# Problems with Omni Grip tile adhesive



## Blue

Hello all!

I wish I had checked here 48 hours ago. I recently went to Home Depot to buy tile adhesive for my bathroom floor. I told the salesperson that I have a cement slab and that I am installing ceramic tile to it as part of my bathroom renovatioin. The salesperson told me that Omni Grip was perfect for the job. No mess and pre-mixed. Saturday morning a friend and I used Omni Grip while laying my 12" ceramic tile. Sunday mornning I thought we were going to grout the floor. After doing just a little grout work I noticed one of the tiles moving. A quick test revealed that the adhesive was not holding and, you guessed it, the adhesive had the consistency of toothpaste. I have been without this bathroom since Hurrican Katrina and after 18 months of being on a waiting list, the marble for the shower is finally scheduled to be installed later in the week. To make things even more interesting, the tile I used was the last 4 boxes of this particular tile at the Surplus Warehouse ($1.09 s.f - a bargain!). Do I wait a few days to see if it dries? My house is air conditioned so humidity is not a problem. Is there any hope that Omni Grip will firm up in the near future? Should I put a space heater in the bathroom? Should I go ahead and try to pry the tiles up without breaking them? If I pry them up what is the best way of remvoing the adhesive from the tiles and floor? Thanks for any suggestions.

Blue in South Missisisppi


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## ron schenker

They will dry eventually, but thinset mortar would have been the way to go. IMHO Omni Grip is for lazy people that don't want to add water and mix real thinset. The only time I ever use it is for kitchen backsplashes. Don't walk on it for at least 3 days, and you should be able to grout by then. Depending on conditions, I've heard of drytimes as high as 1 month for this stuff and even longer to turn hard. Another thing, do yourself a favor and don't use the premixed grout.


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## send_it_all

I agree with Ron's post 100%. It will dry in a few days. Dont trust the Home Depot employees' advice for anything...they know jack....that b.s. about them being former contractors and knowledgable is crap. I have never met a 19 year old zit faced former contractor.


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## Blue

*Omni Grip blues*

Thank you both for your replies. I managed to reach someone in the support section at the company that makes Omni Grip. He said the product would dry in about 5 days. Nothing like that is on the label. He told me to use fans/heater on it. Nothing like that on the label either. He also said that the product does not setup like portland cement and that it remains somewhat flexible to keep the tile from cracking with the expansion/contraction of the slab. I don't think that is a problem for me since my slab is 40 years old. I told him I thought the flexibility would cause the grout to crack. He disagreed. Needless to say he didn't offer any real solutions. I am really worried about the "give" in the product. I guess I will take my chances - wait, grout and hope I sell my house before it falls apart. Thank you for your advice. Oh, I will certainly discount anything I hear from HD.

Still Blue in Mississippi:thumbsup:


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## spnugent_74

*Omni grip problems continue*

Like the previous postings my experience with Omni Grip is not a good one. I was advised by a number of employees at Home Depot that Omni Grip would work over the existing plywood in my kitchen. The tile floor is down and after three days the floor tiles are still spring up and down, causing the grout to break up. I waited 48 hours to grout after setting the tile using Omin Grip, an extra 24 hours than the container directions. To say the least, I am very disappointed with both the employees at Home Depot and the maker of Omni Grip. 

Conclusions. Never use this product on floors. Rip up the plywood and set concrete board and use traditional thin-set. Do not take the advise of a retail clerk who most likely has at best a surface understanding of what they sell. 

As a high school teacher, I always tell kids that shortcuts are generally problematic. Omni Grip is a shortcut and it does not work for flooring at least.


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## Lipo Tile

*DO NOT USE OMIGRIP!! - Lipo Tile*

Whatever you do - DO NOT USE OMNIGRIP! This is the worst tile adhesive out there. It just never seems to dry and the tiles all started cracking! The company should be ashamed of themselves as should the workers at Home Depot that recommended this horrible product. I would rather burn my money than do another tile job using this adhesive. Save your money! As noted in another reply, there is nothing written on the product about the long drying time. I have read posts on other forums that indicated that the product never dried even after a year! I have read dozens of posts of unhappy people that have wasted their money on this product. I am unfortunately one of these people. I just want to get the word so that everyone knows that this is a horrible product. The owners of this company should  rot. 

Lipo Tile


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## HomeDepot23

Remember that the associates at Home Depot are being drilled that Omni Grip is the best thing on the market, that it will stick all kinds of tile. This is a new product, so many of them have never tried it.

By the way as my username suggests I work in Home Depot. I was a carpet and vinyl installer from 1983-2000 and still find myself power stretching (not kicking) carpet 3 or 4 times a month.

My knowledge of tile is very limited, admittedly. When a leading setting material like Custom Building products are telling you this stuff is the pre mixed answer to flex bond and you are not getting returns or negative feedback, you are likely to keep recommending it.

This is the first negative I have heard on this product.


