Thread: How to glue a tile to plywood

Thankyou. Vanity and mirror/tile cupboard above it both being made from vic ash with a light stain which has quite a bit of orange in it. Can't glue tiles to doors just yet as doors not made but will be in next few days.

Very nice. Onwards and upwards.

I wouldn't trust the liquid nails, especially if it's not backed up with some mechanical fasteners as well. It does go hard and brittle with age and heat and I've seen it fail on occasions.

Mick

8 months later - very happy so far with how the bathroom's looking but still waiting for the tiling to be finished, fittings installed and to see how the whole room looks.

Originally Posted by tea lady

So the tiles will in fact be kind of recessed and flush with the door frames? Will there be a gap? Or not? If no gap I think aryldite will be fine. Door frame will give it a certain amount of support too. Looks like a cool idea. Another question. Are you going to seal around the tile? Like grout or something?

According to my partner, who does lots of mozaicy stuff, definately no grout when tiling on timber as it will inevitably crack. For adhesive, anything flexable... I like using silicone, the sticking power of that stuff is amazing. So use a flexable 'grout alternative', or dont have any gaps at all.

Cheers,

Pete.

I ended up gluing the tiles to the plywood with araldite. There was a 1mm gap around the edges of the tiles and I used clear silicone to fill this. However, I ended up wishing that I hadn't as it was very hard to get a good finish as the tile was recessed below the surface of the frame. If I did it again I would aim for a similar sized gap around the tiles and would leave this gap unfilled.

D'oh.. sorry, I didnt read the thread properly (or look at the dates)

Looks like a nice job though!

Cheers,
Pete.

Originally Posted by tea lady

Liquid nails would also work, and may be better because of slight flex of wood against rigidity of tile. Might be better to set it in the door rather than on the door. Easier to clean. Won't get knocked off or corner chipped. Won't look like after thought, even if it wasn't. (Sorry to make more work for you.) If it can't be set in, a little bead around it like a frame will make it look more intigrated, and protect corners and help it not fall off.

In the 60s, I used araldite on my wetsuite, where the "proper" glue let go. It was okay, the flexing and soaking for hours didn't bother it too much.

5-minute araldite can be softened with heat - a blowtorch is a fine way to remove the tip from a fishing rod.

[quote=JMB;690573 The large dark tiles are for the floor, white rectangles are for the walls, mosaic tiles are for features here and there and small square in the middle is sample of the caesarstone we are using for the vanity top.
[/quote]

How big are those floor tiles?

The floor tiles aren't large at all, just 100 x 100.

Originally Posted by JMB

The floor tiles aren't large at all, just 100 x 100.

Ours are a little larger, 450x450. It's fine everywhere but the shower recess, where the floor has some curvature. I find standing on the edges a bit irritating.

I expect yours should be okay, but I suggest limiting the curve in the area where you will stand to shower.

Our wall tiles are the same pattern, but white (floor's black), and we had a few left over, I find one great on the kitchen bench, especially for kneading bread. I can easily put it under the tap for a good scrub.

If you have some left over, you could glue various sized grit sandpapers to them. Google "scary sharp," I found a video on it at youtube - the demonstrator was using glass, but flat tiles should do as well.