tile grout and or or adhesive

[Fred]

Hello,

Can anyone tell me what is the difference between grout (or adhesive) for floor tiles and grout (or adhesive) for wall tiles?

I would have thought that grout (or combined grout and adhesive) for walls and floors would be the same thing and could be used horizontally or vertically?

I can see that adhesives may have differences as wall adhesive will have to withstand gravity whereas floor adhesive will not, and floor adhesive on wooden floors has to be flexible which may not apply to wall adhesive.

Why do I need to buy two products to do the same job?

Thanks.

[Stuart Noble]

Grout and adhesive have little in common. I'd avoid the combined products, which encourage you to make as much mess as you like, and then leave you to clean it off the tiles.... I think you can get general purpose powdered adhesives from Ardex etc that will do floors and walls. Generally, wall adhesives are lightweight to minimise sagging.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Grout is generic: You might want it a bit more waterprrof for floors thats all.

Adhesive is not: wall adhesive MAY be wea stiff: Floor adhesive needs to take weight, and if te floor is not a solid lump of granite, some felxure too.

Never use wall cement on a floor, but floor cement on a wall is fine, juts bloody expensive.

To save money.

[Fred]

Thanks for the replies. I was told I could not use wall grout to grout floor tiles and I could not see why. I appreciate that adhesives are a different matter.

I did use the all in one products to begin with but I then tried the separate approach and found the separate adhesive was much faster setting and much stickier so tiles didn't slip or fall off.

I haven't dared to use powders as being a novice I am not sure I would get the consistency right.