How to Ceramic Tile a Ceiling Mastic or Thinset
Working above your head is hard. If you've drywalled a ceiling, you know just how hard. Now, imagine setting tiles on a ceiling without them dropping down on your head. You can avoid this potential hazard by using thinset mortar. Thinset has a better stickiness factor then tile mastic, which makes it ideal for installing tiles overhead. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Ladder
- 3-foot metal straightedge
- Pencil
- Thinset mortar
- Water
- Pail
- Tiles
- Trowel
- Tile spacers
Instructions
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Use a straightedge to mark off the center of the ceiling in both directions. These are your control lines, which will help in lining up the tiles so that they are straight.
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2
Mix up thinset mortar. The consistency has to be just right; otherwise it will fall off the ceiling. The mortar should slide off the trowel when you tip it.
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Trowel the mortar on to the ceiling in small patches. Start where your two control lines intersect, but don't mortar over the lines. Use the notched edge of the trowel to make grooves in the mortar.
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Butter some extra mortar on to the back of each tile and trowel grooves through it too before pressing the tile into place on the ceiling. Once the tile is in place, don't move it anymore. If the position of the tile looks off, then pull it completely away from the ceiling, clean off the mortar, re-butter the back with thinset and press it back up on the ceiling.
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Tips & Warnings
Use 1/8- or 1/4-inch spacers to maintain a uniform space between tiles. Use two per side. The spacers must be removed before grouting.
If you have trouble mixing the mortar to the right consistency and the tiles look like they might pull away from the ceiling, then cut a strip of plywood and place it against one or two rows of tile at a time. Prop it up with a 2x4 boarduntil the mortar sets up.
When using spacers, make sure they don't make contact with the mortar; otherwise they will be hard to pull out.
