Customer Reviews for Custom Building Products SimpleMat 10 sq. ft. Tile Setting Mat

I wished I’d read these reviews before buying SimpleMat. It’s NOT simple. It may have worked with tiles on a 12x12 mesh, but it’s not working with 3x6 individual subway tiles. It’s nearly impossible to get them on while trying to put spacers to keep them straight. Thin set may be messy but at least it STICKS and you can get EVEN grout lines! I am taking the tiles down and using thin Set! Save yourself the aggravation and expense. This product has many pitfalls.

very easy to put up and then able to grout right away. Used it on glass tiles for a backsplash and it came out great.

I know it's cheating and not how the pros do it, but it looks like the pros did it when you are done.

Easy to install. Worked for my project, installing tiles in the bar area of an entertainment cabinet

The reviews on this product seem to be either 5 star or 1 star. Love it or hate it. It's funny because a positive review says, "It's really sticky" and a negative review says, "It's really sticky." So, yeah, obviously it's really sticky. It is an adhesive product after all. I used two rolls of this for about 45-50 square feet of tiles I used in a kitchen backsplash. I was attracted to this stuff because it looked like I would have a long time to work with the tile, I wouldn't have to race the tile to the wall because mastic was drying while I was working. I'm pretty good at DIY but I'm slow. This product seemed to promise a high working time. It seems to be a fibrous product base layer (fiberglass? nylon maybe?) with adhesive beads on both sides. It's rolled up like big double-sided tape so that you unroll the strip to expose the first stick side while the other side is covered in waxed paper. Stick the strip to the wall, firmly press down to get good adhesion while leaving the other side covered in the paper. I rolled this out in long strips across my wall. The roll is 9" high and most upper cabinets are set 18" above the counter tops. I have some... entertaining... measurements in my house so I had varying amount of overlap between the top and bottom strips. This overlap didn't seem to matter much. I rolled the bottom strip out and then peeled the top inch of the protective paper down to expose the glue, I then rolled the top strip across and let it overlap. When I was done, I had two strips stuck to the wall and both were still had their outside covered in paper. Working from the bottom, I peeled the bottom strips paper away (leaving the top strip covered). I'd then place my tile & spacers. In my case, I had 4" x 12" glass tiles & 1/8" spacers and each adhered pretty easily. You have to press hard to get the adhesive bead to deform and once they do that, kinda squish out a bit, the tile seems pretty firmly attached. Then it's simply a matter of working bottom to top, peeling the top paper away when you get that high. It felt to me that the glue stayed fresher since I kept it covered until I needed it. My first corner I peeled all the paper away at once and it seemed the top strip was a bit dry by the time I got to it. This might just be perception but keeping the glue covered until needed seemed right on later walls. It's from the experience, though, I can see why there might be love-it/hate-it reviews. Unlike a mastic, once the tile is placed and pressed, it's darn near impossible to move again. I managed to peel a couple away with some careful prying but I did damage the glue in one attempt to do that and had to add another strip. If you are putting up floppy sheets of tile and you're used to the work-ability of mastic, to be able to arrange tiles and smooth everything into a square, then this stuff might be a bit grabby to allow that. You'd have to place the bottom of the tile sheet just about perfectly then roll the sheet up the wall hoping it grabs nice and square. For me, though, since I was putting large tiles and using spacers, there was no floppy problem. Place your bottom edge nice and square, then kinda tilt the tile up and into place. Verify it looks right and, if so, give a good push to fix it in place. I wouldn't hesitate to use this for anything where tiles are placed individually. Floppy tile sheets? Not so sure. Another thing that's clear is that this stuff doesn't fill gaps - your walls have to be pretty smooth & flat. My house, in addition to having entertaining measurements, has some entertaining walls. A very flat glass tile isn't going to flex around a slight bump in the wall (or dip) and the adhesive strip couldn't fill that that gap. In a few places where the tile had air under it someplace, I'd have to cut additional strips of mat to build a depression up to allow enough glue behind the tile's width. It worked fine in nearly every case and the worst case is that there is a bit of a unevenness in the tiles. Once grouted you wouldn't know it's there. So, the TL;DR review: good product, very sticky, recommended for nice flat walls and larger, individually-placed tiles instead of floppy tile sheets.

This is such a great procduct‼️ I have used on 4 different projects (3 different houses) both bathrooms and kitchens. It works great‼️This is a picture of my most recent project‼️ I love it Easy to use‼️

This is the best and simplest product ever for mosaic tile set.

Worked like a champ! I did my kitchen backsplash in a day thanks to SimpleMat with much less mess.

This is very easy and saves a lot of time. I did 30 sq/ft back splash with the wife in about 12 hours. Probably would have been quicker if i didnt have so many cut pieces (alot of outles). The wife easily placed a bunch of the tiles and also grouted behind me as i placed them. As someone else mentioned i had no problem with sticking full tiles to the mat it was the cut small pieces that didnt want to stay up. Also was hard to cut the mat, i used a straight edge and utility knife but once the mat is stuck to the wall its super easy to do the rest. As long as it lasts for a while i will give it the good rating. Time will tell

The single mats work way better than the roll. The sheets cost more money but way worth it.

Very simple to use. Made tiling rhe wall behind my stove very fast and easy.

This is fine for projects without a need for small modified pieces of tile. The grid that the tile sticks to doesn't really accommodate that. I typically end up having to make adjustments to the tiles (still working on that) and the mat loses it's adhesive power if anything is adjusted. Also, the spacing was difficult for me because of the amount of wiggle with smaller pieces. I'll just stick to prep work and worry-free mastic.

