Choose The Right Tile Adhesives and Grout

Guideline To Choose The Right Tile Adhesives And Grout

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1 - The Two Leading Commonly Used Tile Adhesives

2- To Which Surface Are You Installing Your Tiles Too?

3 - Tile Adhesive Tips

4 - Tile Grout

5 - Choosing Grout Colours

6 - Are All Grouts Waterproof?

The Two Leading Commonly Used Tile Adhesives

Welcome to this article about how to choose the right tile adhesive and grout for your next wall or floor tiling project.

For starters, a ready-mixed option is more convenient than powdered adhesives. The only drawback of using a ready-mixed paste is that it can never be used for a thick bed or on a large scale, as the drying process is a lot slower. This shows that the middle part of the bottom surface will never get dry. Tiles with a high pours rate might fail to attach to the wall and eventually fall off the surface. To prevent yourself from consequences, try to go only for the ready-mixed adhesives when you only need a thin bed, and small-sized tiles are used. Besides this, the ready-mixed adhesive should only be used while tiling the wall surface rather than your floor.

On the other hand, powdered adhesives can be vital for floor substrates made of timber/fibre cement sheeting and concrete. These adhesives are generally mixed with water and or additives.
This type of adhesive dries more rapidly and does cure throughout, and can support pressure from feet traffic while installed under the tiles. It also provides a strong bond is why this is extensively used in installing ceramic tiles, porcelain tiles, and natural stones on most substrates. It is typically the best option to use powdered adhesives to get high-quality results.

To Which Surface Are You Installing Your Tiles Too?

The type of substrate that you are planning to install tiles on to will strongly affect your choice of adhesives and material correspondingly.

1. FIXING TILES TO RENDERED WALLS

Cement render is a layer of cement and sand mix adhered to brick or concrete. It is generally used on all interior walls in Perth, WA, Australia.
The render should be clean, dry and free from dust or any other contaminants before tiling. You have a vast choice of adhesives you can choose from for rendered walls, but powdered is highly recommended.

2. FIXING TILES TO PLASTERBOARD WALLS

Firstly, you are required to ensure your walls can hold the weight of tiles and adhesives if they can, then glue the tile directly on the plasterboard, always making sure you are using the correct adhesive. You must always apply primer to any of the plaster joints, patches or screw holes.

3. INSTALLATION OF TILES OVER TIMBER FLOORS

If you are willing to install your tiles over timber floorboards, first of all, install fibre cement tile underlay sheets having a thickness of 6mm over your existing floorboards. In this case, powdered or specially formulated highly flexible adhesives will do a perfect job.

4. TILING OVER CONCRETE FLOORS

Make sure your concrete floor is thoroughly dried out before installing your new tiles. New concrete slabs will require at least 45 days to cure. However, you may find some adhesive manufacturers sell products that can be used on new concrete slabs earlier. It's always best to use powdered adhesives rather than pre-mixed for concrete floors due to the building up of tiles (Thick Bed).

5. TILING OVER TILES

When you need to tile over tile to avoid the mess or speed up your tile renovation, this is never a problem as there are many ways to do this.
Firstly you must make sure your tiled areas are stable, clean, and dry.
There are many different types of adhesives and special primers on the tiling market you can choose from. For example, you could use a product called Ardex P4, a primer that can be used over clean tiles to give it a rough texture for tiling, or if preferred, you can grind the existing tiles removing at least 80% of the tiles glaze to provide the adhesive with a key to adhere too.

Tile Adhesive Tips

WALL TILE ADHESIVES

1. If you plan to install bathroom wall tiles, it is necessary to keep specific points in mind. For example, either porcelain or ceramic tiles, up to 10×10 cm and 30×30 cm, these sizes typically require minimum grip adhesives.

2. If you install larger tiles, either ceramic or porcelain, it is always best practice to get the most popular and effective adhesives like a non-slump adhesive in the market. Always look for adhesives, which can save you time and money.

FLOOR TILE ADHESIVES

1. When looking to install tiles on your floor, always consult a professional for your work, either someone from the tile contractor market or the retailer from whom you are buying these tiles from. There are many different kinds of flooring substrates and many different types of flooring adhesives. That's why it's always best to seek modern and specialized advice for your particular tiling project.

2 . Fast setting adhesives will set and dry in their place more rapidly than standard adhesives. It will take around 30 minutes rather than 3 hours. Once you have used these types of adhesives in a commercial situation, you will never go for another option. In most regions of Australia and Perth, WA, powdered adhesives are given more and more preference.

Tile Grout

The most commonly used grouts around Australian regions are:
1. Cement-Based (Grout) Adhesives
2. Epoxy-Based (Grout) Adhesives

Sanded Grout

This grout has more chances of cracking and shrinking due to the aggregate sand being added. These types of grouting materials are only recommended for grouting lines having a width greater than 2mm.

Unsanded Grout

These grout are primarily favourable for grout lines only. The unsanded grout is surely the best choice for any tile with joints smaller than 2mm and is highly recommended for tiles like marble, polished porcelain, mosaics, etc.

Flexible Grout

Flexible tile grout usually is water and frost-resistant. It's flexible and highly durable thanks to additives been added to the mix. It is suitable for interior and exterior grouting and can be used on most tile types and substrates, including plasterboard and floor sheeting.

Anti-Mold Grout

An excellent and favourable choice for kitchens and bathrooms. This type of grout consists of a combination of actives with fungistatic and bacteriostatic effects. They are highly recommended for walls and floors and can even be used for tiles with under tile heating and exterior situations.

Epoxy Grout

Epoxy grouts are more expensive when purchasing, and the installation can generally cost more than regular grouts, as they are much harder and trickier to use. The colours are also limited, and most time, they need to be purchased from tile retailers or contractors. This type of grout is made from epoxy resins and synthetic powder, making this type of grout waterproof, chemical resistant, and stain-proof best used for commercial situations.

Choosing Grout Colours

The following colours can help you purchase suitable grout for your tiling project:

Darker Colour Grouts

This colour generally reduces the appearance of the stain and can be used as a highlight. For example, white metro tiles with greyish grout can make a nice feature.

Matching Grout Colour With Your Tiles

Matching grout with the colour of the tiles can create a temporary seamless look to your kitchens, bathrooms and floor areas. Designing small kitchens and bathrooms with matching colour grout should be another option to bigger the room.

Glitter Grout

Glitter grout can be another option for creating a beautiful feature effect in kitchen splashbacks and bathroom shower areas. This type of grout can be purchased pre-mixed, or for a cheaper option, you can add a glitter additive to the regular plan grout.

Metallic grout

This type of grout has a metallic look and is ideal for kitchen splashbacks and mosaic tiles to give an excellent metal-like effect to your tile grout.

Are All Grouts Waterproof?

Waterproof Grout

Always remember waterproof grouts are waterproof by not permitting the passage of water.

Water Resistance

When choosing grout, just remember that water-resistant doesn't mean it's waterproof, so this type of grout does allow water to pass through at a small degree.

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