Adhesive guide
Why the right adhesive matters
The floor is only as good as the adhesive under it. Why high-temperature LVT adhesive matters, what UZIN KE 49 HT and Amtico HT Extra actually do, and how to pick the right one.
A floor is only as good as the adhesive under it
You can specify a 0.7mm wear layer, a 25-year warranty and the best-looking plank in the range, and none of it matters if the bond underneath gives up. Glue-down LVT has no click joint and no locking system holding it together. The adhesive is the floor's structure. It carries every point load, every castor wheel, every drag of a fridge, and it absorbs every millimetre of movement the tile tries to make when the room heats up.
When a glue-down floor fails, it almost never fails because of the tile. It fails because the adhesive was wrong for the conditions, or it was applied in conditions it was never rated for.
That is why we stock one very good LVT adhesive rather than five cheap ones.
What "HT" actually means
HT stands for high temperature. It does not mean the adhesive is applied hot. It means the bond is formulated to hold its strength when the floor surface gets hot, and to resist the sideways force a vinyl tile generates when it expands.
Vinyl expands when it warms and contracts when it cools. That is normal and unavoidable. A standard dispersion adhesive softens as it warms, and a softened adhesive has very little shear strength. The tile pushes, the adhesive lets it, and you get the classic failure sequence:
- 1Tiles creep away from their set-out lines.
- 2Joints open at one end of the room and peak at the other.
- 3Edges and corners lift, usually in the sunniest strip of floor first.
- 4Once air gets under an edge, dirt follows and the tile will not go back down.
Floors get far hotter than people expect. The heat sources that cause almost every warranty claim we see are:
Underfloor heating
Continuous warmth, not extreme, but relentless and cycling every day of the winter.
Conservatories and garden rooms
Glass on three sides, no shade, big daily swings.
Plate glass, bifolds and rooflights
A south-facing patch of dark plank behind glass reaches temperatures the rest of the room never sees. This is why failures often show up as a stripe across a room rather than a whole floor.
Commercial glazing and atriums
The same problem, at scale, with public liability attached.
A high-temperature adhesive holds its shear strength through all of that. That is the whole point of it.
The two LVT adhesives we sell
Both are professional-grade, both come in 6kg and 14kg tubs, and both are high-temperature products. The choice between them is mostly about what floor you are laying.
UZIN KE 49 HT High Temperature Adhesive
The all-rounder, and the one to reach for on most jobs.
| Sizes | 6kg (£79.99), 14kg (£149.99) |
|---|---|
| Consumption | 200 to 300 g/m² |
| Coverage, 6kg tub | about 18 to 21 m² |
| Coverage, 14kg tub | about 42 to 49 m² |
| Open time | 10 to 60 minutes |
| Working time | 15 to 120 minutes |
| Foot traffic | 24 to 48 hours |
| Final strength | 3 days |
| Minimum temperature | 15°C at floor level |
| Colour | blue |
| Shelf life | 12 months |
What makes it useful is that it is a hybrid. It can be worked as a pressure-sensitive adhesive, where you let it flash off and lay into a tacky film, or as a high-temperature adhesive laid into the wet bed for maximum grab. One tub, two techniques, chosen to suit the tile and the conditions on the day.
It is rated for:
- Absorbent, levelled substrates with sound cohesive strength
- Dense and non-absorbent substrates using the double drop method
- Warm water underfloor heating
- Castor chair use to DIN EN 12529, from 1mm of levelling compound
- Wet shampooing and spray extraction cleaning, RAL 991 A2 certified
- Homogeneous and heterogeneous vinyl, sheet and tile, including LVT
Amtico International HT Extra Adhesive
The one to use when you are laying Amtico.
| Sizes | 6kg (£79.99), 14kg (£149.99) |
|---|---|
| Technology | fibre-reinforced dispersion |
| Key properties | high shear strength, dimensional stability, short open time |
| Indentation | formulated to minimise residual indentation under heavy or static loads |
| Emissions | solvent-free, EC1 Plus certified |
| Designed for | conservatories, underfloor heating, rooms with plate glass |
The fibre reinforcement is what gives it the shear resistance to hold Amtico tiles still in rooms with big temperature swings. The short open time is deliberate: it gets you to a firm bond quickly, which is what you want on a large tile with a lot of surface area pushing against you.
