OMNIGRIP Must Know Details
There are some things that anybody who is thinking about using OmniGrip should really know. So as briefly as i can i will try to lay out the basics of what i wish had been spelled out on the container or that i had just known before i used it. This can be an great product if you know how and where to use it.
CURING:
Definitely the downside of this product
As previous posters have mentioned in this forum, this product can have a :dry time" 4-30 times longer than regular thin-set. if you don't have the time to let it do its thing curing this isn't for you. The 3 major determining factors in the drying process will be: 1.What you set it on, 2.what size of tile, and 3.climate conditions. 1. If your using this product on Wood or Drywall it obviously will cure faster than on Plastic laminates or existing Ceramic tiles. 2. If you use this on thicker (thicker than 1/4 inch) tiles or tiles bigger than about 6x6" Its going to start taking longer, i wouldn't use this on anything bigger than 12x12" @1/4 inch thickness, or it may never cure. 3. 80-90 degrees with low humidity will dry faster than 50 degrees with high humidity. As previously mentioned it can take 4(Minimum)-30 days to cure to the point you should crawl on it to grout.
I love OmniGrip for the walls, especially for rock/brick veneer/mosaic tile patterns. Or for the floor in high traffic areas where you are going to do a mosaic. This may just be me, but i don't like OmniGrip on concrete if i can help it, for some reason, perhaps counter intuitively it seems to take considerably longer to cure.
APPLICATION:
If you need to get a specific thickness after your tile is set, you should know that because OmniGrip is so thick, if you are going to use a 3/8x1/4 inch trowel it will roughly be as if you were using a 1/4x1/4 trowel. Meaning that your finished thickness will be closer to 1/8" on under after tile is compressed, instead of 3/16 which you would get with regular thin-set if you were to use your tool 90 degrees to get the maximum thickness. To get the actual 3/8 inch thick trowel effect you would have to go to 1/2"x1/2", which is the thickest i would recommend you go. Now it is true that OmniGrip will break down with water after being set, HOWEVER OmniGrip will not clean up easily with water, so in other words.. if you are not able to keep your surface and cracks pretty clean, if your planning on floating a lot of high and low spots and compressing the tiles till the OmniGrip comes through the cracks. This may not be the best product for you. You can do it, but it will be some serious work and eat a lot of time. Just grab a thin margin trowel if you dare.. squeeze out your sponger really well and get to work. You will want to use a bit of soap in your water bucket for your tools when you are done.
You can use OmniGrip on walls and your pieces will stick where ever you put them. You may even have a hard time prying them off if you need to re-stick them, or even moving them around after and hour or two of being up there. I would try to avoid it, but you can adhere OmniGrip to the dried version of itself if you have already set tiles down and had to pull them back out. I wouldn't recommend sanding with this stuff though as it will just gunk the sandpaper, just try to scrape the high spots with a margin trowel as best you can, and as long as it doesn't leave your floor lipping or you trying frantically to excessively float your floor (and it will be frantically with this stuff) you'll be good to go. It wont scrape, you might try going at carefully with a wire wheel on a drill. Just be careful of the edges and always remember your safety glasses haha.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH OMNIGRIP:
That being said, this product is great. It is considerably lightweight, flexible, and strong. I just did a 3 matching Tile mosaic table top project, using alternating 2" and 1" @ 1/4" thick pieces. I used a 1/2"x1/2" trowel leaving it 3/16 inch set and done. And finished it with a 2 part epoxy grout. And it is strong to say the least. It was great for this because the table will see a lot of movement an vibration, perhaps people standing on it, and who knows what else.
I see OmniGrip as a great solution for specialized area projects such as back splashes/mosaics/veneer/stone. If you wanted to make a crazy strong floor, you could use OmniGrip with a 2 part epoxy grout. And whoever/if ever someone had to rip it out, they would hate you. When demo guys remove tile, usually they will use a combination of scrapers built for prying and a 20 pound sledge hammer they drop from a few feet straight down on the tile. Because OmniGrip is so flexible, if you use a 2 part epoxy grout with it(which is difficult to use, but if used will probably be the only part of your house left in a thousand years when archaeologists are sifting through rubble wondering what the strange intact grid is, sitting on its own without tile) when it is impacted the force isn't transferred straight down and through to the sub-floor it is spread out over the entire floor almost like landing on a trampoline compared to the ground. With the right sub-floor your likely to see the hammer bounce lol. I've actually seen one bounce from a waist high drop and it bounced to knee height without cracking the tile. It was on a floor I did when part of the house had burnt down 2 years later. After being heated from the intense fire it was hit with cold water from the firemen, it was in the middle of January and sat exposed to the elements for months, a layer of ice freezing and thawing on it day after day. When they finally got the hammer to break through, it busted a hole the size of the hammer head through the tile, through the thinset, the hardibacker and through the subfloor, and did not crack any of the tiles around that one. The insurance company soda blasted some of the grout and found that water had not penetrated the grout. If you want to know what i did setting that floor, i'll tell ya a little secret... Use at least a 1/4" hardibacker, dont worry about thinsetting underneath it. Ignore the screw points on the board, on my own house i do drywall screws with the automatic screw gun about every six inches in a grid. Use flexbond thinset with 25-30% Liquid Acrylic Mortar Admix (AMA) making sure to thoroughly mix it, and when setting (regular ceramic tiles or whatever) make sure to press them down until you can see on the edges that the trowel lines have fused together, lay the tiles to the wall (underneath cabinets and what not) and even try to squeeze your thinset to the base plate underneath the edge of the drywall if you can . Use regular grout and when it cures use an artists paint brush to soak it with a super penetrating sealer (the expensive stuff from the tile specialty store) until it looks wet. And you will have an amazingly strong and resilient floor with the greatest overall price-time/effort combo, that is what i recommend. That is what i would do in my own house. You could do epoxy grout with this, and they can do some cool things with it like glow in the dark/fluorescent . But it is incredibly difficult to lay down and there is no room for error or failure with it. Also while some may disagree with me, I believe that something like a 1/3 staggered pattern on a 45 with the room is a stronger pattern than a standard grid set, but either way, follow this advice and you'll be set. Until you have to rip them out LOL
Well not to brief but
Hope this Helps,
Good Luck! :thumbsup: