It can be confusing at times to differentiate between two adhesives and select the one that suits your application best. Although each and every tile adhesive available on the market is different and no two products yield exactly the same results even if it appears so at a glance, but standards allow for products to be grouped into wide categories and allow for customers to be assured at least some basic requirements.*

(*When purchased from a reputed brand)

The major standards applicable to tile adhesives are:

• ANSI A118
• EN 12004
• IS 15477
• ISO 13007

Here we cover IS 15477 in brief.

As per IS 15477:2019 Tile Adhesives are classified into the following categories:

• Type 1: Tile adhesives suitable for fixing small format ceramic and clay tiles over variety of cement based substrates. These adhesives are usually not suitable for wet areas such as pools and bathrooms.
• Type 2: Tile adhesive suitable for fixing all formats of low porosity tiles such as fully vitrified tiles and glass mosaics. These adhesives are usually suitable for wet areas such as pools and bathrooms, but limited to exterior floor applications.
• Type 3: These tiles are suitable for most tile and stone fixing purposes including wet-areas and exterior walls.
• Type 4: These adhesives are intended for fixing tiles and stones over challenging substrates such as plywood, gypsm boards, calcium silicate boards, etc.
• Type 5: These adhesives are suitable for fixing glass, engineered stone and even metal over any kind of substrate. These adhesives are almost always resin based.

Further, special characteristics of the adhesive must be highlighted in a manner such as: ‘Type 1T’. These special characteristics are defined as follows:

• Slip Resistance (T): For adhesives that offer non-sag properties for tile fixing over walls
• Deformability (S1): For flexible adhesives that deform more than 2.50mm but less 5.00mm without breaking. This is necessary when installing tiles or stones larger than 600mm x 600mm to prevent debonding or cracking of the tile due to environmentally induced compressions and extensions of the substrate
• Deformability (S2): For flexible adhesives that deform more than 5.00mm without breaking. This is necessary when installing tiles or stones larger than 1200mm x 1200mm to prevent debonding or cracking of the tile due to environmentally induced compressions and extensions of the substrate

FixCera tests its adhesives rigorously to ensure that all products comply or exceed relevant standards and customers actually get a product that will deliver lifelong.