How To Trowel Tiles With Thinset Mortar For Shower Walls

[@jeffostroff]

Products seen in this video: 💲 Primo Tools Tile Back Butter Buddy: amzn.to/2GjebvD ✅ Thinset for shower walls: Schluter Allset: amzn.to/2LvjzO8,

[@biracialbabes]

Jeff i am about to tile a small countertop space. I could really use your advice. The counter top is built from advantac particle board, would you use the unmodified thinset, schlueter, then thinset on tiles? Someone is telling me that I could take a short cut and just use mastic. Also, would i tile the countertop before the backsplash? I appreciate your videos, please keep up the great work!

[@jeffostroff]

What methods have you tried to trowel thin set on wall tiles? Let us know in the comments below and ask any questions you have, we'll answer them for you.

[@draconicwindbane2056]

best to just spread on the wall and flat trowel the back of your tiles

[@jeffostroff]

💲 Primo Tools Tile Back Butter Buddy: amzn.to/2GjebvD Currently $31 on amazon.

[@zippidydude9293]

diggin the YES shirt lol. Thanks for the info!

[@alexnez1008]

Great video! To introduce myself, I'm a tilesetter and one of the youngest Certified Tile Installers in the nation. One thing I would LOVE to see you do, is move the tile MORE to collapse the ridges and get more air out of the tile. A general rule of thumb taught at NTCA classes nationwide is to 'move the tile perpendicular to your ridges 3x the width of your notch size. So it would be a good 1 1/2". Great video! I absolutely loved that your refrencing standards and educating viewers about how bad HGTV is at teaching 😂. If you've got any questions please feel free to reach out!

[@jeffostroff]

Thanks Alex, great tips. When I wiggle tiles it is usually about 1/4", that is what I read in the NTCA somewhere in the past, I'll have to revisit that. But I don't even see how you would be able to wiggle the tiles 1 1/2", that seems impossible. When the tiles hit the mortar after being backbuttered, the suction force is so great I can't even hardly move the tile. Sometimes if I have to adjust a tile over sightly, I must use my 5-in-1 rigid painters scraper tool to help push the tile. Did they mention anything in the classes about whether the rubber mallet helps to collapse the trowel lines? I always had my doubts on its effectiveness.

[@alexnez1008]

You just move back and fourth that much. It's not really wiggling 😉 Also, how do you know if you've got full coverage if you dont pull it up directly after setting it?

[@JT-jg8le]

Guys, I don't understand how trowel lines are more effective. Seems like you will increase the chance of air getting stuck if you don't push down just right. One wiggle the wrong way and instant air gap.

[@timsullivan7155]

I appreciate your patience and constant checking levels. I could use a dose of patience. Nice work I am sure it will turn out perfect. Q. Do you use the same thinset for all size tiles or do you buy the ;large format" tile thinset for the 12x24's?

[@jeffostroff]

I usually prefer to look for LFT (large Format Tile) or LHT (Large Heavy Tile) mortar for all my tiling, to prevent sagging, especially on the walls. Also have used the Schluter Allset a few times.

[@dawndavenport9139]

Thank you for the video , i just hung 20 12x12 tiles and made a terribke mess , had a complete breakdown because I just couldnt get a system . I troweled both tiles and the wall . Im a caninet maker somI respect others skills , my step Son is a tile guy and was supposed to help, long story, now i know how to trowell a but better , hopefully they will stay up for a few years lol

[@tjatile]

I'm about to be a quite critical of this video. It looks like you are very uncomfortable holding the trowel. If the mud was so messy, why not thicken it up with more dry mortar mix? That lazy susan thing...ok...sure. Any competent tile installer should be able to balance it on their knee, or setting it on a fixed surface. When you troweled the back of the tile, it's clear to see you didn't have enough mud on to begin with. Some of the notched lines of mud aren't nearly full enough, especially the side closest to the camera. On the side furthest away from the camera, it still looks flat like the notched part of the trowel didnt even touch it. Using a drywall taping knife can be excellent and useful, but you can flat trowel a wall neater, and faster than you show here with a regular trowel. I dont know why ou dont want to buy rubber gloves. The thinset looks caked onto that pair of gloves, and it must be hard to tell when they are clean. You have much too much grout squeezing out the edges of the tile. Omg, i just got to the part where you back butter the mosaic part of the tile. You must be a sucker for punishment, it will take hours to clean the squeeze out up. You think kids throwing toys are going to knock stones out of cement on a flat wall? I can't watch any more. In short, your work is incredibly slow, needlessly messy, and not helpful to anyone.

