Oh - I should probably include this. I'm using an acrylic tile adhesive - on the home center store shelf (what I used to call mastic), as opposed to thin-set. If you don't know, thin-set is a cement based adhesive, typically used between floor backer-board (or concrete-board) and the tile. You can imagine, because of it's cement base, it's less forgiving to movement than an adhesive with more flexibility. If you've done your shower wall, or your sub-floor correctly, you don't have to be overly concerned with movement, but in an RV, well - I guess movement is the name of the game huh?
So I'm hoping this adhesive will allow a tiny bit of flexibility. And of course the (less than) 1" tiles may allow for that too!
The tool is with "cutter wheels" for glass tiles (as opposed to the nipper type for ceramic tiles). The trowel is a small v-groove applicator. Don't want too much adhesive squeezing up into the grout lines.
The other thing is the grout. A cement based grout is brittle too. Both grout and thin-set have latex additives you can add for greater flexibility, but I decided I might need more than that - enter the tub and tile caulking.
I've run beads of this type of stuff between tile walls and tub surfaces, sinks and counters, exterior stuff on siding gaps and cracks, etc.
Now some people just lay a bead and walk away. And some people can do that, and end up with an awesome application! Not me - too perfectionist, too unskilled, I don't know. And I've noticed sometimes you get a better bead by pushing, rather than pulling. I don't know what is considered "right".
But I typically come back around with the wet finger and a pail of water and paper-towels and smooth that stuff down right fine. I've learned just how nicely you can manipulate this stuff when wet. Too much water - problems, too little - problems, but there's a Goldilocks level. So I'm going to smear it into the grout lines and create a Goldilocks level flexibility within my tiled surfaces. At least that's the theory. ;)
