....without grout you don't have a waterproof/debris-proof installation - OMG WRONG
Ruth - excellent question.
Sometimes I just flat trowel a tile on the back side and keep the thin-set tight to the surface and trowel the walls. The tile gets moved a hair back and forth and beaten with my knuckles or a rubber mallet into position. Always checking every third or fourth tile with a pull check for proper coverage.
Spot setting tile you simple put five big blobs of thin-set on the back of the tile and press it onto the wall - stopping where you want it.
Five Spotting is faster.
Five Spotting uses less material so it's cheaper.
Five Spotting is Quicker.
Five Spotting saves more time.
Five spotting can leave nice places for bugs and silver fish to live inside your walls!
A properly prepared shower wall will see it's tile with 80% coverage in the middle and 100% coverage in the corners and edges. Not possible with spot setting.
The failures shown above are examples of five spot setting tile. Most industry experts do not allow this practice.
I believe John Bridge is familiar with the process - it might even be covered in his book. I would avoid it. But each to his own. John Bridge has been tiling for 40 years, who am I to tell a man of that experience he can not spot set tile.....
Dave Gobis is a respected Tile Guru: He writes this
"Grout has a compressive strength of 2,000-3,000 PSI properly installed. Floor tile can have a lateral compressive strength of 20,000 to 30,000 PSI. That is why the grout usually goes first. Spot bonding creates voids under the tile which while having a high lateral compression strength, only has 300 to 400 PSI resistance to point load. I was on a job last week where they spot bonded a floor and it had a bunch of circular fractures. Don't see that often, must have been some good thin set." -
Source
John Bridge is a big shot in this industry - Just ask him: He writes this
"Not that anyone inferred it, but I want to clear the air. I have never advocated spot bonding floors. I back-butter tiles that need more thin-set, but I start with thin-set burned in and raked out.
On walls when using large tiles I almost always spot them up. I've been doing that for a long time and listening to detractors for a long time, and I haven't been convinced that spot bonding walls, even shower walls, is sinful.
I think every tile needs a grout joint, and as Dave G mentioned, grout really does give before the tile does in many cases, so grout really does cushion tiles and help protect them from on another. Secondly, without grout you don't have a waterproof/debris-proof installation. I can't account for the Florida guys; nobody can. " -
Source
I'm sorry the post above is so confusing. I have never thought grout was waterproof. But John does mentioned this above.... So odd. I'm teasing here Ruth. Grout is not waterproof and the post from John Bridge is out to lunch. Surely it was a mistake on his part - yet again a fine example of the men there not correcting the namesake of the tile forum. Jim must have missed this discussion as well. Funny he misses a lot of the obviously wrong posts of CX's and John Bridge's on a regular basis.
Even Dave Gobis is scared to correct John Bridge on his forum. Later in the discussion Dave writes this
"Water gets behind the tile, sometimes fills the lower wall. Weakened thinset looses bond and tile falls off the wall. There are other scenarios as well. Good money for me when they fall apart, been extra good this year so far. I have lots more pictures if you want to see them, floors, walls, with waterproofing, without, skimmed walls, bare walls..... you name and I got it." -
Source
And shows this photo:
Now lets look at the two men on the John Bridge forum in question here.
John Bridge is the name sake and is typically giving out info for free. He sells ebooks, books, tile stuff and t-shirts.
Dave Gobis typically is charging people for technical advise and testify in court cases on poor work projects.
Which is the true expert?
Pretty lam ass on Gobis's part to leave the post of John Bridge's un-challenged..... But if you want to play with your friends their you have to respect the old farts....
