Which is better to tile a basement floor with, mastic or mortar?
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Mastic is garbage moisture will turn it to mush.Make sure you prep the floor by removing all paint and drywall residue before installing then use a good medium grade thinset such as c cure 914 or customs versa bond.As I stated above dried mastic will turn to mush when exposed to moisture using it anywhere is asking for trouble especially in a shower or in a basement floor where there is a chance of moisture exposure.
Tiles will be cold but nicer than cement. However, I have seen some beautiful colored and creative decorations on cement floors. Throw rugs or area rugs on nice on finished floor.
I did my basement tiles with mortar. To have the least amount of cutting, my basement floor with littered with tiles with appropriate spaces as if it was a large Scrabble board before beginning my first tiles. Make sure corners are smooth in height (& preferrably level); don't want a corner up a little more than rest to stub a toe on. It will take a lot of time and sore knees so have knee pads.
Darker grout will require less cleaning even if you had grout sealer on it. With the grout, a small long handled wooden spoon was one of my favorite 'tools'. Helped even grout into cracks (better than wet sponge method), back of spoon across top of grout gave a perfect smoothness.
mortar is better! Mastic is more for putting up back splashes, and shower walls. Mortar will hold up better with the foot traffic.
Mastic is an organic adhesive and will re-emulsify if exposed to water. Also, multi-purpose thinset mortars contain a good deal of latex; providing more flexibility as well much higher bond strength than mastic.
mastic is used for tiles up to 8x8, anything bigger then that requires mortar. basement on a concrete slab no matter the size i would recommend using mortar.
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