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## tarc817

*Omni Grip = Grout?*

A friend of mine was advised by a Home Depot employee to buy Omni Grip to do the backsplash in her kitchen. She's never applied tile or even grouted before. My question is, does Omni Grip also grout, or does she need to buy a separate grout? Thanks!


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## JazMan

Omni-Grip is adhesive, mastic. A backsplash tile installation is one of few places most of us would use a pre-mixed product. Yes you also need grout. The type of grout depends on the tiles and the width of the joints.

Jaz


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## tripower

I wish I had read this post before I had started to lay down tile. To the OP use a large flat mud or putty knife to pry up the tile and use this same mud knife to scoop up this Omnicrap and dispose off it in the original bucket. Put your tile on a tarp and hose down or if it is really stuck on you can use a power washer. I washed my floor with Simple Green and TSP to get the rest of that Omnicrap up....never again.


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## sor

I realize this thread is old, but it came up as a top search result. I for one really like omnigrip. I have never used it on floors though. The product does get really hard (as in need a tool to score it) but it takes a week or two. Hard enough to withstand compression but at the same time it won't fracture or crack.

I tried it when putting stone on my fireplace. The mortar was a nightmare for me, stones sliding and falling off due to the surface area to weight ratio. After doing a few rows with sticks or anything I could find jammed in between to prop up each stone, and my mortar setting up before I could use it, I broke down and bought the pricey omnigrip. It was tacky enough to stick a 12x3x3 ledgestone to durock without budging. What a lifesaver. Since its white I did have to go back and pipe some sanded grout in a few of the cracks

Next, I did a bath surround with 4x4 travertine. Again, I figured I'd save money and do it the 'normal' way with thinset. What a mess trying to spread that stuff on wet durock, with half of what's on your trowel plopping on the ground. What did it for me though was that with the tile cutting and design I could barely get a few rows up before my thinset was solid and no amount of water was loosening it up. Do I mix 2 quarts of thinset at a time and take forever to do this? No, I again shelled out the cash for omnigrip, which went on smoothly, very little mess (most of the mess you see below is from the white thinset I started out with), plenty of working time for my design, and good hold. Grouted 3 days later (omnigrip was solid enough but still a bit rubbery) and both of the projects have been solid and looked great ever since (three years).

I found this thread while researching whether omnigrip is good for floors. I have not had any issues using thinset on floors (did a heated loor in the same bath with the suntouch mats), so I'll probably stick with thinset on floors, omnigrip on vertical surfaces. I'm positive it would work on floors because of how hard it eventually gets, but it's tougher to leave a floor undisturbed for a week or two. I think the drying time for omnigrip is really its achilles heel, but it has enough advantages that I'd recommend it on walls.


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## Kkrueger

*Omni Grip on a stone wall?*

 I'm a third of the way in hanging stone mosaics on my bathroom wall on backerboard using the Omni grip adhesives. Yes, I'm one of those lazy people mentioned earlier! But, I just laid my first floor and have moved on to trying the mosaics, a bit trickier to get to look right without gaps. Is the Omni product that bad? We are in no hurry to grout and walking on it is obviously not an issue. My husband keeps saying I should have used thin set mortar and I don't want him to be right!
Please reply quickly! Sounds like I might be in time to remove the mosaics and scrape the backer board if I hear I should start over with mortar. thanks!
Signed, A woman in a hurry to finish a DIY house.


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## sor

As I mentioned, I actually prefer omnigrip for walls, great working time especially with those mosaics, and will hold pretty much anything on the vertical surface. It will hold well as long as you give it some time to dry before you grout. For the novice thinset might set up before you can get your stuff on the wall, especially if you need to cut as you go. Pros would never waste their time waiting for it to set up, but I haven't had any quality issues over the last few years.

Again, can't speak for floors, but it does get very hard once dry. Just takes awhile.


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## oh'mike

That product is a failure for floors (especially concrete)--and any wet area --it will desolve after drying
when exposed to water.

With larger tiles over concrete the mastic may never completely dry.

DO NOT USE THAT PRODUCT FOR FLOORS OR SHOWERS-----use powdered thinset.---Mike---


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## Kkrueger

Thanks for your replies! Sor- I appreciate your advice. I hope I get good results like you did, but I have a question for you. Have you ever had to reapply Omni Grip? Last night I had to remove several sheets because there were too many gaps between the sheets. (I have had some trouble getting the interlocking sheets to always match up.) I scraped the extra adhesive off the backer board, but there is still some residue left there and on the back of the stones, which is probably dry by now. Do I need to wash it off? If so, what do I use?
And this will be a "dry wall" with mirrors and vanity against it, so no worries about it getting wet beyond being a backsplash.
Thanks so much for the advice!!!!!


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## oh'mike

The stuff dissolves with water-soaking it woud get the mastic off the sheets---but it may loosen the tiles from the backing----I'd try sanding the dried adhesive .


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## Dan.the.Man

*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:


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## brimest0ne

*OmniGrip*

I'll just add to this flogging of a dead horse....