[@katzfam1089]

ive never put my thinset on backwards, trowel the tile back butter the wall. I know it works just never did it. It looks like it takes more time to do it backwards

[@dmczern]

Love your shirt!

[@patriotsleepercell4060]

You could use less mortar on the backbutter.

[@jeffostroff]

Sometimes I need a little more sometimes I need a little bit less

[@mikehogan1827]

Nice to see someone attending to the details like you do. I have seen people recommend doing the 1/2” x 1/2” troweling on both the wall and the back buttered tile. Your thoughts?

[@jeffostroff]

That might be too much mortar to try to collapse. Also if you have the wall mortar lines combed vertical and the tile mortar lines combed horizontally, they will never collapse correctly. So really only one side needs to be combed out to 1/2"

[@patriotsleepercell4060]

He is swimming in mortar could work a little cleaner tho.

[@alohajenn]

I love your Yes T-shirt 🤙

[@jeffostroff]

Aha, thanks Jennifer!

[@orlandodustfreetileremoval]

Did u ever finish that shower or are u still troweling away! Anyone who makes a living setting tile doesn’t do that That’s also a drywall spatula u spread the tile with 1/2” on the wall 1/4” trowel on the tile A DIYer might be able to learn something here but a pro would have tiles circles around u

[@jeffostroff]

There's a number of very talented pros out there who trowel this way with larger wall tiles, to get 100% coverage. Remember, TCNA requires 95% coverage in wet areas, but I shoot for 100% coverage. This method is cleaner and quicker. And yes I prefer to use a taping knife to back butter, we all use what works best for us. The purpose of this video sailed right over your head. Keep in mind this is a video for DIY people, so I'm going SLOOOOOOOOOW, so people can see what I'm doing. This is not a show off video for me to brag to the world how fast I can install tile. In fact, it's the guys who rush, rush, rush through the tile projects that have the least amount of quality. Also, even when I trowel onto the floor first, i still back butter my tiles, because anyone with smarts and integrity and wants to give their customer the best quality install knows the engineering testing that has been done to prove back buttering is infinitely better than no back buttering. That of course takes time, which the speed demons, using the wrong metrics to determine quality, are not willing to adopt.

[@seanlee6361]

@@jeffostroff you will never get the 100% coverage by using clips bro. They will be some void between glue.

[@joseoviedo1644]

Sean Lee some tile manufacturers recommend leveling clips with some of their tiles. This dude is not a good installed. From the way he hold a trowel to the way he maneuvers the thinset around the tile and the wall. Just seeing that I automatically know he’s an amateur. He’s even using a 5 dollar level to check his level. Haha, it’s laughable

[@daleon96]

Love all the experts on here...lmao

[@orlandodustfreetileremoval]

You’re on here

[@timlassabe890]

Did you use nails or screws to hold up your accent border? Just curious because you now have puncture holes in your membrane.

[@katzfam1089]

there have been many tile setters ive worked with that have their own method setting tile. Some do what your doing here, some start with a wood ledge 1 tile up from the floor or tub, some start at the floor (which I think is wrong), But if it works why change your style and what your comfortable doing as long as it comes out looking beautiful and meets industry standards.

[@jeffostroff]

On this project I started at the surface of the bathtub.

[@katzfam1089]

@@jeffostroff I found starting at the base 2 tiles down doesnt reach the floor some of the time. Dont know if you ever ran into that

[@katzfam1089]

@@jeffostroff nevermind I realized the are LFT lol

[@jamescombs2118]

Nice tshirt

[@jeffostroff]

You know it. I just saw them in concert last month as part of the Royal affair tour with former members of Emerson Lake and Palmer crazy world of Arthur Brown and Asia and Moody blues

[@richardmckrell4899]

Add more thinest product or start over, you never want to do what you are doing.

[@robertroyles1165]

I thought the backer board came down over the flange on the tub then the tile stops 1/8" from tub for a bead of caulking to deal the wall.????

