Questions & Answers

I finally started on doing the tile installation in the shower. Mixed up half a bag of AllSet using 3 quarts since the instructions for tile call for 5.5-6.5 quarts. The consistency seemed good while installing the first tile on the back wall. Maybe a little more squeezing out the bottom 1/16" gap than I wanted but I was able to get it plumb and full coverage.

Starting on the second tile got my thinset on the wall, back buttered the tile and did the bottom edge in and tilt up. Started jiggling the tile and using my rubber mallet to tap it into position and ended up with massive amounts of thinset squeezing out the bottom (like 1/4" to 1/2" beads) Eventually got the bottom aligned after squeezing out a large amount of thinset and the coverage from the top was poor, I could look down behind the tile on the wall side and the upper corner of the tile face was lower than the first tile.

Pulled the tile and reapplied thinset to the top half and reapplied the tile and got the same behavior of lots of thinset squeezing out the bottom despite not applying more to the lower half.

After my fourth failed attempt I pulled both tiles, scraped the thinset from the tile backs, scraped the thinset from the wall, and decided to clean up (thank goodness I have a Beast Mixer bucket liner) since things weren't improving despite numerous attempts. I rather waste $18 of thinset versus getting the tiles on wrong and needing to tear them off the wall and start over.

So now I'm trying to figure out the cause since this is my first time using AllSet for tile. I don't want to mix up another batch and fail again. Was this an obvious case of the thinset being too thin and thus running down the wall and to reduce the water? Or was I making a mistake on applying the thinset or tile to the wall?

I was using a 3/4" x 9/16" x 3/8" U trowel instead of the 1/2" x 1/2" square trowel I've used in the past. My understanding is that both should leave 1/4" thinset once the grooves are collapsed and that the U trowel lines spread versus tilt over making full coverage easier to achieve. My lines were perpendicular to the long edge of the tile. I'm going for a 1/8" gap max between the tile and the pan tile.

Also any tips on reducing the thinset dripping off the trowel? I always make a mess getting the thinset on the wall. Maybe it's because I'm left handed and I'm needing to rotate the trowel after I scoop to expose the flat edge?