Hi,
I pulled up some loose ceramic tiles in a hallway. Apparently when they originally came up the former tenant tried to put them back down with joint compound. The mortar comes up pretty easily. The picture shows that I can lif tthe mnortar with a putty knife. In this area there is little to no adhesion between the mortar and the subfloor. When I put these tiles back down what do I need to do to fix this problem? Redoing the whole area is not an option.
Thanks,
George
Replies
In theory you should use thinset, unless it's some sort of exotic tile. Whether "modified' thinset or not I couldn't tell you.
Thinset has pretty good adhesion to most surfaces.
It looks like whoever put the tile down originally just put down a bed of mortar and didn't trowel it at all. Any suggestions on what size notch I should use? I'm thinking 1/4 inch.
George
Ya 1/4 square notch should be fine.
Of course they're laid on wood directly, which I never do.
I always put down screw down 1/4 hardibacker board and tape the seams with thinset, although I know that people don't always do that.
If the floor is not stiff enough it will just flex and pop out the grout and tiles again.
Get latex modified thinset.