Worked better than I thought it would! Check out my review on the other listing for this product.

I have literally had tile sitting on my kitchen counter for over a year, because I couldn't find anyone to install it for me. I finally gave up and bought some kind of grout and adhesive stuff the sales guy suggested. Everything was fine until morning when half of the tiles had slid down. I ripped everything off the wall and then starting researching other ways to install. I found SimpleMat by accident. When I found out there was such a thing my online Home Depot search said it wasn't available at my store. Wrong! It was there and I picked some up. Super easy to use! I was thrilled when I got up and the tile were still firmly in place. I was going to use them as is, but then decided to grout over the tiles. Kind of wish I hadn't done that now, but they still look great. Now that I know it is so easy to install tiles, I am planning on using SimpleMat in my bathroom.

Easy to use. Better than competitors. Holds Tile. Installs quickly. Allows you to Grout same day.

Great stuff

This doesnt work with glass. See for yourself. “It will be quick and easy” they said. Now i grouted over the tile and it looks horrendous and cheap. Hate this dont use it

This product worked especially well to tile the wall over the range between the range hood and the cabinets. As DIYers this was a tricky area to use mastic as we could not remove the range hood and the narrow glass tiles were very difficult to "butter" on the back... so tried the SimpleMat. Product was easy to cut & apply to the wall, even in the tight corners at the bottom! One word of caution - the mats are very, very sticky so you really need to leave the top covering on and dry fit the tile when you have tricky cuts as the tile bonds almost instantly and is difficult to move or shift the tile much! Glass tiles did not sag or shift at all even tho we left it for several days before grouting- we were very impressed. Would definitely use this product and absolutely recommend.

SimpleMat is so easy to use and saves time in not having to use mastik for tiles. It also allows you to grout right away instead of waiting for the mastik to dry. Also I preferred using the sheets as opposed to the roll. The only issue I found was that it wouldn't hold the weight of bars made out of marble that I used to separate two different tile designs. I ended up using Liquid Nails to hold the bars in place.

I was hesitant to try this product but after doing some research I used it. I installed 8x8 ceramic tile for a backsplash behind my range. The area was 8’ x 5’, surrounding the exhaust hood. I wanted to keep the job as neat as possible because I was working above finished cabinets, countertops, and appliances. The surface was new, primed drywall. I carefully cleaned the wall with tsp and rinsed it. I allowed it to dry overnight. I applied the “simple mat” the next morning. It took some time to install it neatly and to assure that it was adhered properly, but there was zero mess. That afternoon I installed the tile, and the following day the grout was completed. Not a one-day job, but a very controlled job with little mess. I like it.

This product does not hold the tile for more than 1 day. It's useless . Not only am I out of the money I spent for this. I'm out of money to pay to have this tile installed twice. This is junk and I'm very upset.

This product is awesome...

Very easy to use, quickly laying tiled, no wait timr and no messy.

Easy to use and strong enough to hold any tile save time and money do a clean job.

A tad pricey; but, worth purchasing. Easy and simple to use. Installed simple mat, installed tile, and grouted all in one night. It wasn’t a huge area.

My husband and I were remodeling a bathroom and wanted to do a tile backsplash. I had no idea this item even existed until I was researching how to apply tile. So glad we used this though! You can easily cut it to size with scissors and stick it to the wall. It’s sticky! Tiles stuck with no problems at all. We even grouted without having to wait like we would have if using mortar. When we are ready to do our kitchen and bathroom we will definitely be using this again

I got this product in Wash. Court House OH. One of the sales assoc. told me about it. He also steered me to the right "grout" /mastic that I could use. Not sure if it was the recommended product for the job but wife went shopping Stuck up the roll and stuck on the backsplash tiles. We had to go away for a while so in about 2 weeks when I came back some of the tile had not stuck to the roll. Just pressed it back in place put the recommend "grout/glue and its been up for two years. And looks great. It doesnt get much water near it but some near the sink, and never have had a problem used glass tile that I saw in a different store. Hard to find Green. I planning to put a bigger back splash at my new place and Im planning on using this system again. I really liked how well it turned out.

This actually works. I put new drywall up and made sure it was dust free. Don’t press it on too hard when you initially put it against the wall. Once it is on, trim it up and then press it hard against the wall. Don’t double it up. It gets too thick that way. It appears to be working well. I guess time will tell. But with the additional support from the grout and caulk, I think it will be fine. Just keep it clean during the application.

I used both the pre-cut matting and the larger roll. Material went up easily, very promising. Tiles stuck to it well and level. Had to wait two days before I could grout and came back to find almost an entire backsplash of tile had just dropped off (see the pics). House was air conditioned so weather wasn't a factor. Product is a waste of time since I had to peel it off both the wall and the tile (depending on whether it released the tile or from the wall), return the remainder of the matting for a refund, and get thinset to do it right, like I should have done it in the first place.

Product does not work as stated. Tiled a 6’x6’ kitchen backsplash. Followed all instructions as stated. Less than 8 hours after installing tile mesh sheets and while cutting and placing smaller tiles, the sheets started falling off the wall, breaking tiles and chipping glass top stove. Called the company. They did not offer any suggestions or help, just kept stating that it must be grouted within 24 hours of installation. Taking down the tile and the Simple Mat will damage the dry wall.