Tec Skill Set Fast Setting Mortar Tec Skill Set Mortar Review

Exercise y'all know the difference between thinset or mortar and grout? Both are critical, but they each play different roles in a tile installation.

What is Grout?

As we explained in Why You lot Need Grout When Yous Install Tile and Stone, grout is used as a filler for the joints betwixt tiles once the tile you are installing has been fix. Well-nigh grouts are a powdered mix of cement, lime, color pigment and sometimes sand that hardens when mixed with h2o and left to cure.

Grout gives your floor or wall a crisp finished advent. It helps keep clay and debris from getting in between and under your tile and it adds rigidity and strength to the tile installation.

>> Also see Oft Asked Questions About Grout

Two TEC Specialty Product Grouts

In this blog article, you'll learn more nearly two dissimilar grouts from TEC Specialty Products available from Tile Outlets of America: Power Grout and Blueprint FX Grout. Let'southward explore each one.

1. TEC Power Grout #550:

TEC Ability Grout offers many benefits to a tile installation. Information technology provides superior operation in moisture and dry areas including both residential and commercial applications.

It'southward stain proof, and never needs sealing. Information technology's also mold and mildew resistant, and crack and shrink resistant.

This product is a fast-setting grout, and can be walked on in 4 hours. We strongly recommend that you lot mix Power Grout in small batches, smaller than you might with typical grout.This is due to the fast setting nature of the product.

You lot'll observe that information technology has accurate color uniformity, and zero efflorescence.

You lot can use TEC Power Grout for both interior and exterior installations, and on grout joints from ane/sixteen" to ½" wide.

two. TEC Design FX Grout # 546:

The next grout product is TEC Blueprint FX Grout.

It's piece of cake and ready to use, and platonic for adding sparkle, shine, and a little "bling" to your grout.

You lot'll find that it's perfect for grouting the following types of tile:

Ceramic
Porcelain
Glass
Metal
Near types of natural stone

Blueprint FX is stain proof also as mold and mildew resistant. It is colour consistent with no efflorescence. You tin employ information technology for both interior and exterior utilize projects.

Delight note that we recommend the post-obit materials for grouting: grout gloves, a urethane grout float, a clean grout sponge, and a white fine nylon scrub pad.

These items will provide y'all with the ability to utilize and remove excess grout from the surface area(s) with minimal endeavour.

What is Thinset or Mortar?

Thinset, on the other mitt, is used to install tile over cement, cement/cobweb board and anti-fracture/h2o proofing membranes. It is what makes it possible for tile or stone to stick or bond to the capitalist lath.

Thinset or mortar (or thinset mortar, thinset cement, dryset mortar, or drybond mortar) is an adhesive made of cement, fine sand, and a water retaining agent such equally an alkyl derivative of cellulose.

Many sparse-sets accept latex and polymer additives in them designed to increase bonding forcefulness.

As tile sizes get larger and longer, acceptable mortar coverage becomes increasingly disquisitional.

Which Thinset Applies to Which Blazon Awarding?

Don't assume that whatsoever thinset will do for your tile installation projection. Based on the characteristics of your individual project, you'll find that there is a specific thinset to use for that application.

The blazon of thinset needed for your project depend on a number of things.

What type of material are you installing (ceramic, porcelain, natural rock, glass, metal, pavers, etc.)?
What kind of substrate it is going over (existing tile, terrazzo, cement, forest, cement capitalist lath, etc)?

We definitely recommend that you speak to a Tile Outlets of America sales representative and explain the project details, including any materials beingness used and we will help y'all select the correct product.

Three TEC Mortars to Consider

Here are three TEC Specialty Products mortars that you'll find available at Tile Outlets of America.

1. Ultimate vi Plus Mortar # 487:

Ultimate 6 Plus is a polymer-modified high performance mortar with exceptional non slag and slump characteristics. It's ideal for installing LHT (large heavy tile) including:

Gauged porcelain
Ceramic
Glass
Stone materials

This product has been tested and approved for installing tile on uncoupling membranes. Information technology reduces the need to back-butter tile and it features an extended open time when mixed while providing the power to be grouted in 6 hours.

2. Permaflex 300 LHT #044/045:

Permaflex 300 LHT is a quality thinset mortar that is essential for installing large heavy floor tile. Bedding thickness can range from three/32" to ¾".

