TECH TALK –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– H.B. Fuller Construction Products introduces TEC® Ultimate 6 Plus Polymer Modified Mortar specifi- cally designed for installing gauged porcelain tile panels/slabs and large heavy tiles (LHT). TEC has devel- oped Ultimate 6 Plus Mortar to meet the particu- lar challenges of installing excep- tionally large thin tile panels and LHT on floors or walls. The new mortar offers extreme versatility. TEC Ultimate 6 Plus Mortar has a unique set of features that allows grouting in six hours – even when installed over the most impervi- ous substrates such as uncoupling membranes. Easy-to-use Ultimate 6 Plus Mortar has an extended pot life of two to three hours and open time of 50-60 minutes, allowing installers much-needed time to get full coverage and make adjust- ments. While this TEC mortar is formulated for gauged porcelain tile panels/slabs and LHT, it also works well on traditional tile for both floor and wall applications. TEC Ultimate 6 Plus Mortar exceeds ANSI A118.4TE and A118.11. www.tecspecialty.com. The hands-on component of the competition included a demand- ingly broad scope of skills tests, all of which had to be done with- in a strictly enforced time limit. Mudding walls – arguably one of the most difficult and increasingly lesser-known processes related to installing tile – was reintroduced into the competition program this year, noted Gavin Collier, an apprentice coordinator and con- test judge. (He also played helper for the day, loading apprentices’ mortar stands with wall mud and cleaning buckets and tools.) Including wall mud in the curricu- lum helps keep the ability to pro- duce mortar bed walls from becom- ing a lost art. An ever-expanding array of backer boards and thinsets has gradually replaced much of the mortar bed work performed by tile setters, especially on walls due to fewer reasons mortar bed walls might be needed. Instead, An apprentice in the final stages of the mor- tar bed wall portion of the hands-on test 80 TileLetter | November 2018