It is well known that tile adhesive is generally made from cement and mixed with various additives. tile adhesive is mixed with water at the construction site and then applied to the wall or floor. The tile adhesive  generally has a certain initial strength about 12 hours after construction. The strength increases with time and is generally largely stable after 28 days.

Tile adhesive application guide

– Adjusting the open time of tile adhesive: HPMC will form a film on the surface of the tile adhesive, reducing the evaporation of water. Helps tile adhesive to increase the open time.
– Increase tensile strength: good water retention ensures that sufficient moisture is maintained for the hydration of the cement.
– Good workability: choosing the right HPMC will make the mortar easy to scrape on the wall and improve efficiency.
– Increased slip resistance: it increases the bond strength of the wet mortar and increases slip resistance.

So what the effect of winter construction temperature on tile adhesives?

This process of change in tile adhesives is a very complex physico-chemical reaction process. Changes in the temperature of the external environment directly affect the speed of the reaction process. A reasonable temperature for the use of tile adhesives is between 5°C and 35°C, beyond this temperature range. Due to the high temperature, the water in the mortar evaporates rapidly. The normal hydration and hardening of the cement in the mortar cannot be ensured. And the quality of the mortar is not guaranteed. When the temperature is below 5°C. The hydration process of the cement becomes very slow.
tile adhesives
The hydration process of the cement essentially stops below 0°C. And the strength development of the mortar may be seriously affected by freezing. Tile adhesives should therefore be applied correctly within the range of 5 °C to 35 °C. Tile adhesives is important to ensure that the curing temperature before the adhesive reaches its initial strength is also within the range of 5 °C to 35 °C. When using tile adhesives in the autumn and winter months. Special attention must therefore be paid to the minimum temperature changes in the weather forecast.

In the range of 5 °C to 35 °C, temperature variations mainly affect the rate of setting and hardening of the cement. But temperature variations have little effect on the final strength. Generally speaking, below 15 °C we can feel a decrease in the setting and hardening speed of the tile adhesive.

Therefore, it is normal to find that the tiles we use do not set and harden as quickly as before during this period. It will not have a serious effect on the final strength. But it is important to ensure that the glue does not reach its initial strength until 5°C, above which temperature it sets and hardens. Also, at around 8°C, this lag time for setting and hardening can be around 2 days, the lower the temperature, the longer the lag time.

When laying tiles, for example, the tile adhesive will take longer to set because of the slow evaporation of water from the tile adhesive on the back of the tiles. Other fast hardening tile adhesive products have a higher heat release due to their own fast curing speed. Therefore the effect of 15°C is less.