It is ideal for installing the following types of tile:

Ceramic
Porcelain
Quarry
Cement tile
Pavers
Een light colored glass tile

Information technology works for both interior and exterior employ.

3. Sturdilight 354/355:

Sturdilight has been specially formulated to provide 50 lbs. of coverage in a 25 lb. bag. Information technology tin can exist applied over plywood, cementitious capitalist boards, and other substrates.

You'll find that it's platonic for installing glass, metallic, ceramic, stone, and porcelain tile(s).

This product has been formulated for easy troweling and superior handling.

An exception to thinset and grout being singled-out:

For the nigh part, thinset or mortar have nothing to do with grout -- except for one product.

TEC Agglutinative and Grout #691 is formulated to prepare to an 8"x8" size tile on both walls and floors. It is mold and mildew resistant, and ideal for small jobs or repairs. The grout joints tin can be from 1/16" to ane/eight" in width.

Note that this product is only available in white.

When grouting it is recommended to use a grout float. This tool will provide a polish surface to properly spread the grout into the grout joints, and not scratch the tile.

Don't forget to select the correct trowel size!

Make sure to select the correct trowel size for your project regardless of the type of tile installation you are undertaking.

You'll want to use a smaller trowel for small tile and a larger i for large tile. Use a trowel that will help yous achieve a continuous minimum 3/32" coverage.

Larger tiles nearly oft require deeper notched trowels.

>> Come across 9 Top Questions Most Trowels

How should you lot mix thinset?

In many ways, you'll want to mix thinset the same way you mix grout: pay close attending to the manufacturer'southward instructions.

Always double check the manufacturer's instructions on the tile you purchase for verbal product requirements and installation guidelines.

You lot need to employ the appropriate thinset mixing paddle.

Thin-set should be mixed to the consistency of peanut butter. While specific instructions vary by manufacturer the basics are the same.

Dry thinset and water should be mixed in a bucket in stages.
A whole bag should never be mixed at one fourth dimension.
Add about one-half of your water to the bucket, then add some thinset and mix.
Keeping calculation thinset until you reach the right consistency.
Let the material slake and then remix and y'all are ready to go.

Due to its cement ingredients, thinset should be made upwardly in small batches equally needed. It also should never exist washed down a bleed, as it will harden in your pipes.

How should you lot use thinset or mortar?

When spreading thinset, don't spread any more on the floor or wall than you can work in a few minutes. Thinset dries very quickly once it'due south troweled out.

Proper mortar coverage is critical to preventing failures. Co-ordinate to the ANSI and the TCNA Handbook, tile requires a minimum of 80% mortar coverage in interior applications, and 95% for exteriors and wet environments. Natural stone tile requires 95% coverage in all areas.

Mortar coverage becomes particularly of import equally tile sizes get larger and longer (think wood plank tile). This applies to any tile with any side 15 inches or longer. What seems to work for small tiles no longer works.

>> Encounter An Introduction to Tile Warpage and the Office of Mortar

Every bit a epitomize, be sure to:

one. Prep your installation surface so information technology is flat.

2. Make sure that you go proper mortar coverage on the tile. Offset by keying the thinset in to the substrate using the flat side of the trowel. (Keying or burning in allows the tile mortar to bail better with the substrate past increasing your bond to the pores or texture of the substrate. Hold the apartment side of your trowel at 45 degrees to the substrate and pull towards your body changing management with each pull leaving a thin layer backside.)

3. Don't swirl the mortar!

4. "Play it Straight!" Comb the mortar in straight lines

5. Backbutter the tile

6. Move the tile in one direction to plummet the mortar ridges

7. Trowel size matters

8. Don't ever spot bail tile!

>> See How To Install Tile Correctly and Go Proper Mortar Coverage

What questions about thinset or mortar do you have?

Let u.s.a. know if we've missed a question y'all have about thinset or mortar and we'll add together it to this commodity.

Or, simply visit us in-shop and ask united states.

Please exist sure to visit your local Tile Outlets of America location. We are located in Ft. Myers, Tampa, and Sarasota, and offer many resources on the TileOutlets.com website.

Thanks for reading!

Notation: We originally published this article on July 6, 2017, and take updated information technology.

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Source: https://www.tileoutlets.com/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-thinset-or-mortar/