Tile Adhesive Types: IS 15477 Type 1 to Type 5, Which Tile and Surface Needs Which, and Bed Thickness

What are the types of tile adhesive as per IS code?

The first edition of IS 15477 came out in 2004. The 2019 revision brought in the five-type split and added slip and deformation tests. Here is what each type is meant for.

Table 1: The five tile adhesive types under IS 15477:2019

The type number is not a quality ladder. Each type is matched to a job. On a bathroom floor, Type 3 buys you nothing over Type 2: it was made for outside walls.

What is the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 tile adhesive?

The tile’s porosity decides it. Porosity here means how much water the body of the tile can take in. IS 15477 puts the line at 3 percent: Type 1 is for tiles above it, Type 2 for tiles at or below it.

A red clay tile or an ordinary glazed ceramic wall tile is porous, and wet cement grips it by soaking in. A vitrified tile takes in almost no water, so plain cement has little to hold on to. The polymer in Type 2 is there to bond to that dense face.

The standard’s own tests show the split clearly. A Type 1 adhesive is tested on ceramic tiles with porosity above 3 percent. Types 2 to 5 are tested on vitrified or porcelain tiles below 3 percent. So a Type 1 bag has never been proven on a vitrified tile.

Size matters too. Type 1 stops at tiles of 300 × 300 mm and at dry rooms inside the house. A bigger tile, any stone, a bathroom floor, a kitchen wash area or a balcony needs Type 2.

The standard allows one middle route. A liquid polymer admixture added to a Type 1 powder can lift it to Type 2, 3 or 4 performance; IS 15477 calls the result a polymer-fortified adhesive. The dose is set by the maker. One Indian data sheet, Ardex Endura’s ADMIX AD 1, gives 1 litre for every 20 kg bag of cement-based adhesive. The mix only counts as the higher type if the maker says so for that pairing.

Which tile adhesive is used for outside walls, plywood or metal?

Outside walls take Type 3, which must reach a higher pull-off strength than Type 2 (Table 3 below). It covers ceramic, clay, basalt, vitrified, glass mosaic and porcelain tiles and all natural stone on plaster or concrete.

IS 15477 also says stone tiles on any inside or outside wall above 3 m (about 10 feet) high must be clamped where the wall behind is not strong enough to carry the stone’s weight. Adhesive alone is not trusted with heavy stone up high.

Type 4 is the board adhesive. Gypsum board, plywood, wood, calcium silicate board, medium density fibre board, fibre cement and cement boards all bend and move more than a plastered brick wall, and Type 4 is the type the standard names for them. It takes every tile and stone of Types 1 to 3, except metal tiles and engineered stone.

Type 5 is a resin, usually epoxy or polyurethane, that hardens by chemical reaction. It is the only type for glass or metal backgrounds (mild steel, stainless steel, aluminium, copper) and for metal tiles, glass tiles and engineered stone. It works on cement surfaces and boards as well.

What do T, S1, S2 and C2TE mean on a tile adhesive bag?

They are extra properties. IS 15477 lets a bag carry two letters after its type number:

• T means slip resistant. On a wall, a tile pressed into the combed adhesive must not slide down more than 0.5 mm under its own weight.
• S1 means deformable, and S2 highly deformable. These measure how far a hardened strip of the adhesive bends before it cracks: more than 2.5 mm and under 5.0 mm for S1, more than 5.0 mm for S2.

So a bag marked Type 4TS1 is a Type 4 adhesive that also passed the slip test and the S1 bending test. Both tests are required for wall work only.

In its clause on Type 4, IS 15477 says that for tiles or stones larger than 600 × 600 mm the adhesive must also meet S1, and for those larger than 1,200 × 1,200 mm it must meet S2.

