Despite the excellent characteristics of porcelain tiles, its application on building façades requires special attention, since this material differs from conventional ceramics and because façades are exposed to weathering that can damage ceramic revetments. Literature presents lots of researches about adhesive mortars properties employing ceramic tiles with higher water absorption (more than 3%). In a different way, we find about porcelain stoneware tiles with almost 0% water absorption, that is the most important cause of detachments between the back side of porcelain tiles and the mortar, for the reason that there is no mechanical adherence how occurs for porous ceramic tiles. The present study shows some properties of mortars with polymer and silica fume additions to fix porcelain tile, intending to solve the problems about the lack of adherence. The combination of polymer and silica fume to mortars results in excellent properties, which are ideal for repairs and revestments requiring high performance, thus justifying its study for the fixing of porcelain tiles. Procedures were carried out following the specifications of the NBR 14082 standard. This article presents adherence values for mortars containing different amounts of added polymer and silica, indicating the applicability of these mortars as construction material. Microstructural properties were based on mercury intrusion porosimetry tests and scanning electron microscopy of fractured samples.
porcelain tile; mortar; microstructure; porosity
