Premixed "Thinset"

The pros and regulars in here will remember a thread I posted last week entitled "Green Grout" concerning my brother and sister in law's floor. Well, after talking to my brother in law tonight, there's a little bit of a developement that my sister in law forgot to tell me about. Apparently, in the major areas of the floor (so far), the grout's beginning to crack out big time. I went over the different aspects of setting over plywood (JUST WAIT--THAT AIN'T IT) before they started, and I was worried that maybe I'd left something out, but I figured I'd eliminate any other possibilities, first. I didn't have to go too far. I asked him what thinset they used to set the tile, thinking maybe they'd used a cheaper modified thinset. Mark said he couldn't remember what it was called, but that he had a little bit left downstairs and that he'd let me know what it was later. So I asked him just on the off chance did it come in a bag, or in a pail, and you can guess what his answer was. Apparently someone at Home Depot convinced him that the premixed thinset was the latest and newest technology in tile setting adhesives, and began singing all it's praises. Unfortunately, like so many others who've gone to Home Depot, Mark assumed the guy knew what he was talking about, and bought into the premixed thinset. I know we've beaten this pony to death, but I told them I was going to post this. I want him to see what everyone thinks of this stuff.

This includes any DIY'S who read this and have their own horror story with premixed thinset to relate.

It's garbage, but was it also used on the section that did'nt turn green.

Also, they might have bigger problems in the future, besides the green grout.

Yes-- it was used throughout the floor. I told him that the reason the grout hadn't started cracking there yet was because it wasn't as big an area that was covered, but guaranteed that it would. They're going to pull the floor up and redo it. But I wanted them to see just how big a problem this stuff is.

The majority of problems you hear about having any thing to do with loose, broken, or installation gone bad seem to have this as a common denominator!

Does the pre-mixed "thinset mortar" have any legitimate applications? Say, is it better than mastic if used on a wall?

Not that I'm aware of, I've personally never used it, and never will, for anything.

Premixed thinset is garbage that's for sure but do you think it would turn the grout green? Can any of the tile be salvaged? What a shame, HD strikes again.

The beauty is that because it was the premixed crap, the floor should come up pretty easily, and in addition, I talked Mark thru gridding out the floor and spraying down the lines, so I told him before he pulls it all up, to put blue tape on all the cuts, number them, and then number the spots they came from, and once all the "thinset" is cleaned up, the tile should be able to go back down exactly as it came up-- yet ANOTHER reason for gridding out the floor!

Always thinking Bill!

I did a custom house near annapolis a couple years back
We did the large master bath while the customer wanted to install the hall bath floor himself. 1/2 durock, the tile was a 13x13 porcelain. Well he did and it looked pretty good but when he waited a couple days to grout he thought it would have been set up, but no it wasnt. All the tiles had to be pulled out and replaced. Its hard to close on a new house when you cant grout the floor because the tile still moves after 2 days

JUST SAY NO!
Bill C

I've yet to hear of ANYONE who has anything good to say about this stuff (OTHER than Home Depot!). Why they're allowed to continue to sell it is beyond me!

I bought some pre-mixed Tile Cement and Grout from Home Depot for a small repair. HORRIBLE stuff. It hardly dries. What does dry dries in a sort of plastic flexible form that doesn't adhere, doesn't seal. Clearly it's only purpose is to aggravate the installe and provide jobs for people who clean up the disaster it leaves behind.

Do you also recommend that we not use Mapei Premix Thinset (Lowes)?
Application is ceramic tiles on cementboard for shower walls.
What thin set would you recommend? thanks

The premix thinset is nothing more than a mastic, and mastic is not recommended for wet areas. Use a modified thinset instead.

Its my understanding that the premixed thinset takes a long time to dry, and even then it does not totally dry. I also believe it is not recommended for wet floors because of the latex in it. (I think its latex, maybe someone else knows for sure) I also think it is not a good choice for big tile for it will be more difficult to dry under a greater amount of surface. From what I have read in this forum modified powdered thinset is the way to go, for it dries in 24 hours and thus allows you to grout the next day. I would like to know what the vendor's opinion is on all this.

This stuff is crap and I have no idea as to why they sell it. The only reason that I can think of is that the customer does the job and it turns out to be a nightmare and they ask hd what to do about the problem. Hd helps them out by having one of their installers go and fix the job which means that there's a kick back for hd. See the way a hd installer explained things to me once is that they want the customer to "try" to do the job themselves and if they screw it up then hd gets the sale back twice and a kick back from the installer. Without going into great detail I have seen this happen on a job just after x-mas.
I feel sorry for the DIYS that can actually do the job but are sold the wrong products.

Steve

C Jones-- The premixed thinset that we're talking about comes in a pail. The thinsets that come as a powder in a bag, although sometimes referred to by the manufacturer as premixed, are fine.

I wish that I read this thread before doing my shower surround. I did two of the walls with the good stuff, and then I used this crap. It was a real pain in application, and the lines didn't come out right. The other two came out great with the powdered stuff. I had done those two and ran out, didn't feel like mixing, so I used the premix. I was extremely frustrated using this stuff and I was thinking the same thing that you guys were stating. How could HD possibly sell this junk. Does the mfg actually think that this can be used for anything?
We'll see how it ages in comparison to the other two walls, should be intereseting. I would hate to have to redo it. I believe that it is fact that only 2% of HD employees are worth taking to.
-chris

The only good thing about that crap is you get a free grouting bucket. You go out in the woods or to a dumpster, dump it out and WOW a nice new pail! 5 gal. Pails are my friends!

Golly. I had my contractor gut and put in the durarock for a bathroom remodel, and I tiled myself. I used the premixed thinset from HD (the one for marble) and didn't have any problem with it setting up (walls took 12-24 hours to set up, floors took about 36 hours but the new marble floor was put down on top of the existing marble floor and I was told that time frame was normal for the conditions). My tile is 5/8" marble mosiac for the walls and 1" x 2" onyx on the floor. Those puppies aren't moving. I actually tried to pull a couple of tiles out of the wall after 48 hours and finally had to use plyers to get them loose - and that's before grouting. Am I lucky? What kind of disasters can I expect? I'm definately past the point where I can just pull it up and redo it.

I've never used it, so I couldn't tell ya, Grout it, leave it and go on, only time will tell.

The fact you used small tile, letting air get in there to help dry it, might have helped.