How To Back Butter Wall Tile

As a seasoned tiler who does back butter i have experienced the many difficulties associated with traditional back buttering techniques including arm fatigue and occasionally dropping tiles while trying to back butter.

How to back butter wall tile.

How to back butter like a pro. Back buttering tile can be effective. Although not necessary for tile coverage back buttering can be effective by increasing the bond of the mortar to the back of the tile which is an excellent benefit. How to back butter tile correctly.

I use a round notch trowel on floors and areas that are subject to a lot of water this is a solid bed technique. The width of the niches these mosaics were going into was smaller than the size of my trowel which makes it difficult to properly comb thinset on the back of the niche. But before i do i back butter the adhesive side of the piece with my smaller hand trowel which will give full contact of the tile to the wall. I then place the next piece of tile next to the first adding a 1 8 inch tile spacer in between them.

Backbuttering tile simply means spreading a flat layer of thinset onto the back of the tile before installing it on your wall or floor or whatever. However there is more to this process which we will see in the following paragraphs. First you have to comb the thinset onto the substrate that means it is spread with the notched side of the trowel leaving little ridges. I place the first tile in the corner leaving a 1 8 gap at the end.