and is advantageous in helping to achieve solid bed fixing. Some rapid-setting pourable adhesives, including BAL Pourable One, can be trafficked and grouted only three hours after fixing. This creates significant time savings for the fixer and contractor – helping to ensure that jobs are completed in time and on budget.
Unlike thin bed floor adhesives, pourable thick bed tile adhesives can be built up to 25mm, meaning they can be used with large format tiles, particularly uncalibrated natural stone where the thickness can vary and a variable solid bed depth is required.
Pourable thick bed adhesives will cure and not shrink even when applied at a bed thickness greater than typically recommended i.e. up to 25 mm.
HIT THE GROUND
Here, BAL presents the benefits that pourable tile adhesives and uncoupling mats can provide to fixers and contractors.
For large format floor tiling, particularly over large areas such as commercial projects, the use of a pourable tile adhesive should be considered.
Pourable tile adhesives, such as BAL Pourable One, are specifically formulated so they have a smooth consistency and lower viscosity for ease of mixing and pouring onto floors.
And despite what you may think, BAL Pourable One actually uses less water in the mix (4ltrs for 20kg) compared with typical rapid-setting tile adhesives. For example, BAL Rapid- Flex One requires 5ltrs of water for a 20kg bag. This is down to the use of polymers and other additives to create the required viscosity when the product is mixed.
As well as being easy to pour, pourable thick bed tile adhesives are easy to spread with a 12mm notched floor trowel – and what’s more, because of its consistency, tiles without a deep back profile do not need to be back buttered
As many pourable adhesives (such as BAL Pourable One) are flexible, they can also be used over underfloor or under- tile heating systems, specifically when encased within an appropriate levelling compound such as BAL Level Max.
As well as being used as a traditional tile adhesive, pourable adhesives can also be used for localised patch repair. This means they can be applied into crevices and indentations in cement;sand screeds and once the surface is hardening it can be simply finished with a wood float and allowed to dry. The repair can then be tiled after three hours.
PROBLEMATIC FLOORS When going over tongue and groove floorboard or other problematic substrates with lots of movement or vibration use a suitable uncoupling system e.g. BAL Rapid-Mat together with BAL Pourable One when tiling with large format or natural stones.
An uncoupling mat protects against lateral movement. Any movement, whether shrinkage or expansion, can cause stress cracks that can transfer through to the tiled surface, causing the tile to either fracture, or de-bond from the background. Uncoupling matting helps to prevent these lateral stresses from transferring through to the tiling layer by absorbing and transferring them evenly over the floor. BAL Rapid-Mat also has the ability, for example to bridge static cracks, shrinkage cracks up to 2mm wide and joints between sheet and board backgrounds.
While the uncoupling membrane was originally devised for the installation of ceramic tiles, uncoupling systems are now recommended for use when tiling natural stone. Importantly, uncoupling mats are now recognised by most floor trade associations related to the tiling industry as a major benefit. Both the TTA and the Stone Federation of Great Britain recognise the value of using these products and reference to their use are also given in BS 5385 part 3, 4 and 5.
BAL Rapid-Mat is thin and lightweight and uses 20% less adhesive than traditional cavity mat systems. Easy to cut and lay, it provides minimal build and is the fail-safe option for flooring on difficult background.
At BAL our Technical Advisory Service is fully equipped to provide support to contractors, architects and tilers using levelling and smoothing compounds – including NBS M40/ M10/M20 specification assistance, on-site consultancy and expert technical advice.
www.bal-adhesives.com 26 | ADHESIVES & SEALANTS
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