Ceramic Tile Over Mastic

Press the tile onto the floor.

Ceramic tile over mastic. They said capping the mastic in a seal coat or thin layer of concrete wouldn t be a good idea they d need to pour rather a lot of concrete for that. Remove any cracked broken or loose tiles with a hammer and chisel and replace them with new tile. You can lay new ceramic tile right over the old using the prep techniques we show here. Grind them down with a grinder.

Lay a level on the old tile and mark any high spots. It avoids the time consuming messy tear out process. When the building was converted to residential the developer removed the vinyl tiles and just carpeted over the mastic. When i walk on what i have tiled sometimes i pop up a tile or a couple tiles but over most of the area i can walk fine.

Best used for tiles in the 8 inch range or smaller. Roughen the tile with 80 grit sandpaper. Mastic is an organic glue made from the sticky resin of the mastic tree. Does not fill gaps in a substrate or have building characteristics as it is more watery than thinset.

Mastic adhesive is very sticky making it well suited for vertical applications where tile may slide. Contractors we have spoken to think the best approach is to put down new ceramic or porcelain tiles right over the existing adhesive. Should the tile get wet the mastic may soften negatively affecting the bond of the tile to the substrate. Tiling over an uneven surface will give you less than stellar results so level out any globs of dried grout with a sander and secure loose tiles with fresh tile adhesive before beginning the project.

If you do decide to remove it yourself i found that the best way to remove. It s available as a thin liquid thick glue or a sticky paste. I think that s the right way to do this because i just start a job and i had to remove 2 tiles to continue the job and then i found they apply red guard over the existing concrete and basically was loose the red guard because i was breaking the tile hitting on the top and everything together was coming in the tile pieces tile thin set and the red guard so that s why i think with the primer. I don t want to go further till i know what i need to do to the mastic it s a very thin coat as if applied with a brush or roller it s not at all lumpy.

Not recommended for tiles over 15 inches. The adhesive often called carpet mastic used under most glue down carpet is usually water soluble and tends to prevent thinset from properly adhering.