How Thick Should Thinset Be For Wall Tile

For most tile installations a square notched trowel with 1 4 inch notches produces grooves of the right thickness.

How thick should thinset be for wall tile.

For wall tiles that is typically 1 4 inch. Using a u notched trowel and embedding the tile into the thinset leaves you with a bed of thinset beneath the tile a little over 1 3 the size of the trowel teeth. For thicker tiles larger notches are recommended. It is applied to the substrate with a notched trowel.

Excess thinset will squirt out of the grout lines and create unneeded hassle. Thinset is a mortar that is made of portland cement silica sand and moisture retaining agents. Ridge on a wall with smaller square notched than with a larger u notched. The terms thinset cement thinset mortar dryset mortar and drybond mortar are synonymous.

Ceramic and porcelain tile are properly installed with a tradition notched trowel at depths of 1 4 inch to 3 8 inch. At this point the thickness of the thinset on the wall must be thicker than the tiles. Ten or fifteen years ago when nearly all commercial glass tiles were 1 8 thick installers had a recurring problem of having to fit thin glass tiles into a thicker ceramic tile installation. Dec 15 2016 find the right tile trowel size following this step by step guide for professional tile as well as how thick the bed of thinset should be under the tile.

Thinset mortar is your default tile mortar for most indoor and outdoor applications. Many thinsets max out at 1 4 in a single layer. Spread the mixture using a notched trowel whose notch size matches the thickness of the tiles. Thinset tile mortar.

So a 3 8 u notched trowel leaves a 1 8 bed of thinset beneath the installed tile. If the mortar starts to harden while you work either on the surface or in the bucket discard it and mix a new batch. Mar 20 2019 the 2011 tile industry standards define the minimum bond layer thickness to be 3 32 after beat in but the maximum thickness has more to do with the manufacturer of the thinset mortar you are using. Tile set by the thinset method is adhered to the substrate with a thin layer of thinset cement.

The key with ceramic and porcelain tile installation is to apply an even amount of thinset under each individual piece. This type of cement is designed to adhere well in a thin layer typically not greater than 3 16th thick. Today many glass tiles are produced in thicknesses matching ceramic tile but there will always be cases when the problem of various tile thickness needs to be addressed.