If you are fitting Amtico, use Amtico's own adhesive. It removes any argument about compatibility if the floor ever needs looking at under warranty, and it is what their own fitting guidance calls for in the difficult rooms.
Why one quality adhesive covers nearly every job
This is the part that gets overlooked. A cheap adhesive is cheap because it is narrow. It works on one substrate, at one temperature, with one cleaning regime. Step outside that and it fails.
A properly formulated high-temperature adhesive is broad. Look at what a single tub of KE 49 HT covers:
| Condition on site | Covered? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Absorbent screed or latex smoothing compoundStandard single application | Yes | Standard single application |
| Dense, non-absorbent or sealed substrateDouble drop method | Yes | Double drop method |
| Plywood or timber overlayStandard application | Yes | Standard application |
| Warm water underfloor heatingRated for it | Yes | Rated for it |
| Conservatory or heavily glazed roomThis is what HT is for | Yes | This is what HT is for |
| Office chairs and castorsDIN EN 12529 from 1mm levelling compound | Yes | DIN EN 12529 from 1mm levelling compound |
| Wet cleaning, scrubber driers, spray extractionRAL 991 A2 certified | Yes | RAL 991 A2 certified |
| Residential, commercial and light industrial trafficRated across all three | Yes | Rated across all three |
| Fast set for a room that has to reopenPressure-sensitive technique | Yes | Pressure-sensitive technique |
| Maximum grab on a heavy tileWet-bed technique | Yes | Wet-bed technique |
One product, ten site conditions. That is why our recommendation is simple, why you are not standing in front of a wall of tubs trying to work out which one you need, and why a van carrying one adhesive can take almost any job that comes up.
It also means no part-used tubs of the wrong glue going off in the back of the van, and no phone call at 4pm asking whether the stuff you have will do a conservatory.
Why this really, really matters
Run the numbers on a normal job.
£2,100
60m² of glue-down LVT at £35/m² in material alone.
£150 to £300
One or two 14kg tubs of adhesive to lay it. 5 to 8 per cent of the job.
£3,500+
The whole job, fitted. That's what you lose if the bond gives up.
Now price the failure. A floor that lifts has to be taken up, the subfloor has to be scraped back and re-prepared, the tiles are scrap because they will not release cleanly, and the whole thing gets laid again. That is 100 per cent of the material cost, 200 per cent of the labour cost, and a room out of use for a week. On a commercial job add the trading days lost, and on a domestic job add a customer who tells everyone.
Saving £60 on adhesive to risk a £3,500 floor is not a saving. It is the worst trade in the industry.
There is a second reason, and for trade buyers it is the bigger one. Adhesive failure is the fitter's problem, not the manufacturer's. A tile that delaminates is a warranty claim. A tile that has crept and peaked because the wrong adhesive was used in a conservatory is a workmanship claim, and it lands on the person who laid it. The right adhesive is the cheapest professional indemnity you will ever buy.
Getting it right on site
The best adhesive in the world will not rescue bad conditions. The short version:
Subfloor flat, clean, dry and sound. Check moisture with the right meter for the substrate. Prime and smooth where needed.
15°C minimum at floor level, not on the wall thermostat. Cold slabs are the most common cause of a bond that never properly develops.
Acclimatise the tiles in the room before laying, flat and unopened.
Use the specified trowel notch. Too fine and you starve the bond, too coarse and you get ridging telegraphing through the tile.
Respect open time and working time. They change with temperature and humidity, so watch the adhesive, not the clock.
Roll the floor to get full transfer, then roll it again.
Turn underfloor heating off 48 hours before laying and bring it back up gradually afterwards, following the heating manufacturer's ramp.
Keep the floor dry while the adhesive cures. No wet cleaning for at least 48 hours, and give it the full cure before heavy traffic.
Which adhesive do I need?
| Job | Product |
|---|---|
| Glue-down LVT, any brand, most rooms | UZIN KE 49 HT |
| Glue-down LVT in a conservatory, over UFH, or behind big glazing | UZIN KE 49 HT |
| Any Amtico glue-down floor | Amtico International HT Extra |
| Click SPC | None needed. It floats, with underlay already attached. |
Not sure how much you need? A 6kg tub covers about 18 to 21 m² and a 14kg tub about 42 to 49 m². Rule of thumb: 3 to 3.5 m² per kg, less on porous or absorbent subfloors. Use the adhesive calculator to get the exact tubs for your room.