UltraTile Adhesives

There are multiple ways to remove floor tile adhesive following the removal of tiles from your floor. Smaller amounts of tile adhesive can be chipped away using a hammer and chisel, though this may not be possible for larger installations. Larger areas of hardened tile adhesive may have to be broken up with an SDS drill before then using a hammer and chisel to remove remaining glue. An electric hammer and chisel can be used to minimise work time and effort.

Once your tile adhesive is mixed to an acceptable consistency, it’s ready to apply. Spread your adhesive out on the floor using a notched trowel, and use the edge of the trowel to create lines of raised ‘ribs’ of adhesive on the floor. We also recommend applying a thin layer of adhesive to the back of your floor tile to help create a stronger bond. Apply a small amount of pressure on your tile and wiggle it around to minimise the amount of air behind the tile. Once level, you can apply another tile, using spacers to separate them.

Mixing your floor tile adhesive depends on the type of floor tile adhesive used. Most powdered adhesives can be mixed with water by hand, using a bucket, adhesive mix, a mixing paddle and a trowel. We always recommend wearing appropriate protective eyewear. To mix, begin with your required amount of water in a bucket and gradually add your adhesive whilst stirring. Mix until you have a smooth peanut butter-like consistency with no powder or lumps – the mix is ready to apply.

When removing tile adhesive from a wood floor or subfloor, there are plenty of methods you can use. For smaller or thinner areas of tile adhesive, your tile adhesive can be removed using hand tools. We recommend using a floor scraper or a specialist grout removal tool when removing floor or ceramic tile adhesive from plywood flooring. For larger adhesive removals, a more powerful tool like an electric chisel or angle grinder can be used.

We recommend that floor tile adhesive should be a minimum thickness of 3mm. This thickness is based on an average sized tile of 300mm x 300mm. The required thickness will change depending on whether using mosaic tiles but typically a floor tile adhesive should be a minimum of 3mm depth.

Whilst tile adhesive can be used sporadically to help level a floor, we always recommend using a dedicated floor levelling compound beforehand. Levelling a floor with tile adhesive alone can quickly get messy, and is less likely to be successful than a dedicated floor leveller like UltraTile’s ProLevel range. If you have already levelled your floor and have discovered an area that is not level with the rest of the floor, however, there is no reason why tile adhesive cannot be used as a spot leveller.

We recommend only using wall tile adhesive on floors if the adhesive is clearly labelled as multi-use, such as UltraTile ProSS Flex. Wall tile adhesive and floor tile adhesive have different characteristics which make them suitable for their respective applications. Wall tile adhesives do not have any load bearing capacity making them unsuitable for floor applications. For best results, always use the proper adhesive for your project.

The amount of floor tile adhesive you will need for your project will depend on your substrate, the location, and the thickness of your adhesive. One 20kg bag of UltraTile ProSS Flex wall and floor tile adhesive will cover approx. 4sqm of tiles with a thickness of 3mm. Our product pages also have calculators to estimate the amount of product needed.