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So I get home from work and check out what my contractor finished in the bathroom. My POV: he appears to be cutting corners to make groutwork go quicker by avoiding applying thinset to most tile corners.

Schluter says to spread thinset on the Kerdi board and then lay the tile. I spoke to my guy about this, who by the way is Kerdi certified by schluter and has 30 years experience. He said most of the tile has thinset so it shouldn't be a concern.

Kerdi band was applied properly so i know this thing is waterproof...but it irks me that he didn't following Schluter's instructions to the "t".

Does this void the warranty? Am I overreacting?

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NipahKing
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  • That's a no no. You should always skim thinset on the board before putting tile on. Now water is going to seep through grout and sit in that void creating a nice environment for mold over time. – basement_diy Aug 19 '23 at 02:31
  • Not a tile guy, but I wouldn’t be stressed by that. Granted, water can eventually percolate into what might be a little bit of a void, but it’ll also dissipate. The kerdi will keep everything in the waterproof envelope. – Aloysius Defenestrate Aug 19 '23 at 02:59
  • I see yellow, isn't kerdi orange? – Jack Aug 19 '23 at 03:25
  • @Jack looks like Kerdi to me, just an issue with the color of light or photo. – Huesmann Aug 19 '23 at 11:41

1 Answers1

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I am not a tile guy by trade but I have set hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of square feet of tile. What I see there is typical if it is only here and there.

When spreading thinset, the areas cannot be too large or the surface starts to dry enough to loose it bond with the tile, so the areas need to be kept small, also to be able to reach tile laid already to get all the joints looking proper. When troweling thinset, it is difficult to get the thinset well into the corners without getting the thinset onto the tile, which can get into the joints of the already laid tile because of that. Its a real pain to keep clean when trying to get thinset to the corners as it is. I spread enough thinset to cover approx. a 2X2 ft area. So if the tile guy there does close to the same thing you may see a void about every 2 ft apart, and only at the corners of the grid he used to place thinset by.

When the grout is spread, it will be forced into the joints to fill the remaining voids left by the thinset that did not make it into the corners.

FWIW, tile setters do not like ungrouted floors walked on, because, and this is what I have been told many years ago, is that the corners of the tile are the weakest place in the floor and the potential to crack the corners is high, until the grout is set.

Jack
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