Shower Tile Thinset Or Mastic

The reason tile pros use thinset in showers is that mastic will release if it contacts water and because it is organic if just a little water gets behind it it literally becomes food for mold.

Shower tile thinset or mastic.

Mastic is a vague term that generally refers to fast grab glues for tile. Traditionally mastic was an organic plant based resin from the pistacia lentiscus shrub and its term is related to the word masticate due to its sticky gummy consistency. It is applied to the substrate with a notched trowel. After tile board he would thinset the seams with fiberglass tape and then skim coat the entire board with modified thin set.

Thinset is a mortar that is made of portland cement silica sand and moisture retaining agents. To demonstrate the difference between mastic and powdered thinset i set up two pieces of hardiebacker. 99 of tile setters will most likely refuse to use a mastic in a shower situation. When you thinset the seams typically there is a slight hump so the skim coat evens the surface out and makes it flatter.

He then set the tile with latex mastic. Now on with the battle of mastic vs. Powdered thinset is by far a 10x better product. Although thin set is not waterproof it is isn t water soluble.

Shower walls thinset. When moisture is present it will not return to a liquefied state as mastic would. Thinset mortar is your default tile mortar for most indoor and outdoor applications. Mastic is great for dry locations its a terrible idea for a shower.

Another advantage is that it s inorganic and thus is not a food source for mold growth. Today the term mastic is infrequently used and it is difficult to find tile adhesives that go under the mastic banner at your local. Thinset tile mortar has a smooth slippery consistency similar to mud.