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Is mastic out of favor?

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Is mastic out of favor? terphenyl 06-05-2006
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Posted by on June 5, 2006, 5:51 pm
A few years ago some of the plumbing had to be replaced in the bathroom
of the house I grew up in, and part of this was to remove some mosaic
tiles that were put down about 1974 using a mastic. Man, getting those
babies up was a great deal of hard work, and now that ceramic tile has
entered a project of my own, I find everyone pushing thinset. Is it
really better? If there were a bit of floor flex, wouldn't a plastic
mastic tend not to crack as much as a thinset cement? And with a bit
of mastic coming up between the tiles, wouldn't it keep water from the
plywood (yes, right on the plwood!), rather than continuing to suck it
down as a cement would after going through the grout?
Now the floor was 3/4" diagonal T&G with 5/8" plywood, so perhaps
flexing wasn't all that much a problem (I've forgotten the exact joist
spacing & depth, but 2x10 16" OC seems to stick).
Still, with all the effort needed to remove these tiles, why's
everybody now down on plastic mastic?


Posted by Calvin Henry-Cotnam on June 5, 2006, 5:17 pm
terphenyl@hotmail.com (terphenyl@hotmail.com) said...
>
>A few years ago some of the plumbing had to be replaced in the bathroom
>of the house I grew up in, and part of this was to remove some mosaic
>tiles that were put down about 1974 using a mastic. Man, getting those
>babies up was a great deal of hard work, and now that ceramic tile has
>entered a project of my own, I find everyone pushing thinset. Is it
>really better?

I prefer thinset on a concrete-like surface. That includes concrete floors,
wood floors with a mortar base preparation, and concrete tile backer board.

For applying tiles on a drywall surface, I prefer mastic. The only exception
to this is when applying a tile "base board", I will usually use thinset
since I am already using it for the floor.

--
Calvin Henry-Cotnam
"I really think Canada should get over to Iraq as quickly as possible"
- Paul Martin - April 30, 2003
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com


Posted by Dan Lanciani on June 6, 2006, 2:30 am
calvin@remove.daxack.ca.invalid (Calvin Henry-Cotnam) writes:
| terphenyl@hotmail.com (terphenyl@hotmail.com) said...
| >
| >A few years ago some of the plumbing had to be replaced in the bathroom
| >of the house I grew up in, and part of this was to remove some mosaic
| >tiles that were put down about 1974 using a mastic. Man, getting those
| >babies up was a great deal of hard work, and now that ceramic tile has
| >entered a project of my own, I find everyone pushing thinset. Is it
| >really better?
|
| I prefer thinset on a concrete-like surface. That includes concrete floors,
| wood floors with a mortar base preparation, and concrete tile backer board.
|
| For applying tiles on a drywall surface, I prefer mastic. The only exception
| to this is when applying a tile "base board", I will usually use thinset
| since I am already using it for the floor.

How does the thickness of the layer of thinset compare to that of mastic?

I'm doing some repair work where eventually the edges of the repair have
to line up with the existing tiles. The existing tiles are attached to
a plaster wall with mastic. I can set my backerboard at whatever depth I
want, but obviously it would be nice if the surface could line up with
the plaster.

It's been suggested that I use thinset rather than mastic because this
is a tub surround/shower, but if the thickness of a layer of thinset is
different from that of mastic I think I'll be making my life much more
difficult by using thinset.

A related question: assuming I have a choice, is it better to make the
transition from old work to new in the middle of a tile or at a joint?

                                Dan Lanciani
                                ddl@danlan.*com

Posted by Bob on June 5, 2006, 9:04 pm

> A few years ago some of the plumbing had to be replaced in the bathroom
> of the house I grew up in, and part of this was to remove some mosaic
> tiles that were put down about 1974 using a mastic. Man, getting those
> babies up was a great deal of hard work, and now that ceramic tile has
> entered a project of my own, I find everyone pushing thinset. Is it
> really better? If there were a bit of floor flex, wouldn't a plastic
> mastic tend not to crack as much as a thinset cement? And with a bit
> of mastic coming up between the tiles, wouldn't it keep water from the
> plywood (yes, right on the plwood!), rather than continuing to suck it
> down as a cement would after going through the grout?
> Now the floor was 3/4" diagonal T&G with 5/8" plywood, so perhaps
> flexing wasn't all that much a problem (I've forgotten the exact joist
> spacing & depth, but 2x10 16" OC seems to stick).
> Still, with all the effort needed to remove these tiles, why's
> everybody now down on plastic mastic?
>

I have read that mastic is not to be used where there is significant water
presense.

Bob


Posted by Chris Lewis on June 5, 2006, 11:05 pm
> A few years ago some of the plumbing had to be replaced in the bathroom
> of the house I grew up in, and part of this was to remove some mosaic
> tiles that were put down about 1974 using a mastic. Man, getting those
> babies up was a great deal of hard work, and now that ceramic tile has
> entered a project of my own, I find everyone pushing thinset. Is it
> really better? If there were a bit of floor flex, wouldn't a plastic
> mastic tend not to crack as much as a thinset cement? And with a bit
> of mastic coming up between the tiles, wouldn't it keep water from the
> plywood (yes, right on the plwood!), rather than continuing to suck it
> down as a cement would after going through the grout?
> Now the floor was 3/4" diagonal T&G with 5/8" plywood, so perhaps
> flexing wasn't all that much a problem (I've forgotten the exact joist
> spacing & depth, but 2x10 16" OC seems to stick).
> Still, with all the effort needed to remove these tiles, why's
> everybody now down on plastic mastic?

With a sufficiently flexible floor, it doesn't matter what adhesive
you use, you'll be cracking the grout and even the tiles.

With 5/8" ply over 3/4" T&G, flex isn't going to be much of a problem.

However, modern tile installation uses a special plastic underlayment
that permits the _entire_ sheet of tile to float - much like centuries
ago where they floated the mosaic tile on an adhesive, over a layer of
sand. So not even expansion/ contraction of the subfloor will bother it.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Page 1 of 2       1 2 > last >>
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