Many bags sold in India also print a code from the European standard EN 12004. Ardex Endura’s Indian data sheets, read in October 2026, print both and spell the letters out:

Table 2: IS 15477 marking and the EN 12004 code printed on the same bag

The two codes answer different questions. The IS type tells you which tile and which surface the adhesive was tested for. The EN code describes how it performs. When a bag shows only the European code, ask the seller for the IS 15477 type too; that is the one tested to the Indian standard.

How strong must each type of tile adhesive be?

IS 15477 sets two strength tests. Tensile adhesion is the force needed to pull a tile straight off the surface. Shear adhesion is the force needed to slide one tile across another along the adhesive layer. Both are given in N/mm², newtons per square millimetre. One N/mm² is about 10 kg of force on every square centimetre.

Table 3: Minimum adhesion strength by type, N/mm² (IS 15477:2019, Table 1)

Type 1 has no wet test and no heat test at all. That is the plain reason Type 1 is limited to dry rooms inside the house: the standard never tests how it holds once it has been soaked or baked.

For the wet tensile test, tiles cure for 7 days, then sit under water until day 21, and are pulled straight out of the water. The heat test holds shear samples at 70 °C for 14 days after 14 days of normal curing. A Type 2 bag has passed both, which is what a bathroom floor or a sun-baked terrace asks of it.

Pulling a 300 × 300 mm tile straight off at the Type 1 minimum of 0.5 N/mm², with full contact, takes about 45,000 N, roughly the weight of 4,600 kg. That is why the contact rules in the next section matter as much as the type.

How thick should the tile adhesive bed be?

IS 15477 names three bed classes by their average thickness once the tile is set.

The standard says that if the floor or wall is more than an average 12 mm out over a 3 m length (leaving aside a slope made on purpose for drainage), the surface must be corrected first with a proper levelling material. Tile adhesive is not a filler for a bad screed.

Some makers allow a deeper bed on their own products. One Ardex Endura data sheet for a Type 2T adhesive limits it to 6 mm, extendable to 12 mm over small areas; its S1 and S2 products allow up to 15 mm. Go by the sheet of the bag in your hand.

The notched trowel sets the bed. The tests in IS 15477 spread the adhesive with a 6 mm × 6 mm square-notched trowel held at about 45°. Bigger tiles generally go on with a bigger notch, and a large tile is often buttered on its back as well. How many bags that adds up to per room is worked out in the tile quantity calculation guide, which uses a maker’s coverage per bag at each trowel size.

The foreword of IS 15477 asks for at least 85 percent of the tile’s back in contact with adhesive in normal conditions and 95 percent where conditions are demanding. Lift a freshly laid tile now and then and look at its back. If the comb lines have not flattened and joined, the bed is too thin or the adhesive has skinned over.

Dot fixing, a few blobs on the back of each tile, gets a warning of its own. The foreword allows only 50 percent contact for decorative or indoor spot bonding, and only if the adhesive’s shear bond is at least 10 MPa (10 N/mm²). Table 3 above asks 1.0 to 6.0 N/mm² of the five types in dry shear, so 10 is far beyond any type’s minimum. Treat blob fixing as what the standard describes: a decorative or indoor method, with a far stronger adhesive than any type’s minimum.

Is tile adhesive better than cement mortar for tiles?

For vitrified tiles, large tiles and wet areas, yes. For a porous ceramic tile on a rough floor inside a dry room, a cement and sand bed still works if it is done well.

The old method lays tiles on a thick bed of cement and sand mortar, about 20 mm in the tile quantity guide’s worked figures, which also takes up an uneven floor. It holds porous tiles well and grips a vitrified tile poorly, for the porosity reason above.

Tile adhesive works in a bed a few millimetres thick. That changes three things for a builder:

• It needs a level surface. The screed or plaster must already be true, because the adhesive is not meant to fill dips beyond the bed classes in Figure 1.
• It adds far less height. A 6 mm bed in place of a 20 mm mortar bed keeps floor levels and door clearances in check.
• Its quality is set in a factory and tested to a standard. Site mortar depends on the sand and the mason on the day.

