Joining Melamine to Melamine

Actually not quite, but we are trying to find a way to adhere ceramic tiles to something like formply.

This is an art installation in our backyard, the other half is of an artistic; I just make what is requested.

The history so far is that we tried 10-12mm (approximately) thick fibro cement sheets that we had lying around. Unfortunately they sort of don't work, things slide down or move a little. We used liquid nails and everything seemed rosy, but it was not to be.

Attached is a picture of two of the sheets hanging, alongside you can see the French cleats made out of steel that do the hanging. The size of each sheet is approximately 600 x 900mm. Tiles are 150x150mm or 152x152mm square.

I'm open to any ideas.

Mick.

Attachment 440320

Sikaflex sealant/adhesive
https://www.bunnings.com.au/sika-600...alant_p1212767

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rwbuild

Sikaflex sealant/adhesive

---

+1
Brilliant stuff!

Nice tiles!

Liquid nails is too brittle. Need an adhesive that allows for movement. Suggest if possible do the adhesion in a horizontal plane. Once set lift it up and hang. If you need to work in a vertical plane you will need some sort of lip at the bottom to stop gravity pulling the tiles down while the adhesive goes off.

Sikaflex FC11 is the most suitable to do the job

The only way I could get anything to stick to the black “plastic” coated formply was to roughen the surface first with an angle grinder.

Used Sikaflex to fit plastic protection trim to car door, also used to install puddle flange in shower base. I'm sure it will work for your for your job.

Regards
Keith

What about regular exterior/roof-and-gutter silicone?

It will let go after a period of time, should only be used in conjunction with mechanical fixing as well ie: rivets or screws

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rwbuild

Sikaflex sealant/adhesive
https://www.bunnings.com.au/sika-600...alant_p1212767

---

Wear gloves it sticks to anything, including human skin very very very well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lappa

The only way I could get anything to stick to the black “plastic” coated formply was to roughen the surface first with an angle grinder.

---

:whs:

the coating on formply is specifically designed to be non-stick. IMO Formply is one of the worst substrates to choose for Barry's application.

What ever you do DONT scour the face of form ply, it will let moister into the ply and goodbye ply, use the Sikaflex to seal the edges. Sikaflex will adhere to form ply, just wipe the area down with metho or acitone (nail polish remover).
Better substrate is 6mm blue board, used specifically for external cladding.
WD40 is excellent for getting Sikaflex off your skin.

Well, a plethora of answers that may give us a working solution.

I think I may try some form ply after wiping with acetone, as suggested by Ray, with a blank tile and see if we can move it after placing it in an electric oven at 50ºC for an hour then placed in the freezer overnight then back to the oven for another hour of summer heat at 50ºC.

After talking to a couple of people long time in the cladding game, it appears that fibro cement sheeting has some dimensional changes attributable to it's water content, which in turn is governed by the prevailing weather, something I was not aware of.

If we could get material like form ply to hold the tiles by assiduously cleaning the plastic coated surface before applying Sikaflex to hold the tiles, we could be off and running.

The tiles are all individually created, by the better half. After copious drying time has been allowed, weeks in cool weather, days in hot weather, they are then stuck to the medium and eventually hung up and/or displayed in various positions and places. This is the first time we have tried an outdoor display with this many tiles. While I wouldn't say it was an unmitigated disaster, it would be if we continued on as we have done.

Attached is one that failed, or you can see what failed. Hence our plan B, which is really somewhere nearer to plan K.

Mick.

Attachment 440348

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rwbuild

What ever you do DONT scour the face of form ply, it will let moister into the ply and goodbye ply, use the Sikaflex to seal the edges. Sikaflex will adhere to form ply, just wipe the area down with metho or acitone (nail polish remover).
Better substrate is 6mm blue board, used specifically for external cladding.
WD40 is excellent for getting Sikaflex off your skin.

---

I have’t used Sikaflex but I can report that using liquid nails, even the urethane (stick to anything) version did not provide a lasting bond to formply, even when cleaned with acetone.

I only lightly scour the surface, I do not go through the coating itself. I can’t see how a light scour would make any difference to longetivity when looking at the existing light paint coat on the edges.

I'm obviously missing something in the translation here. Ceramic tiles should be stuck on fibre cement sheet with an exterior grade thin set adhesive and grouted. Why treat them any differently to any other exterior tiling project? Seal the FC sheet with diluted bondcrete.

formply is faced with a phenolic resin film. Best way to stick anything to that is to use a phenolic epoxy resin, because a glue should always adhere to itself.