We asked manufacturers to share information on some of their latest good, better and best adhesives and mortars. Here is what they had to say.
Adhesives
David Fabyonic, Ardex/Henry: “Each Henry Adhesive is designated as a good, better, or best item. Additionally, all Henry’s Best items, when used in conjunction with Ardex substrate preparation products, qualify for the Ardex Americas SystemOne 10-Year Warranty.
“Henry 176 is recommended for residential felt-back sheet vinyl and light commercial traffic carpet with the most widely used types of carpet backings. Moving up the scale, Henry 256 adds a wider variety of backing types. Henry 356C delivers the most versatile range of capability and is intended for full 10-Year Warranty protection—even in the most demanding commercial environments.
“Henry 420 and Henry 430 are better and best product selections for the installation of VCT flooring. Henry 430 will yield the greater coverage rate, at up to 350 sq. ft. per gallon. Additionally Henry 430 features the ultimate in available working time for the installer—24 hours.”
Dan Marvin, MAPEI: “MAPEI doesn’t necessarily position our products as good/better/best; rather, we try to match the right product for the project. Basic products like Ultraflor Plus mortar or Ultrabond ECO 120 carpet adhesive are great products for situations where there are no surprises in substrate, environment or flooring.
“Ultraflex LHT mortar adds non-sag capabilities for walls. Going with premium products like Ultraflex LFT mortar or Ultrabond ECO 220 carpet adhesive allows for an additional safety factor for high-traffic commercial areas and more exotic flooring choices.”
David Stowell, Schönox HPS North America: “HPS 92 is an acrylic resilient flooring adhesive suitable for bonding vinyl composition, vinyl enhanced and solid vinyl floor tile on porous and non-porous substrates in interior areas.
“Roll and Go Rollable Acrylic Adhesive for Luxury Vinyl Tiles is suitable for bonding LVT on [recommended] substrates in interior areas. Roll and Go adhesives is also available in separate 2.77 and 3.96 gallon containers.
“EMiClassic is a universal pressure-sensitive acrylic adhesive for flexible coverings including all types of vinyl, carpet, linoleum and synthetic rubber as well as impact sound insulation underlayments on absorbent and non-absorbent substrates in interior areas.”
Tom Plaskota, Pat Mukushina and Mike Bobak, H.B. Fuller Construction Products: “The benefits of TEC RollFast include stand-up application, as well as faster drying time. Typically, adhesives take 30-40 minutes to dry; TEC RollFast dries in 10 minutes and can handle traffic immediately.
Sonny Callaham, Royal Adhesives & Sealants: “For broadloom carpet, Parabond has offered the same good, better, best line up for almost 20 years. Our Signature Series 4092 (Bronze) has been our contract-grade adhesive installers have chosen for the best performance at the best price point. Signature Series 4094 (Silver) is our mid-grade adhesive designed for use in higher traffic applications and even some double-glue down applications. Signature Series 4099 (Gold) is Parabond’s workhorse; anyone who has been in the industry for any extended amount of time has used this premium adhesive.
“On the resilient side, Fusion Series 4700 is a wet-set adhesive designed to be used with all types of resilient flooring. Signature Series 5080 is our pressure-sensitive adhesive. Lastly, we offer our Fusion Series 5082, a unique polymeric adhesive that allows the installer to use it as either a wet-set or as a pressure-sensitive.
“In our wood adhesive program our top product, Millennium Series 4014, offers unlimited moisture control and exceptional sound control. Millennium Series EMC 4011 offers a strong adhesive bond and unlimited moisture. The EMC 4011 uses a specially designed trowel included with every pail. This unique trowel design maximizes the spread rate and minimizes any extra work required by a two-part system. For applications that only require an adhesive, Millennium Series 4010 is a urethane adhesive that is easy to spread and retains its trowel ridges to minimize hollow spots.”
Mark Lamanno, Franklin International: “Titebond offers four different adhesive technologies for wood flooring: urethane, advanced solvent, acrylic polymer and advanced polymer. We cannot say that any of these technologies is better than the other. Rather, they offer distinctive performance characteristics.
