What is a thick-bed installation, mortar bed installation, or thick-set installation?
Thick-bed installations are based on the traditional method of packing a mortar bed over a surface before installing the tile. The tile is adhered to the mortar bed either while the mortar bed is green (just beginning to dry) or after the mortar bed has cured. The mortar bed may be reinforced with wire and either set over a cleavage membrane (that allows the mortar bed to “float” free of the substrate) or bonded to the substrate – hence the use of the terms “floating mortar bed” or “bonded mortar bed”. For wall applications, metal lath is mechanically anchored to the substrate and the mortar locks into the metal lath as it cures. The terms thick-bed installation, mortar bed installation, and thick-set installation are synonymous. What are the advantages of a mortar bed? In the case of the floating mortar bed, the tile layer is unaffected by minor cracking and movement in the substrate. This can be very important in applications over concrete where cracking in the concrete could result
