Perfect ready-mix adhesive for internal wall tiles

BAL White Star is the ideal ready-mixed adhesive for internal wall tiling, being perfect for a wide range of applications. Its suitability for so many wall backgrounds makes it the “fixers’ friend” among ready-mixed adhesives. Many professional tilers routinely keep a tub or two on hand, knowing that its versatility can remove the need for a trip to their distributor. “Sooner or later,” said one experienced fixer, “you will be using BAL White Star.”

The white organic dispersion adhesive is classified D2TE and offers a strong bond with a variety of ceramic wall tiles and mosaics, including lighter coloured natural stone.It can be used on a wide range of backgrounds including plasterboard, plaster, cement:sand rendering, existing ceramic tiles, tile backboards, worktops and wooden backgrounds, With any of these, grouting can begin just 24 hours after tiling.

BAL White Star is non-slip and highly water-resistant and can be used in all types of dry and wet environment in domestic and commercial buildings, including communal showers and commercial kitchens. A single 10 litre tub can cover up to 6.6 square metres of dry wall.

As with all BAL products, BAL White Star adhesive carries a full 25-year guarantee. It is available in distinctive 2.5 litre, 5 litre and 10 litre tubs from more than 500 authorised distributors nationwide.

Floors smoothed and levelled rapidly

Professional tilers will welcome BAL Ultrabase, the new self-smoothing levelling compound. The fast-setting compound can be used on most substrates to create a level surface which is ready for tiling just four hours after application. Fixers will particularly appreciate that BAL Ultrabase is highly flowable, compared with other smoothing products, which makes it easier to apply and enables a smoother final surface. It also offers generous coverage, giving 0.2 m2 per kg, at 3 mm depth.

BAL Ultrabase can be used for application depths ranging from a feather edge to a full 10 mm depth, or up to 20 mm depth if used with 3 mm granite chippings. It is suitable for any dry internal application, including heavily trafficked areas, and can be used with hard and soft flooring. It will accept foot traffic after just two hours and is ready for non-tile floor coverings just 24 hours after application.

BAL Ultrabase is available now, in 20kg sacks, from BAL extensive network of more than 500 distributors nationwide. As with all BAL products, it is covered by a no-quibble 25-year guarantee.

Alex Underwood, BAL brand manager, said: “Fixers everywhere already know that BAL Quickset Render is the perfect answer when a smooth wall is needed quickly. Now, they know that a smooth, level floor can be created with the same ease and speed, thanks to BAL Ultrabase. Whatever the tiling application, the professional tiler knows that BAL offers the products they can trust

How do you tile onto underfloor heating?

A practical guide to tiling onto all types of systems.

Underfloor heating enjoys continuing popularity, both for new build and refurbishment projects. It has no radiators or heaters on show, is relatively economical to run, requires minimal maintenance and offers even heat distribution. It can be installed beneath virtually any floor type including wood, laminate and, naturally, tiling. Fixing tiles with underfloor heating is not difficult, but care and preparation is needed.

The traditional method of heating a floor is via hot water pipes. These can be laid into a screed, set into flooring-grade chipboard or laid in the cavity between the joists of a suspended floor. A number of more modern solutions are available, including electrical underfloor heating cables, with the most popular being the cable system, laid onto a thermal insulating board. Also available are heating mats, which need a bonding adhesive for the substrate and also for priming the surface of the mat. Whichever underfloor heating method is selected, the first step must always be to check with the manufacturer that the system is suitable for use with the proposed substrate, within the relevant environment and is stable enough to receive a rigid tile finish.

Hot water pipes
Floors with underfloor heating generally operate below 30º C, with the heating elements typically incorporated before tile fixing begins in a suitable reinforced floating screed, normally a traditional sand/cement screed. This should have a minimum thickness of 75 mm. The screed will have to be allowed a drying period of at least three weeks, if containing Portland cement to BS EN 197-2 2000 Cem1. This can be reduced by the use of task-specific products: if BAL Quickset Cement is used, the drying requirement is reduced to one week.

After drying, the screed should be heated gradually. The temperature should be raised, increased by no more than 5º C each day, to a temperature of 25º C and maintained at that level for three days before being allowed to cool naturally to room temperature. The heating system must have been turned off or, in cold weather, turned down to below 15º C. Tiling can then begin. Once tiling is completed, the floor should then be left for at least 14 days before being brought to its operating temperature, raised at a maximum rate of 5º C per day.

Cable systems and heating mats
When undertile heating cables are laid over traditional wooden flooring, the cables are normally bedded directly into a layer of flexible adhesive. When tiling onto a solid floor, it may be appropriate to bed the cables into a suitable smoothing compound, such as BAL Ultrabase. Heating mats are normally constructed of flexible heating elements encapsulated in very thin polyester. Such mats have to be bonded to the substrate with an appropriate contact adhesive. The mat surfaces will then need priming, normally using the same contact adhesive, before tiles are laid using the recommended adhesive.

Movement joints
Whichever type of underfloor heating is installed, movement control joints will be essential. These should be incorporated at all screed perimeters and around upstands or anything which penetrates the screed. Such joints are normally created while the screed is being laid by installing pre-formed expanded polystyrene strips against the wall or upstand. These are typically 10 mm thick and it is essential that the movement control joints penetrate the full depth of the screed.

Movement control joints in floors should then be incorporated (as per British Standard BS 5385: Part 3: 2007: Clauses 6.8 and 7.1.6) at all perimeters and upstands, to coincide with those in the base screed. Intermediate movement control joints should also be incorporated within the tiling, into bays of size not greater than 40 m² with an edge length no greater than 8 m (in accordance with clause 7.1.6.4). Such joints should penetrate through the thickness of the tile adhesive bed and the reinforced base screed.

The most appropriate adhesive will depend upon the circumstances of the project. For concrete substrates, cement:sand screeds or for floors overlaid with plywood of 15 mm or more, there are a number of possible adhesives. The inherent nature of the installation means that the tiling will be subject to regular variations in temperature, so it requires either a flexible adhesive or a cementitious adhesive with an admixture — either BAL Single Part Flexible, or BAL Gold Star with BAL Admix AD1, for example. Where there is a need for fast fixing, a rapid-setting adhesive will be appropriate, not forgetting the need for flexibility; either BAL Rapidset Flexible or BAL Rapidset with BAL Admix AD1 would be suitable. There are a number of highly polymer-modified BAL grouts available.

The choice of both adhesive and grout is restricted where tiling is onto a single layer of timber. In this case, BAL Fastflex is recommended before grouting with BAL Wide Joint Grout with BAL Admix GT1 diluted at 1:1 with water, providing the floor is capable of supporting a rigid tile finish.

After completion of the tiling, allow 14 days for drying — for BAL adhesives — before bringing the floor up initially to its normal operating temperature. Temperature increase should be gradual, rising at 5º C per day.

There are a great many proprietary underfloor heating systems available. Some may recommend alternative drying times, screed thicknesses, or particular adhesives or grouts. Such recommendations should be followed when these systems are installed and, when in doubt, consult the system manufacturer. For any questions concerning the use of adhesives or grouts with underfloor heating, the BAL Technical Advisory Service is always ready to give free, impartial advice during normal working hours: 0845 600 1222.

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