Natwerk Designs

Granite Tile Adhesive... Instead of Mortar. Does it exist?

I've had granite slabs professionally installed in my kitchen in the past. I saw that they didn't use mortar, instead, I saw them use some sort of adhesive that came out of a tube gun. Ideally, I'd like to use something like that instead of mortal to install 12x12 granite tiles? What would you recommend?Please keep in mind that these are going on an outdoor bbq island. Lowes told me to stick to mortar, and that adhesive/caulking won't work. They said that it will ghost through. But I don't see anything like that on my existing granite slab which was installed 2 years ago. When I asked the store where I bought the granite tile from, they said that I could use Caulking with silicone to adhere the granite tile to hardibacker. So which is it? Thanks in advance....

Public Comments

1. Save yourself a lot of time and trouble and just use the thinset mortar. Especially since the installation is outside.
2. The adheisive is made for granite counter tops etc..large areas of granite not small like tile..To do tile you definately need thin set..do not caulk down tiles they will pop up and also have a hollow sound..thin set is designed to "float" , even out any raises in the slab..as well as coat the WHOLE bottom of the tile as a sound surface... Lowes will definately get you in trouble with thier advice..theyu will have people from the garden center workin the tile area on the tile persons day off etc..as well as using inexperienced people in the trade to the department they put them in..THIN SET..is the answer..Here if a contractor seen a tiole layer trying to lay tile with a caulking gun..would run them off the job in a second..as well as pass thier bad workmanship around to the other contractors and they will be what we call "black balled" from the construction sites here..Use only a "mortar" based product to install
3. Pc has the right idea the sheer weight of "slab" granite allows different adhesion requirements from tiles. Also the fact that it is outdoors is a factor here. If you really want this done right there is a compromise... Hydroment makes a product called "Ultraset" it comes in a premixed sausage tube (but it is NOT CHEAP) it is THE BEST product to adhere these in an outdoor application, it acts very much like thinset but has a much higher elasticity. This is the ONLY product I would recommend for this installation.