Hi There! Can anyone suggest a good ceramic wall tile adhesive that will work directly on MDF board, that I have used to cover over a 'fire' opening, so it does not have to be waterproof. I only have a relatively small area to tile (30" x 24") and I have tried using 'Unibond' Wall Tile Adhesive & Grout, but the tiles just fell away, I spread about a 3mm thickness of the adhesive over the area in stages until the tiling was complete, it was left for around an hour and when I gently wiped the excess off the tiles they just dropped off!...Some of the tiles had adhesive attached, whilst others came away completely clean. I did press the tiles firmly into place when attaching. The feel of the adhesive was very powdery like 'Polyfiller' when they came away. This was my first attempt at tiling, hopefully not my last and I spent some time reviewing vid's on 'you tube' before I attempted doing it. I didn't find anything related to tiling on MDF though. Thanks in advance! Ted
Because MDF is absorbent it will suck out the moisture in the adhesive. Or hot melt glue gun as they use in showrooms.
As Jit says, the MDF has sucked out the moisture from the adhesive, leaving it powdery Remove tiles and scrape of remaining adhesive, give a rub over with course grit sandpaper, P60 will do it You need to seal the MDF prior to tiling - NOT PVA though Use an acrylic primer or SBR; http://www.toppstiles.co.uk/tprod3071/section885/Bal-Primer-1LTR.html http://www.toppstiles.co.uk/tprod8763/section885/BAL-Bond-SBR-Primer-1ltr.html Also important that you minimise any flex in the MDF board. Do you know what thickness the board is, any battening behind it and lastly, does the board flex with a gentle nudge Even tile adhesives that say "flexible" can and will fail over time when subjected to movement Also, combined adhesives and grout are never the best products, although I guess they offer the convenience of buying just one product if you only have a small area to work on Good luck
When I used to make display units for B&Q, we used either gripfill or silicon sealant (obviously the first row were against the worktop (on kitchen displays) but you could support the first row with a batten, until the silicon had gone off. (leave for about 24 hrs though)
I have a large curved bar area, which i am intending to have tiled. Its curved hence made from bendy mdf - now made rigid of course, bendy mdf isn't available in exterior grade. I'm hoping either the Bal acrylic primer/sealer will do the trick, its an inexpensive option - can anyone advise if the SDR has any significant benefits over the acrylic primer