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Adhesive not bonding to floor tiles

Posted by Andy Hatcher, on
12 months ago I laid 800x800 porcelain tiles onto ditra matting (over poly pipe u/f heating). Over the last few months they have almost all started popping. After a battle removing the grout the tile would then lift with no force required, ie the adhesive bond to the tiles had failed. The backs of the tiles are clean with no adhesive on them at all. I used flexible adhesive suitable for porcelain tiles. The adhesive has bonded like concrete to the ditra matting. Don't know what I did wrong.
Philip Ashdown

Philip Ashdown

Hi Andy Usually on the back of floor tiles you would have a raised ridge normally in the form of small squares, you need to apply a what is call a scratch coat of adhesisive using the flat edge of your trowel ensuring that you push your adhesive into & fill all the small squares before fixing onto you're notched application of adhesive applied to the floor. Also, when tiling onto undertile heating, at least 14 days should be allowed before turning on your undertile heating, so to allow the adhesive to completely cure Phil PA Tiling

martin wilburn

I would guess that the adhesive was mixed too dry and went off before it had bonded to the tiles or the base below wasn't primed with correct product and the concrete absorbed all the moisture out of the adhesive before it had bonded to the tile

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