I have someone in setting floor tile, however we have a problem with breakage which I think is in access. I have four questions: 1. subfloor - How far apart should the screws be? 2. glue - He used a ceramic tile mastic, is this good? 3. glue(again) - he put the glue on the center of the tile then spread it out, most of the tiles we remove didn't even have glue on the edges of the tiles, I thought there should be more glue? 4. Mortor - He also says that the mortor we go under the tile and fill in those spaces - true?
Answer:
The screws in the underlayment should be every 6 to 8 inches in the field and every three inches along the edges. Adhesives for tiles are normally dictated by what the tile is made of and what it is meant to stick to but in all cases that I've seen, adhesive is spread on the sections of the floor and then the tiles set into it rather than buttering each tile as one goes. Mortar is mixed too thick to go anywhere but where it is forced with a trowel and if there is enough force applied to get it under the tiles, it will likely pop the tile itself because it won't be even.
