Superiority of Ready Mix Adhesive Over Cement to Fix Tiles

• @kw
• 15 Feb 2021

Tile adhesive has many advantages over the mixture of sand and cement as the adhesive layer is a lot thinner than the mixture of sand –cement. A bag of 20 kg tile adhesive can cover around 5 square meter area depending upon the skill of a mason and surface smoothness where tiles are fixed. However, using the mixture of sand and cement which is still very much in use to fix the floor and wall tiles has a lot of problems. The sand which comes from the river base does not have uniform consistency and uniformity is difficult to maintain in the layer causing air gaps underneath the tiles.

The adhesive strength is several times more than a sand-cement mixture. Tile adhesive holds the surface tightly where is fixed and as there is no air gaps formed the risk of breaking due to any strike on the surface is extremely low. It can effectively paste large ceramic tiles.

Adhesive mortar has several applications for affixing decorative material for interior and exterior walls, floors, bathrooms, and kitchen. They are crack resistant, high temperature withstanding capacity, freeze-thaw resistance. It is an ideal boding material because of its non-toxicity and environmental friendliness.

Sand- cement composes of ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and sand. The sand is procured from the river and it is hard to get uniform grain size. It is quite inconvenient to work with OPC. Mixing of sand with cement is also a cumbersome process as the sand occupies more space it has to be kept in a location away from the place where tiles are being fixed. To work with OPC the tiles need to be soaked in water for at least 24 hours before fixing them.

It is also a time-consuming process as OPC mixture has to applied in the back of each tile at a time. OPC has less bonding strength compared to Tile Adhesive. Since there can be air gaps beneath the tile after laying them, the chances of water seepage cannot be avoided and in long run, it can show stains on the tile surface. Sometimes the uncertain proportion of sand cement mixture causes poor bonding strength. The places where there are high pressure and impact, cracks can appear on the tile surface.

The Superiority of Tile Adhesive over OPC:

Tile Adhesive is a premix with a special formula using required bonding material and fine sand for ready to use by mixing with water. Tiles are not required to be soaked in water before use saving lot of time. Adhesive required thin layer to fix the tile and it allows tiles to be easily adjusted within a certain time. Fresh tiles can be placed on existing tiles without having to remove them. Since the tile adhesive layer is much thinner than traditional sand cement mixture, the weighted loan on building structure is less and also economical as less material is required as said before a tile adhesive bag of 20 kg can cover a space of around 5 to 7 square meter. However, the area coverage depends upon the surface smoothness, working tools and skill of the tiller.