Ceramic tile did not stick

[Snipe Hunter]

Mortar has a date code on it. 

I've been told that the yellow dye on the Sakrete bags fades in about 3 months and if exposed to moisture. Don't buy faded bags of Sakrete

[MKepke]

Was the Mapei polymer-modified?

Was the Versabond?

Makes a big difference in stickiness if you used an unmodified mortar.

Also, your notched trowel seems too small. 16x8 is considered a large format tile, so a 1/2 x 1/2 notch trowel would be standard - you may have starved the tiles.

-Mark

[Snipe Hunter]

Was the Mapei polymer-modified?

Was the Versabond?

Makes a big difference in stickiness if you used an unmodified mortar.

Also, your notched trowel seems too small.  16x8 is considered a large format tile, so a 1/2 x 1/2 notch trowel would be standard - you may have starved the tiles.

-Mark

Good points, this is a job for 1/2x1/2 trowel.

I don't think we asked... are you using large format thinset?

[EightFingers]

Are 12x12 tiles considered large format?

[Snipe Hunter]

Are 12x12 tiles considered large format?

Maybe. Close.

[EightFingers]

The tiles I set with the Versabond are solid. Solid enough that the only way to remove one (don’t ask) was to chisel it off.

[MKepke]

Are 12x12 tiles considered large format?

Maybe. Close.

Any dimension exceeding 15" is considered large format per the Tile Council of America. So 12x12 are not, but 18" by anything are.

Does the OP have really flat walls and flat tile? A 1/4" notched trowel only gives about 1/8" of a mortar bed for leveling the tile. That's predominately the reason for the larger trowel on large format tiles: a thicker leveling bed.

Re: large format tile mortar: Versabond 'regular' is not disallowed for large format tile - although there are limitations listed for stone and glass. https://www.custombuildingproducts.com/TDS/TDS-119.pdf

Lastly, like CabinetMonkey said, we still don't know what "didn't seem right" means. Did the tiles slide or fall of the wall? When you pulled them off, what % of the tile(s) showed good contact with the backer?

-Mark

[EightFingers]

The tiles were barely stuck down. Coverage was complete. Only thing that was holding the tiles on was the “lash” (leveling) system. The whole wall just peeled away. Good thing it only went up 36”.

I’ve never had that happen before and like I said, I’ve installed a lot of tile (at least for me) and never had a failure as complete as that was.

Anyway, the job is complete now and the tiles are very solidly attached and *flat*.