“The top three selection criteria are ease of application, strength and ease of clean up. For example, our Titebond 231 Acrylic Polymer Wood Flooring Adhesive is easy to trowel on and quickly cleans up with water when wet. It’s strong, but doesn’t offer the bond strength required for, say, bamboo flooring. On the other hand, our 991 PROvantage Advanced Solvent Wood Flooring Adhesive is one of our strongest adhesives and is ideal for solid planks and bamboo flooring.”
David Clarkson, DriTac: “DriTac offers a full line of sound and moisture control wood flooring system adhesives. DriTac 1001 All-In-One was the very first urethane-based 4-in-1 system adhesive introduced to the flooring industry in 2008.
“DriTac 7700 Easy Clean is a sound and moisture control wood flooring adhesive that can also serve to isolate old cutback adhesive residue. This adhesive cleans up easily when wet or dry, leaving no residue or etching.
“DriTac 7800 Supreme Green offers unlimited subfloor moisture control with no testing required and a lifetime warranty in writing. Supreme Green reduces sound transmission, isolates old cutback adhesive residue and provides an easy clean formula that can be removed when wet or dry, leaving no residue or etching. This is the very first 5-in-1 multi-solution wood flooring adhesive available on the market.”
Cate Vanegas, Bona US: “Bona R848 is a very good choice for engineered flooring up to 7" widths and can also be used as a low-cost alternative when installing solid flooring in a nail assisted application.
“Bona R851 is a better choice and is our most widely used adhesive due to having an excellent balance of moisture protection, shear strength and sound-deadening properties along with outstanding coverage rates for solid hardwood flooring.
“Bona R859 is our flagship product providing all the benefits of R851 yet in a thicker formulation that helps reduce voids caused by uneven substrates. Additionally, when utilizing the Moisture Barrier Plus Clip-on Trowel included in each pail of R859, you achieve our highest degree of moisture control.”
Lauren Zinn, QEP/Roberts: “Good: 3000; Better: 3080; Best: 3300 and 7350.”
Mortars
Russ Gaetano, Ardex: “Ardex 3 and Ardex 4 can tackle most everyday installations, moving up to Ardex X 5 which is ideal for large-format tile and Ardex X 7 R Rapid for everyday fast track needs.
“The next level of mortars is anchored by Ardex X 77 Microtec with a 60-minute open time, unmatched sag resistance and a very creamy, smooth consistency. Other complementary Microtec mortars include Ardex X 78 Microtec, Ardex X 32 Microtec, Ardex S 28 Microtec and Ardex X 90 Outdoor Microtec with revolutionary Ardex WeatherProof Technology.”
Steve Taylor, Custom Building Products: “MegaLite Ultimate Crack Prevention Large Format Tile Mortar delivers the very best performance for challenging installations. This is a flexible mortar than can be used over cracks in the concrete, with the long working time and highest bond strength for many demanding surfaces.
“ProLite Premium Large Format Tile Mortar is a ‘better’ quality product that bonds exceptionally well to most surfaces and offers very good sag resistance on walls. VersaBond LFT Professional Large Format Tile Mortar is a good choice for many routine tile installations.”
Art Mintie, Laticrete: “At Laticrete, we try to make things easy for specifiers and installers by naming our products according to performance level. Laticrete 254 Platinum multipurpose thin set mortar is our best high-performance adhesive mortar. 253 Gold multipurpose thin set mortar is our better category adhesive mortar, and 252 Silver multipurpose thin set mortar is our good category adhesive mortar.
“Our Large and Heavy Tile (LHT) offerings as well as our System Warranties are categorized in a similar fashion.”
Tom Plaskota, Pat Mukushina and Mike Bobak, H.B. Fuller Construction Products: “TEC Ultimate 6 Plus is ideal for gauged thin porcelain panel tiles. It combines unique features, an accelerated set and extended open time. It has been developed to dry within six hours.”
Carie Yaka, Merkete: “Merkrete has a complete line of tile and stone setting adhesives. Some key Merkrete tile adhesive choices are 705, 710 and 735 thin sets, and 720, 820 and 855 LHT mortars.”
Alan Kin, Texrite: “Setting mortars for smaller tiles and tile sizes up to 15 inches include Texrite’s Porcelain TS (good), Ceramabond (better) and Ceramaflex (best). Products for large, heavy tile 15 inches and larger are Texrite’s Porcelain MB (good), Ceramabond MB (better) and Totalcontact (best).”