Cost depends on the bag price in your area, the bed thickness and the trowel size, so work it per square metre for your own floor. The tile quantity guide linked above shows how; adhesive is also covered as a product family in the guide to types of construction chemicals.

What do open time, adjustment time and slip mean?

Open time is how long the spread adhesive stays sticky enough to take a tile. In the IS 15477 test, small tiles are pressed in at intervals of about 5 minutes and flipped over; the open time is the last reading before the adhesive fails to wet half the tile’s back. Spread more than you can cover in that time and the last tiles go onto a skin that will not bond.

Adjustment time is how long a placed tile can still be moved into line. The test turns a set tile through 90° and back at intervals; the adjustment time is the last reading before the tile will not turn.

Slip applies to walls. The test sets a 100 × 100 mm tile on a vertical slab for 20 minutes and measures how far it drops. It must not drop more than 0.5 mm, and a bag that passes carries the letter T.

The standard sets no minimum for either; each must only match or beat the maker’s stated figure. So the number on the bag is a promise you can hold the maker to. One Indian Type 2T data sheet states an open time of 30 minutes. Every test in IS 15477 is run at 27 ± 2 °C and 65 ± 5 percent humidity, so on a hot, dry terrace in summer, spread smaller areas at a time and check the backs of tiles more often.

Which tile adhesive should you use for each job?

Put the tile, the surface and the place together and the choice is usually clear.

Table 4: Choosing the tile adhesive type by job

A wet room needs more than the right adhesive. Tile adhesive is not a waterproofing layer. The membrane goes on first and must cure before the tiles go on; which coat suits a bathroom, terrace or tank is set out in the guide to waterproofing chemicals.

What should you check on the bag before you buy?

IS 15477 lists what every bag or liquid container must carry. If any of it is missing, ask why.

• The maker’s name, and trade mark if any.
• The batch or lot number, and the month and year it was made.
• The type: Type 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
• S1 or S2 if it is deformable, and T if it is slip resistant.
• The open time and adjustment time.
• How long it keeps and how to store it.
• How to mix it, including how much water or liquid to add.

Bags must be leak-proof and moisture-proof, so leave a torn or damp one. Products that meet the standard may also carry the BIS Standard Mark under licence.

Follow the mixing line on the bag to the letter. The standard’s own lab test mixes the powder in a planetary mixer with the maker’s stated water, lets it stand for the time the maker gives, and then mixes it again for 15 seconds before use. Adding more water than the bag says, to make it spread easier, means the adhesive on the wall is no longer the product that was tested.

Who makes tile adhesive in India is listed in the blog on construction chemical companies in India. The type on the bag tells you more than the brand.

Getting the floor ready for tiles

Wall plaster is estimated in the plaster quantity guide, the slab and screed materials in the guide to calculating building materials, and AAC walls in the guide to AAC block sizes and density. The tax on adhesives and tiles is in GST and HSN codes for building materials, the whole house budget in low-cost house construction, and every other material in the building materials guides.

The slab and screed under the tiles come first. On a house or a small block of flats, a self-loading mixer such as the AJAX ARGO 2000 or the larger AJAX ARGO 4500 loads, mixes and delivers that concrete on site. Pouring the floor slab before the tiles go down? Compare concrete mixer models and prices and connect with a dealer near you.

The requirements on this page are from IS 15477:2019, Adhesives for Use with Ceramic, Mosaic and Stone Tiles, which draws on ISO 13007-1 and ISO 13007-2. The EN 12004 codes, bed limits, open time and admixture dose are from Ardex Endura’s Indian product data sheets, read in October 2026.

Prices, specifications and features are indicative, vary by variant, location and date, and should always be confirmed with the official OEM or authorised dealer before any purchase decision. DesiMachines is not liable for decisions taken on the basis of information that may have changed after publication. Material requirements on this page are as published in IS 15477:2019, read in October 2026; always follow the data sheet of the adhesive you buy.