: cappuccino marble 305 x 450 x 12 mm for walls and bathroom floor, also some 305x305x10ish mm black granite for kitchen floor.

1) Cover floor with 6mm hardibacker and screw down. Do I need to put cement underneath or just screw down? Think there are some special screws, will check with manufacturer. For the Aquapanel on the walls, use the Aquapanel tape in the joins.

2) Use Mapei Keraquick with Latex Plus adhesive - expecting to get about 4sqm of tiling out of each 20kg bag. Use the white one so marble doesn't suck in the colour. Put adhesive on back of tiles to seal, as well as on floor? What trowel should I use for this size tiles and this subfloor?

3) Cut tiles with a cheapish water-cooled circular saw. Should I get a load of spare blades in, will the granite knacker them?

4) Fit edging for visible edges then lay tiles with 3mm spacers Leave overnight at least.

5) Grout with Mapei Ultracolour Plus. Do I have to use white for the marble again, or can I try colour matching it a bit? Was going to use black grout for the black granite, maybe the caramel for the cappuccino marble.

6) Seal with sealant

7) Clean with the residue remover

8) Seal again

9) Start drilling through for the shower door etc and hope like hell they don't crack...

Is this a solid plan? Never done tiling before but my Dad's helping and he's done a bit, but never bit natural stone tiles.

Thanks,
chris
 
Sponsored Links
Wall: fitted with 12.5mm Aquapanel, either with Aquapanel screws into studs, battens, or dot and dabbed with stainless steel hammer fixings through dabs. Feels solid.
For dot & dab, I would use through (frame) screw fixings not hammer fixings. You risk damaging/cracking the cement board & all that hammering will most likely break bond of the adhesive dabs. They are only strong enough to hold the panels temporarily in position while you mechanically fix, you can’t rely on adhesive to permanently support the boards. You have very heavy tiles possibly around 40 kg/sqm. Aquapanel is good to 50 kg/sqm but it will only be as good as the bond to the wall, personally I’d consider studding it out & fixing the Aqp to that.

Tiles: cappuccino marble 305 x 450 x 12 mm for walls and bathroom floor, also some 305x305x10ish mm black granite for kitchen floor.
You need a very flat floor & a large format trowel.

Cover floor with 6mm hardibacker and screw down. Do I need to put cement underneath or just screw down? Think there are some special screws, will check with manufacturer.
Hardi installation relies on adhesive as well as screws. Large tiles need a very flat tile base & it must be completely rigid or you risk tile failure, especially in a heavy use/load area such as a kitchen. Hardy 500 (12mm) may be a better bet. What size areas are you tiling, tile runs longer than 6m really need an expansion joint? Don’t tile through door openings either, fir an expansion joint at the door threshold or the tiles will most likely crack.

For the Aquapanel on the walls, use the Aquapanel tape in the joins.
You can use the Aqp tape but I just use 2 overlapping strips of glass fibre plasterboard reinforcing tape, it’s cheaper.

2) Use Mapei Keraquick with Latex Plus adhesive - expecting to get about 4sqm of tiling out of each 20kg bag. Use the white one so marble doesn't suck in the colour. Put adhesive on back of tiles to seal, as well as on floor? What trowel should I use for this size tiles and this subfloor?
I wouldn’t back butter the tiles unless they are ribbed. 4-5 sq/m would be the norm for 2okg of powder addy, assume your using it on the walls as well? Natural stone is porous, you need to seal before tiling & again before grouting or you could risk permanently staining the tiles. For the larger tiles you will need a large format trowel. For the smaller tiles, you can use a thick bed solid bed trowel.

3) Cut tiles with a cheapish water-cooled circular saw. Should I get a load of spare blades in, will the granite knacker them?
How cheap is cheapish, is it new? Blades do vary in quality but the quality of the spindle bearings is even more important for straight chip free cuts. I cut large format granitite tiles without any problems.

4) Fit edging for visible edges then lay tiles with 3mm spacers Leave overnight at least.
The time you leave it before grouting depends on the adhesive you use, check the manufacturer’s instructions.

5) Grout with Mapei Ultracolour Plus. Do I have to use white for the marble again, or can I try colour matching it a bit? Was going to use black grout for the black granite, maybe the caramel for the cappuccino marble.
Grout colour is personal choice but with darker contrasting colours, you may risk staining. You should, however, avoid white/light colours on the floor as they tend to look grubby pretty in a relatively short space of time & would be a disaster in a kitchen.

6) Seal with sealant
7) Clean with the residue remover
8) Seal again
OK but see my earlier comments about sealing the tiles before laying.

9) Start drilling through for the shower door etc and hope like hell they don't crack...
Use a diamond tile drill but don’t use the hammer setting. You need to make sure you have something solid behind to take the door fixings.
 
Thanks for that, couple of quick follow-ups. I am now going to go for a mosaic on the bathroom floor so it's less slippy but rest of set-up unchanged:

- I was told you need to seal marble and granite after sticking them on the wall, and then again after grouting. But before sticking them on the wall? Are you thinking of colour staining? I have paid the extra for white adhesive that is supposed to be ok with porous stone.

- What sort of adhesive should I put under the Hardibacker? ANd how much, just enough to even out any cracks, or enough to raise the whole thing by a bit.

- Also have been recommended a 7mm or 9mm notched trowel for laying them. Does that sound right (for walls and floor?)
 
Sponsored Links
I was told you need to seal marble and granite after sticking them on the wall, and then again after grouting. But before sticking them on the wall? Are you thinking of colour staining? I have paid the extra for white adhesive that is supposed to be ok with porous stone.
It also advisable to seal before sticking them up, before grouting & the again when your done, clean between each application. White adhesive with light colour tiles is better than grey but there may still be a risk of staining.

What sort of adhesive should I put under the Hardibacker? ANd how much, just enough to even out any cracks, or enough to raise the whole thing by a bit.
Flexible powder adhesive, follow Hardi’s installation instructions; http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/pdf/backer-install-us.pdf Make sure the board joints don’t coincide with floor board joints. Also avoid wall tile grout lines coinciding with the Aquapanel board joints.

Also have been recommended a 7mm or 9mm notched trowel for laying them. Does that sound right (for walls and floor?)

1) For the large format floor tiles, you should be using a large format trowel - 20mm round notches, 13mm deep, at 28mm centres.
2) For 300 x 300 floor tiles use a solid thick bed trowel - 20mm round notches, 10mm deep, at 28mm centres.
3) For large format tiles on flat walls in a wet area use a solid thin bed trowel - 10mm tapering notches, 5mm deep, at 12.5mm centres.
4) For dry areas on walls use a standard round notch trowel - 6mm round notches at 12mm centres.

You may get away with a solid thick bed trowel (2) if the floor is perfectly flat, otherwise I would go for the large format trowel (1). You can obviously this for the smaller floor tiles but you will use more adhesive. If you don’t want to buy a solid thin bed trowel (3) for the wet areas where you need 100% coverage, again, you can use a solid thick bed trowel (2). You only need use a round notch trowel (4) on all other dry wall areas but, again, you can use the thick bed trowel here as well.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Back
Top