So I just finished my bathroom floor remodel today. I have had good luck in the past with quality work on tile jobs, and didn't think much of this relatively easy bathroom remodel. Everything went fairly smoothly. Small bathroom (~35 sq ft). I tiled on top of a smooth and flat ditra underlayment with 12" tiles. This evening, I realized in horror the mistake I made. I used my V-notch trowel instead of my square notched trowel. So the million dollar question - will I be okay? Or did I just royally mess up?

Thanks in advance,
Matt

i dont think the shape of the notch matters
its the depth of the notch that matters
if there about the same, your ok.
as long as you pressed and wiggled to get air out, and mud/adhesive evenly on the tile

Really depends on how much thinset you got on there. A large V-notch would probably still work. Holding the trowel at a steep angle (which puts more material down with each pass) would also make it work.

Generally, with thinset and tile you need about 1/4" depth of thinset to correctly bed and level the tile. If your tile is level then you probably got enough thinset to not only level it out but to have enough to keep it in place. Once the tile cures for another day or two tap around on the tiles. Any space that does not have good thinset contact will sound hollow.

It was my 1/4 x 3/16 trowel. I am so pissed at myself that I became too complacent and didn't notice that. I did make sure that the tiles were firmly embedded. I will do as you suggest and tap on the tiles tomorrow (that will have left 36 hours cure time) before I grout. But I'm guessing either way I'm stuck with it, as I'm assuming there's no way to remove the tiles, preserve the ditra, or even the plywood layer for that matter and I would be into a major demolish task. I do have an extra box of tiles to keep on hand should I have problems in the future.

I'm betting that it will be fine. The ideal would be a 1/4 x 1/4 square notch so unless you were really scraping things tightly wit a sharp angle to your trowel, I would bet that you have enough thinset there to do the trick.

Note: 36 hours could still give some false hollow sounds as the thinset may not be fully cured in all areas. So if you go 36 hours and cannot find any hollow spots, then you are definitely OK. But if you do find some hollow sounding areas, it could just mean that the thinset has not cured fully as yet.

Don't panic. Give it time.