I would like to put tile on the ceiling above my shower surround. There will be some moisture to deal with (steam, etc.) and I was wondering what type of adhesive works the best and is there a special way to set tile on ceilings so they don't fall off? Thanks.

 

Modified thinset, the kind you mix with water or unmodified mixed with the thinset makers latex additive, no mastic. In this case, as opposed to just tiling around a surround, would not be adhering the tile to a painted surface. Also ceiling tiling is best done on joist spacing of 12" oc as that's alot of weight on the screwheads fastening the ceiling above. I'd suggest repacing that part of the ceiling with cement board and it may require installing blocking to give extra fastener support as well as furring out the joists to accomodate the thickness of 1/2 backers to 5/8 ceiling materials. Blocking would be required to support the edge where the two surfaces meet unles you can get another joist ther without a problem. Drop cloths, an old baseball hat and your grungiest clothes for this project as you wont fight gravity while ggrouting but you can backbutter the tiles with thinset as you set them. Thinset has a surprising amount of grab and will warn you with sort of a sucking/slurping sound if a tile is about to fall. What kind of tiles are we talking, small 4x4 or 6x6 wall tile or a real thick 12x12 crossville porcelain?

 

I was thinking of using 4x4 tiles for this job. The ceiling is above a shower enclosure that is approx. 30 x 30 so it's not a large area. The ceiling over the enclosure is lower than the main ceiling and I will check to see what the joist spacing is. Replacing the ceiling with cement board would be doable and is good advice. I've used the modified thinset before and it worked very well, I was just concerned about using it on a ceiling but it sounds like that's no problem. Thank you!