[@jeffostroff]

No you don't want to let backer board hang down over the flange, because you are curving the backer board forward over the tub flange, making a slight curve which will throw off your vertical straight line for the tiles

[@robertroyles1165]

That is why you cut a thin notch. In the back of your backer board to address that issue.

[@Twobirdsbreakingfree]

Why do you sometimes get areas where the ridges don't form properly after combing the thinset? Is there any way to rectify this? It's a really time-consuming problem to keep fixing.

[@tko89]

What happens if you don’t get a coverage of 95%?

[@jeffostroff]

If you don't get 95% coverage of tile in wet areas, then you are in violation of the National Tile Council of America recommendations, and you'll likely have tile failure, and possible chipped tiles or cracked tiles. The TCNA Handbook shows you the stack up of layers for each type of tile scenario you are planning to install, and what the thinset coverage requirements are for a successful install.

[@martymcglame7781]

Check out a very short video from TCNA called Trowel and error. As a DIY'er it was really helpful for me to see the logic and functionality of 95% coverage and how to get it.

[@cunexttwosday4364]

Spirit level activity???

[@TheHalusis]

when walls are perfectly plumb

[@jeffostroff]

Yes, when remodeling bathrooms I always make the wall panels perfectly square and plumb

[@tylerleon8888]

Damn, don’t get any mortar on that beautiful Yes t shirt!

[@jeffostroff]

That was one of my old yes shirts that was beginning to fall apart so I wore it last couple a times doing this. But I did replace it with an awesome close to the edge T-shirt from yes.

[@armandorosa1908]

Sorry but you still have a lot to learn how to do tile my friend

[@jackvecchio6444]

Your knowledge is correct but you work really messy

[@jeffostroff]

Tiling is messy

[@mosconi4539]

First ☺

[@CarbondaM5]

I hope you don't do tile for a living

[@jeffostroff]

I recognize you troll. You don't know what good tile work is. So uninformed people like you spend your time just making a fool out of yourself.

[@christophervaladez5587]

😂

[@jeffostroff]

thanks for watching

[@davetaylor2449]

They were far from flat there ace, in-fact the level did not even touch your applied tile. You are a catastrophe

[@pedroprado6103]

What a stupid way of using ure tools. N putting a Mosaic in... Float the wall in between.. !

[@jeffostroff]

Your comment makes no sense, and with broken up words, it's hard to tell what your're trying to say. Are you saying to float more thinset onto the wall for the mosaics? You can't do that nonsense, it will ooze up through the mesh and up over the mosaic tiles. Most mesh mosaics should be troweled on no more than 1/8" inch or mortar.

[@charlieconustedes9969]

jeffostroff I think he is saying that using a putty knife to put thinset on the tile and wall is unnecessary, And the mosaic area should be floated with thinset first then allowed to dry, that way the mosaic can be installed absolutely flush with existing tile. Me personally I could care less how anyone else sets tile , but I know the Tile community on social media is wack! You do you man

[@jeffostroff]

@@charlieconustedes9969 Yes everybody has a method that works for them I would be too nervous to float the mosaic area with thinset because supposing you put too much on and it dries solid then when you go to apply the mosaic now it's sticking out proud of the front surface of the tiles. Also mosaics are a pain in the butt often times they want to sag when you stick them in there and so my preferred method is to back butter them 1st and let them dry overnight hard and then butterl in the thin set on the wall behind it and just push the now solid mosaic back into the wet thin set that way I'm guaranteed I will not have too much thin set. Also I like to use that butter knife because sometimes getting into the tiny nooks and crannies that's an invaluable tool to have I don't care what other Are conditioned into thinking that you can only use one tool for 1 specific purpose if the shoe fits wear it.

[@borodinskyful]

I prefer to "thinset" on a thin backer board to the wall to raise the area for the mosaics... like 6mm concrete backer board (though those tiles do look thin so perhaps it wouldn't work out in this case).

[@jeffostroff]

@@borodinskyful That's a great idea too!

[@seanlee6361]

Definitely amateur not a pro tiler

[@jeffostroff]

You clearly don't know what you're talking about. Uninformed troll

[@seanlee6361]

jeffostroff Yeah like you clearly don’t know how to tile

[@janineford7816]

Are you married