Tiling of Low Water Absorption Homogenous Tile onto Rendered Wall

Porcelain and Homogenous tile have less then 0.5% of water absorption which need higher bonding strength of two in one component tile adhesive or tile adhesive mix with latex admixture application.

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Common issues and queries you can face

render wall, wall preparation

Render preparation

  • Render are only let to cure for just 2-3 days only.
  • Tiling onto substrate that is not fully cured is tiling onto unstable substrate with potential movement

traditional mortar mixing method, porcelain tile

Traditional Tile Fixing System

  • Use of neat cement or pure OPC cement only when fixing ceramic tile.
  • The traditional specification allows the use of cement sand mix.
  • The local application practices is to use just neat OPC cement
  • Using OPC Cement will expose the installation with high Shrinkage factor.
  • Use of neat cement or pure OPC cement only when fixing low water absorption tile.
  • Using neat OPC Cement will result in a very low mechanical bonding effect onto the low water absorption tile surface.

Tile Microscopic

  • The porcelain tile has less microscopic pores for better water absorption.
  • Less microscopic pores will not allow for a good penetration of the cement fibre to give a good mechanical bonding effect.

Cement Hydration Process

  • Cement sand mixture will only expose the tile to a bonding process that is called a hydration process.
  • The hydration process is the chemical process when cement is mixed with water.
  • The Chemical reaction will result in the development of cementitious fiber that will interlocked between each other and penetrate into the surface tile's body or substrate giving a bonding effect that call mechanical bond.

water absorption, porcelain tile, ceramic tile, homogeneous tile

Different water absorption tile

  • To determine the water absorption level of the tile, dropped some water onto the tile back.
  • High water absorption tile absorb the water & leaves a water mark at the tile back.
  • The water will run off onto the tile back when dropped.
  • The water will not be absorp into the tile body & you will not see any water mark on the tile surface.

tile thermal movement, debonding

Tile thermal movement

  • For homogeneous / low water absorption tile, they have a higher thermal movement within the tile than other type of tile.
  • Tile adhesive that is deformable is the most suitable type of tile adhesive.