" I'd be willing to bet a weeks pay the mastic from yesterday's still soft." I was hoping that Bill was making enough to let me retire, but I won't be getting his week's pay. I pulled off some tiles and yes, except for the grout lines and a thin rim around each tile they are as wet as they were when put up. I called a tile contractor I found through the NTCA website about 75 miles away who does Kerdi and talked to them. If they take over Âthe job, I think they're wanting to just start ALL over in order to warranty their work. The new people raised some other questions about the original install and job too. He's a really nice guy, but unfortunately we've lost our confidence in the original installer plus see the photos and give opinions. I think that we'll just keep the tile, pay for the job not finished and start over. Otherwise, I'd be such a wreck looking over his shoulder while laying, grouting etc that I'd be insane. The good news is that it was only one wall and the tiles are cleaning up beautifully... a minute with the hose and the scrubbrush and you'd never know they were on the wall. So I'll "only" lose the floor tiles and the 3/4 payment that we've already done if we start over. Sigh.... (When giving opinions on the tile be kind as it's my design and I LOVE the tile I picked!!) http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/gsimcoe/?action=view&current=100_3305.jpg http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/gsimcoe/?action=view&current=100_3306.jpg http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/gsimcoe/?action=view&current=100_3307.jpg http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk247/gsimcoe/?action=view&current=100_3311.jpg

Bill, Thanks so much for your response. I'll definitely find those products for the floor. We want to get this right so we don't have to redo the bath anytime soon, if ever. For 9"x12" wall tile on a tub surround w/ Hardibacker, should I also use the unmodified thinset w/ liquid latex?

Generally, "regular" thinset uses grey portland cement in the mix and the "stone" thinset uses white portland cement in the mix. I'm not sure about how much % of difference any of the latex modifiers might be for each mix. It's be best to call the manufacturer and ask them about the makeup of that. I'm also unsure of any real difference in adhesion properties between white and grey portland. That would be a great question for Bill or Mongo, our GW tile guru's who generally hang out more on the Bathroom forum than they do here. You might pop in there and put the question to them.

When we put the hardiboard on this area, do we lay it in the same fashion as Option A (put it on the vertical riser first and lay the sheet in the kitchen over that to form a 90-degree step)? This is how we planned on doing it, but I just wanted to double check. Although "the book" says it doesn't matter, The OCD in me says you're right-- riser first and cap it with the floor. We have tiled 2 bathrooms and a kitchen, but we have never used tiles larger than 12x12's...Any advice for laying the 19x19s? A couple. First, make sure your subfloor is as flat as possible. Even the slightest deviation in the subfloor will translate into a tile edge sticking way up. Secondly, use a medium bed mortar instead of thinset. The only difference is that it's got a coarser grain sand in it so it can be applied a little heavier than thinset. Lastly, use what might appear to most, a HUGE notched trowel. The notch I prefer with tiles that big is 1/2" wide by 3/4" deep. You CAN get away with 1/2x1/2", but then you need to backbutter each tile, as well. Lastly, (ok this is 3 questions), do you have any comments about ditra underlayment? It seems to be the latest thing, but is it really any better than hardibacker? It's more betterer than you could imagine. :-) Hardibacker, or ANY of the CBU's provide one thing, and one thing only, and that's a more stable bonding surface. What Ditra provides is not only a better way of bonding, but also protection from structural expansion and contraction of the house, which translates into a longer lasting floor.