Unmodified Cure Time

[TJfive0]

I will, or I think I will be laying my bathroom floor tile this sunday.

I am laying versabond, then ditra xl, then ditra set, then 12 x 12 ceramic tile.

My question is in regards to cure time for walking on it.

I have a guy coming in to tile the shower walls Monday morning. I am guessing around 9ish or so.

If I were to complete the bathroom floor on sunday, say 5pm, will that be a long enough cure time that my wall tile guy can walk in the bathroom floor without compromising the tile job?

Or should I wait until Tuesday after he is done to lay the bathroom floor tile?


Thanks for the input guys!

[hookknife]

24 hrs, is safe anything before that is risky IMO.

[stullis]

But in the real world what happens is the tile setter finishes up at 8pm not 5pm like he was hoping and then he comes back and grouts it 12 hrs later.

Lay some plywood down for him to work on.

[hookknife]

Could use speed set I suppose, but that costs a little extra.

[Kman]

With Ditra XL, I would wait.

There's quite a bit of thinset filling all those cavities, so it'll take a little longer than it would over Ditra. While it's true that many floors get grouted after setting overnight, you have one floor there and I'm guessing you might rather wait than have to start replacing tile.

[TJfive0]

So the general consensus is that if I were to finish tiling around 11 am on Sunday, that I shouldn't have the guy come tile the shower at 9 am monday morning.

[hookknife]

If it were my job Id wait, But Scotts idea of some plywood could work, but thats is your call. The deal is you dont want to break the Portland cement bond within the thinset mortar by moving the tiles or you could have broken grout etc later on down the road.

[TJfive0]

Well I guess I'll wait

I don't want to, but it seems to be the smart thing to do.

[hookknife]

Your other option would be to use a fast set mortar, it will dry in 3 hrs. But you dont have a lot of working time, and I dont know your abilities as far as setting tile???

[TJfive0]

Fast set wouldn't be good for me, I'm too slow.
Plus I already bought the ditra.

I'll just do it sunday night.


So question..... today I put a skim coat of versabond over the subfloor to fill voids in the wood from pull out the old linoleum.

Is that fine for the guy to walk on?
Should I through a drop cloth down so he isn't dragging his feet all over the floor?

[hookknife]

A drop cloth will work just to keep things clean

[TJfive0]

hookknife said A drop cloth will work just to keep things clean

Is there anything i should do to make sure he doesnt break up the coating of versabond on there now?
It was applied saturday morning at 7 am?

Or will it be fine for him to walk on?

Or should I put plywood over that?

[hookknife]

No worries, it should be fine.

[stullis]

Jeeze just have the guy do your floor as well.

[TFP Admin]

stullis said Jeeze just have the guy do your floor as well.

Some people actually like to do things for themselves, Scott.