Thinset Tile Mortar vs Brick Mortar

[g***@gmail.com]

What's the difference between thinset tile mortar and the mortar used
for bricks on the face of a house? I need to replace a chipped tile in
my kitchen floor and I'm curious what the difference might be...
They're both sand and cement, right? Different ratio, perhaps?

[CWatters]

Post by g***@gmail.com
What's the difference between thinset tile mortar and the mortar used
for bricks on the face of a house? I need to replace a chipped tile in
my kitchen floor and I'm curious what the difference might be...
They're both sand and cement, right? Different ratio, perhaps?

Different grade of sand probably.

["Grumman-581" @gmail.com>]

Post by CWatters
Different grade of sand probably.

I think you're right... Probably a bit more cement in there also... I tried
using brick mortar to replace the tiles and although it worked, I could not
get it to squeeze down to the same level as the adjacent tiles... Went up to
Home Depot and picked up a 50 lb bag of thinset... Yeah, a bit overkill for
just a couple of tiles, but I'll need some more in a few weeks for my
outdoor kitchen / BBQ anyway... The best I can tell, the brick mortar uses a
coarser sand in addition to sometimes having very small rock pieces in it...
Just enough of a difference that you can feel a difference in the height of
the tile between the tiles put down with brick mortar and the ones put down
with thinset... In addition, thinset seems to be a bit easier to move the
tiles around while lining them up... The sand is so fine in the thinset, I
have to wonder if perhaps it's not sand, but rather fly ash from power
plants...

[Jeff]

Yes mortar from HD can have small rocks... I think this is a quality issue.
I always buy my mortar mix from a masonry supply dealer. Slightly more
expensive, but no rocks, well worth the few extra pennies per bag. Of course
if your laying a lot of brick or block, just order sand and masonry cement
and mix your own blend.

Jeff

Post by "Grumman-581" @gmail.com>

Post by CWatters
Different grade of sand probably.

I think you're right... Probably a bit more cement in there also... I tried
using brick mortar to replace the tiles and although it worked, I could not
get it to squeeze down to the same level as the adjacent tiles... Went up to
Home Depot and picked up a 50 lb bag of thinset... Yeah, a bit overkill for
just a couple of tiles, but I'll need some more in a few weeks for my
outdoor kitchen / BBQ anyway... The best I can tell, the brick mortar uses a
coarser sand in addition to sometimes having very small rock pieces in it...
Just enough of a difference that you can feel a difference in the height of
the tile between the tiles put down with brick mortar and the ones put down
with thinset... In addition, thinset seems to be a bit easier to move the
tiles around while lining them up... The sand is so fine in the thinset, I
have to wonder if perhaps it's not sand, but rather fly ash from power
plants...

[t***@juno.com]

Use the tile mortar for tile and the brick mortar for brick. The two
are very different.

[JerryD(upstateNY)]

Post by t***@juno.com
Use the tile mortar for tile and the brick mortar for brick. The two

are very different.<<<

I wonder if that's why one is called tile mortar and the other is called
brick mortar ?

["Grumman-581" @gmail.com>]

Post by Jeff
Yes mortar from HD can have small rocks... I think this is a quality issue.
I always buy my mortar mix from a masonry supply dealer. Slightly more
expensive, but no rocks, well worth the few extra pennies per bag. Of course
if your laying a lot of brick or block, just order sand and masonry cement
and mix your own blend.

The rocks that I encountered were probably only slightly larger than the
head of a pin... They wouldn't be a problem for laying brick with a 3/8"
mortar joint, but for laying tile, you would need a thicker bed of it to
ensure that you had room for adjusting the height of the tile over the
slab... Basically, I believe that it would work, but it's just not the
*best* solution... I would hazard to guess that even though brick mortar is
a bit cheaper than thinset, you would use more of it and as such, it
wouldn't necessarily be that much cheaper... 80 lbs of brick mortar goes for
around $4.75 and 50 lbs of thinset goes for around $5.43, IIRC...

[marson]

brick mortar had lime in it to improve spreadability. thinset often has
a latex additive to give it flexibility.

["Grumman-581" @gmail.com>]

Post by marson
brick mortar had lime in it to improve spreadability. thinset often has
a latex additive to give it flexibility.

Hmmm... Interesting... I've used thinsets before that I suspect did not have
latex in it since the instructions said that to improve adhesion, one might
want to add a latex primer admixture to it instead of just water... I was
down in Cozumel around Thanksgiving and there was quite a bit of
construction going on -- repairs due to the damage of their latest
huricanes... Down there, construction is mostly cement based... Sand and
aggregate they have locally, but the actual cement for the construction of
the concrete and mortars they apparently have to ship from the mainland...
From what I could tell, everything was mixed onsite, whether it was
concrete, mortar for CMUs, or mortar for putting down ceramic or stone
tiles... Their sand is quite a bit coarser than what we have in Texas and
they just use the limestone from the coral that makes up the island as the
aggregate for the concrete...

[marson]

yeah, and i may be wrong, but i think the latex is really only needed
over surfaces that might give, like plywood/backerboard. i don't think
it is necessary over concrete slabs. i should have said that there is
a different sand/cement ratio between mortar and thinset as well.

[j***@yahoo.com]

Believe it or not, there are many different types of cement. thinset
mortar has the ability to stand up to much higher lateral loads than
does the brick mortar, it's also thinner(hence the name, Thinset). If
you used brick mortar for a ceramic tile, I wouldn't count on it
lasting. There are different tile mortars you can get to suit you
specific needs. The brand at Home Depot has a PSI chart on the back of
it in the upper left corner, the higher the PSI rating, the better the
product adheres, and the longer the tile will stay put.