![]() Armen mixes his a bit on the dry side - the idea here is to use a fair amount of pressure to force the grout to the bottom of the joints filling them completely. Remember I mentioned the spacers were easy to remove? Well now you can see what I mean. Once again the spacers keep the joints uniform and prevent the tiles from slipping downward. Here he starts at the bottom then stacks one row on top of the other. With the deck tiles in place Armen applies mortar to the back wall. One side of the spacer is used on straight runs and the other is designed for the corners where the joints intersect. The disk shape keeps it sitting on top of the tile and makes it easy to remove. Now Armen has come up with his own version of the tile spacer. Spacers keep the joints a consistent width and in alignment. Tapping the tiles with a rubber or plastic mallet also helps them settle into place and bond with the mortar. You can avoid this problem by mixing smaller batches of mortar and working smaller sections at a time. One of the biggest causes for tile failure is trying to cover too large an area at one time which can allow the thin set to start drying before the tiles are laid on top. This process called ‘buttering’ eliminates any voids underneath reducing the likelihood that the edge tiles might crack if their bumped or struck.Īrmen inserts spacers between the edge tiles then starts on the field. The ridges left by the notch trowel distribute the mortar evenly, leaving it a uniform thickness I am applying additional mortar to the inside corners of the bull-nose tiles that line the countertop. The thin set mortar is applied then raked with a notch trowel. From here on the process is the same as for any tileable surface. Before we continue I make a trip to my truck to collect a bag of thin set mortar I picked up earlier at the home improvement center. Yeah and you've done it by adding really nominal thickness here.įrom zero to about a sixteenth of an inch on the front leading edge because of a slight crump in the radius of the leading edge of the countertop to keep water from dripping off the counter. Now what we've really done here is converted a plastic laminate countertop into a – Then like the countertop, a skim coat of mortar is applied.Ī laminated countertop backsplash is prepped the same way. And the paper laid on top completely bridging and concealing the grooves in the paneling underneath. Once again the adhesive is applied directly to the surface. Just to see how this system works on a variety of surfaces, I've set up a piece of bead board to serve as a back wall. To create a perfectly flat surface for the tile, Armand and I apply additional mortar to the front third of the countertop then screet off the excess with a straight edge. Many countertops like this one have raised lips on the front edge to keep water from spilling off. So we're going to put a skim coat on this to get the paper ready for the finish coat. If you're painting a piece of wood, you put a coat of primer on it. Putting a thin layer of mortar on it to acclimate the surface of the paper to the product that you're going to use to install your tile. So the glue sticks to the laminate, the paper sticks to the glue, mortar loves the paper so we have a tileable surface.Īll right, so this is down and how long do you have to wait before you go to the next step. The countertop itself, the laminate is not friendly to mortar. Now this adhesive is not intended for attaching tile but instead paper. You have enough to do the job but not so much that you make a mess. I found out this is the perfect size with just the right amount of glue so that you don't have too much. I'm using an eighth inch V notch saw-tooth trowel. Armand starts by applying a specially designed adhesive directly to the laminate countertop. ![]() I'd like to jump right in and see how this works. ![]() ![]() I said why not take advantage of it and find some way to get mortar to stick to it. Well as a tile setter, I always felt guilty about removing an existing top and just throwing it away. That is until inventor Armand Tavy came up with a system for putting ceramic tile right on top of a laminate counter top like this. First of all you'd have to tear out the old laminate countertop and then replace it with a piece of plywood. If you have an outdated laminate countertop like this and you've been thinking about replacing it with tile, well you'd be looking at quite a bit of work.
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