I'm a first time user of Omnigrip, I'm putting 12X12 Granite tile right over the exciting laminate counter top, " I'M DOING WHAT!!!" I'm on a very limited budget, and I've talked to some pro's that have done this before with great results, preparing the surface is the most important step. I was told to use OmniGrip Maximum strength adhesive, this stuff and be used in areas that are wet but not submerged in water, perfect for kitchen counter tops.

I did a test spot to see if it would grip as well as it claims, and to my surprise, after only 10 hours I wasn't able to get it off, I had to grind and sand it.

Applying it, it didn't act like regular thin-set, it was a little clumpy when using the notch trowel, but workable and held the tiles firmly and held the back splash very well.

Clean up was a bit of a pain, this stuff seem to setup under water, I left a trowel in a bucket of water for later clean up and it seem to be firmer than before it was put into the water.

All the work is done and I'm ready to apple the grout when I noticed dark areas through out the tiles, that were not there before, is this the moisture from the thin set? coming up, and will it go away?


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## geedee123

not a bad product for the weekend warrior, but oil-base mastic is always preferred by professionals. i made the mistake of re-tiling the only shower i have,so all the tiles were falling when the cement board got wet. in other words, the product returns to its original state [ re-emulsify] when it encounters water.


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## geedee123

...so i ended-up using 100% silicone. it stays pliable,and fairly cheap.


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## JazMan

Hi,

You've resurrected an old thread and gave people some really bad ideas. But welcome anyway. Tell us about yourself, projects, hobbies, etc. 

You said we should use an oil-based mastic for wet areas. That's WRONG. Not a good idea at all. You're correct about regular mastic though, it can re-emulsify if it gets wet. You should use thin set mortar which comes ONLY in powder form in a bag.

You recommended using silicone instead. WRONG. The adhesive, (thin set mortar) needs to be spread so that you get 95% contact/transfer. In your method you'll have mostly voids, making it ripe for a science experiment. The "5-spot method can work on walls that are not near water sources. 

BTW, What Brimstone above did, is totally a bad plan. 

Jaz


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## dancesilly2

*Omni grip*

I discovered Omni grip while renovating a mobile home. It was like a miracle adhesive. I used it for everything, wall tiles, trim boards, just about everything. It worked wonders, but I didn't experience the down side as some have posted here as I did not use it for flooring. It does take a few days to dry. I used it on glass tiles on kitchen counter and on walls. Even on areas not recommended like Luann board, and it still worked just fine. I liked the adhesion it provided for the walls and on the trim boards. Loved it. I'm getting ready to use it on my kitchen backsplash. If you have a flooring job, use regular mortar, but any wall job Omni grip is great. I'm going to use it for my bathroom wall tiles as well. As soon as I get my kitchen done!:vs_karate:


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## JazMan

Dance, that's silly. (sorry, couldn't help it) :wink2:

Mastic is easy to use and your tiles will probably not side down the wall, but is a very bad plan for wet areas. A backsplash is fine though. You also shouldn't use mastic for glass tiles. Luan should never be used as an underlayment......ever. 

You're mistaking "sticking" with long term bonding under damp/wet conditions. Mastic will re emulsify if it gets wet. Of course people that use mastic are also likely to install over drywall or other unsuitable substrates too.

Jaz


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## Rocky12

HELP....I too was told to purchase Omni Grip after telling the sales people at H.D. that the tiles were 12X24 (very heavy) and to be used on a Shower Ceiling! What do I do now. My contactor is not used to using the new acrylic products. What should I actually purchase for the heavy tiles on the shower ceiling? I must do something soon.
BTW, the forum has been great and I agree that Home Depot sales people do not have a "clue" they told me to read the directions which are all small print. Thank goodness I found this forum before a major mistake or accident.


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## JazMan

Rocky,

Unfortunately the big box stores couldn't care less if your project works out correctly or not. Regardless of what those clerks tell you, in the end the installer is responsible. The clerk that told you to buy the mastic may have just been hired and may have stocked shelves or worked in the garden isle. Obviously as you said, has no clue. 

They should read the labels themselves. But even that won't help cuz they have no experience.

What do you mean by; *My contactor is not used to using the new acrylic products.*

Sounds like you hired a handyman. This could be strike 2. Tell us more. Why are you making decisions and are responsible for supplying materials?:vs_no_no_no: All you're supposed to do is make tile/grout selections and write the check. 

Jaz


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## Dennis Plavcan

ron schenker said:


> They will dry eventually, but thinset mortar would have been the way to go. IMHO Omni Grip is for lazy people that don't want to add water and mix real thinset. The only time I ever use it is for kitchen backsplashes. Don't walk on it for at least 3 days, and you should be able to grout by then. Depending on conditions, I've heard of drytimes as high as 1 month for this stuff and even longer to turn hard. Another thing, do yourself a favor and don't use the premixed grout.


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## Dennis Plavcan

geedee123 said:


> ...so i ended-up using 100% silicone. it stays pliable,and fairly cheap.


I think I’m grip is great for backsplash installation, stays on trowel and easy to spread under cabinets 👍


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