Hearth adhesive

[Therms]

In doing my floor recently I had to smash up the fireplace hearth. I now need to relay it with some new tiles.

Tiles are fired when they are made, so I’d guess any type would do, but what adhesive and grout should I go for. I only have a small hearth to do (see piccie), so I only want a small tub.

All advise received with thanks.

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[gcol]

In doing my floor recently I had to smash up the fireplace hearth. I now need to relay it with some new tiles.

Tiles are fired when they are made, so I’d guess any type would do, but what adhesive and grout should I go for. I only have a small hearth to do (see piccie), so I only want a small tub.

All advise received with thanks.

View media item 13284

As you mention, no problem with tiles regarding the heat side of things. I would strongly recommend that you plump for porcelain tiles though - they'll resist the definite chipping risk that would occur around the fire place area.
As for adhesive, completely forget the word "tub" when talking about floor adhesive of any kind. You should always use a powdered adhesive for floors. As it seems that you are already over-tiling existing tiles and (if you take my advice) using porcelain tiles, you need to look for an adhesive that is suitable for porcelain tiles. (It doesn't need to be flexible adhesive so long as it can cope with porcelain tiles.) That's about it really - you're not really asking too much of an adhesive for your application so I wouldn't necessarily bother about an expensive adhesive like Bal. Like I say, just find a small bag of powdered adhesive that states that it is suitable for pocelain tiles. As always... try and avoid Unibond adhesive.
Grout is much of a muchness for this job - obviously, the lighter the colour grout, the more sh*te it will show. I always recommend grey for floors.

 

[Therms]

Thanks Gcol,

I was going to go with a glazed tile, but I see what you mean about chipping.

Tiles are fired, so I’m not worried about their heat resistance, but from what you’re saying there is no issue with adhesive, or grout and heat.

I am tiling over the original tiles. The new oak has raised the floor height.

 

[joe-90]

Why has my post about Unibond been deleted? Why do you allow someone to make false claim against a multinational company?

http://henkel.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0AC8330A-F5C85CF8/henkel_com/hs.xsl/11779_COE_HTML.htm

52,000 can't be wrong.

 

[lancenotalot]

Unibond is the main name in B&Q and screwfix

Actually it's not,on the screwfix website sealants like dow corning and mapei are their top sellers and also have the best range of colours.
As for adhesive at screwfix its dunlop.

With regard to b&q their top selling sealant is cerafix which from experience isn't very good although the tile adhesive isnt too bad if your stuck.

Unibond is the biggest selling tile adhesive at b&q but what you are failing to take into acount is that b&q deals with mostly diyers not trade.The only way to get the answer to this would be to find the best sellers at a trade outlet.

Unibond is also way over priced.

 

[joe-90]

I like cerafix. Been using it for over a decade and never had a single tile fail - ever. BAL is overpriced and over-rated.

 

[lancenotalot]

I like cerafix. Been using it for over a decade and never had a single tile fail - ever. BAL is overpriced and over-rated.

I never said that I had cerafix fail on me I just said I didn't think it is very good,this is due to it's poor mould resistance,dow corning is superior imo.

I also didn't mention nor do I use bal my adhesive of choice is granfix or benfer.

Why buy BAL at twice the price? You clearly aren't a businessman

My local stockist does bal at similar prices to others on the tub adhesive.

 

[joe-90]

I've never found a great deal of difference between any of them - I use whatever I can get on special.