Tiling

Adhesive advice for fixing 600 x 300 white mirror fleck quartz to walls and floors?

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 2.46 PM

We are installing 100 sq m of 600 x 300 mm quartz tiles on our floor and walls (bathroom, wetroom, kitchen, porch, reception) and will also be putting in some mosaic (5 sq m ish) on the walls. The mosaic will be either glass or a white pebble (we have been told the pebble one will need to be sealed prior to use) and there will be a strip in the wetroom shower area. If it makes any difference, the shower is mounted 45 cm away from a corner and the mosaic will start about 70 cm away from the same corner but on the other wall (perpendiular to the shower wall). Our builder has requested GraniRapid in white (since the tiles are white, perhaps also because of the mosaic being glass/white pebble) and asked us to calculate each 22.4 kg 2 part kit as covering 4 sq m (on the low end of the coverage range given in the Mapei spec sheet) because some sets in the bucket so is wasted. This means we need 25 bags(!). GraniRapid is itself expensive and the white even more so; the cheapest I have found is £30 per 22.4 kg 2 part kit. I spoke to the tile seller (Tile HQ) and they said because the (94%) quartz is non-porous (which is why you need a special adhesive) there wouldn't be any bleed through if I used GraniRapid grey, which is significantly cheaper than the white - at least £5 per kit (saving at least £125). They also said we should get about 5 sq m coverage per bag, so we only needed 20 bags (saving another £130-£150). They also said we don't need to use GraniRapid for the mosaic and KeraQuick is cheaper than GraniRapid but we don't have a lot of mosaic so I don't mind getting one extra bag if it makes it easier for the tiler. I would like to know: (1) If I need to use the white GraniRapid? (2) Is it reasonable that I effectively have to buy 5 extra bags as waste? (3) If there is another adhesive that would is cheaper but still effective enough (don't want enormous quartz tiles falling on us while we shower)? Any additional advice, thoughts or corrections would be very much appreciated. Many thanks!