Tile-on-Tile

April 27, 2022 12:35 PM

The ceramic tile-on-tile strip on the outside edge of our bathtub came loose and I need to reattach the tile. What's the best way to do it?

I'm guessing the tile was installed about 30 years ago (by a previous owner). I've cleaned off what I presume was mastic off the back of the fallen tiles with this stuff. The remaining tiles in the strip you can see on the left side in the photo seem very secure, so I'm leaving them be.

What adhesive should I use to reinstall the tile? Mastic? Thinset? Or maybe an adhesive mat like Mussel Bound?

How should I prep the underlying tile surface? I was planning on roughing up the backing exposed tile with coarse sandpaper in advance of applying the adhesive.

I'll use plastic tile spacers to ensure everything is spaced and aligned correctly.

Any suggestions on how to best reinstall the tile will be much appreciated.

posted by ShooBoo to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

Best answer: That's kind of an odd setup, but should be easy to fix. Roughing up the underlying tiles with coarse sandpaper couldn't hurt. Maybe even scratch them up with an old chisel or something else that sharp, without hammering.

Since the previous adhesive was apparently mastic and lasted 30 years, you have two options: (a) Use mastic, which ought to last 30 years again, by which time maybe the whole tub will have been replaced. Or (b) go to the hardware store and pick up a tube of construction adhesive — something like Liquid Nails, Loctite or Gorilla Construction Adhesive (not regular Gorilla glue). Don't use that peel-and-stick stuff. Improvise some pressure on the tiles for whatever period it says on the tube — you could lay a board over the tiles and then wedge another piece of wood between that board and whatever was behind you when you took that picture. (The adhesive may not specify any need for pressure, but it would not be a bad idea to set up something to ensure that it stays precisely positioned during the setting period, which is typically only an hour or less.)
posted by beagle at 12:58 PM on April 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: If I didn't already have a properly sized/spaced trowel to go with the mastic, construction adhesive is probably how I'd do it.

Clean up the tiles underneath with a damp rag to get the dust off. Run an even 1/4" bead of adhesive 1/2" around the edge of each tile then an X in the middle, then press into place, twisting slightly back and forth to spread the adhesive, then put your spacers in. If you're consistent in your bead size the tiles will sit at the same height, but use a straightedge to check for any that are poking up and gently twist/push them down.

Note: you do not need to goop the adhesive on, you just need a nice bead and an X that will spread when you push the tile into place. Once it cures, that stuff is extremely permanent.

You haven't mentioned grout? You can get little tubes of it, I think, you won't need much.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:03 PM on April 27, 2022

That is indeed a very odd way to lay tiles. But it's an easy fix - as previously mentioned, use some construction adhesive. You don't need any amount of pressure but will have to figure out how to hold them in place while the glue dries. You just need to stop them from sliding down - the glue will stop them from falling off even when it's wet. You could use a length of timber along the bottom edge of the tiles and just prop it up with lengths of timber so it forms a kind of ledge to stop gravity from sliding them down. No need to sand the tiles, just clean them off with a damp rag

The glue dries within a couple of hours and then you can apply grout and not worry about them for another 30 years. You should run a silicon bead along the corner where the tiles meet the underside of the bench, to stop water from getting in and making the tiles fall off again. That's possibly why they fell off in the first place.
posted by dg at 7:56 PM on April 27, 2022

Response by poster: I did end up using construction adhesive (Loctite brand) to reattach the tiles. To prevent the possibility of the tiles sliding down, I used strips of wide masking tape attached to the tile and the top of the tub. That part was easy. The annoying part was scraping off the old grout from the tiles before installation. No tile spacers were needed as the tile had built-in bumps on the sides as spacers, and that's how the tile was originally installed. I was able to find a matching grout color ("bone"), but with such a small number of tiles to grout, I have 9 pounds of grout left from the original 10 pound bag.
posted by ShooBoo at 7:40 AM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]