Soudal Fix All High Tack: Uses, Curing, and Application

If you've ever tried to fix a skirting board, mirror, or piece of cladding without drilling a single hole, you've probably come across Soudal Fix All High Tack. It's one of the most common adhesives contractors reach for on renovation and finishing jobs. It grips instantly, cures permanently, and works on almost any surface you'll find on a South African building site. This guide answers the practical questions property owners and contractors actually ask before they buy a cartridge.

What is Soudal Fix All High Tack used for?

Soudal Fix All High Tack is a hybrid polymer adhesive and sealant built for strong, immediate bonding. Its main job is to stick building materials together without mechanical fixings like screws, nails, or brackets.

Contractors use it to bond skirting boards, mirrors, cladding, and trims without needing mechanical fixings. That speeds up finishing work on renovation sites. It's also used for fixing wall panels, thresholds, coving, window boards, and general interior trim work where a clean, fastener-free finish matters.

Because it's a hybrid polymer rather than a solvent-based glue, it bonds to a wide range of substrates: wood, metal, concrete, plaster, PVC, most plastics, ceramics, and painted surfaces. It's paintable once cured and doesn't shrink significantly, so joints stay neat.

Does Soudal Fix All High Tack work on wet or damp surfaces?

Yes. One of the reasons this adhesive is popular on-site is that it tolerates damp and even wet substrates far better than traditional glues. It will still grab and cure on a slightly damp wall or a surface that isn't bone dry.

That said, "damp-tolerant" doesn't mean it fixes damp problems. If you're bonding skirting to a wall that has ongoing rising damp or a persistent moisture source, the adhesive bond can fail over time as the underlying issue continues to push moisture through the wall. It's worth dealing with rising damp before fixing skirting boards or trims, so you're not gluing a good fix onto a bad wall. Treat the moisture source first, then bond permanently.

How long does Soudal Fix All High Tack take to cure and reach full strength?

Fix All High Tack builds initial grab within minutes of application. That's what lets it hold materials in place without clamps or props. Skin formation typically begins quickly at room temperature, and the adhesive continues curing through the depth of the bead over the following days.

Full strength develops over roughly a week under normal conditions, though this depends on temperature, humidity, and how thick the bead is. Higher humidity actually speeds curing along, since the polymer reacts with moisture in the air. In cooler or drier environments, allow more time before the joint takes load or stress. Avoid disturbing a fresh bond for the first day or two, even though it may feel tacky-solid almost immediately.

Do you need a primer before applying Fix All High Tack on concrete or plaster?

Not always, but it's recommended for the trickiest substrates. On solid, clean, non-porous surfaces like metal, glass, or sealed timber, you generally don't need anything extra beyond wiping away dust and grease.

On porous or dusty substrates such as bare concrete or old plaster, pairing the adhesive with a surface activator like Soudal Primer 100 surface activator improves grab and long-term adhesion. These surfaces shed fine particles that can sit between the adhesive and the substrate, weakening the bond before it even starts. A quick pass of primer locks down that surface dust and gives the polymer something consistent to key into.

If you're working on heavily crumbling plaster or flaking paint, no primer will fully compensate for a poorly prepared surface. Scrape back loose material first, then prime, then bond.

What is the difference between high tack adhesive and traditional construction adhesive?

This is the question that trips up most first-time buyers. Traditional construction adhesives, including older solvent-based or acrylic products, usually need mechanical support (props, tape, or clamping) while they cure, because their initial grab is weak.

High tack adhesives like Soudal Fix All High Tack are formulated specifically for instant grip. The moment you press the material into place, the adhesive resists slippage and sagging, so heavier items like mirrors or cladding panels stay put without extra bracing. Traditional adhesives can still end up stronger in some applications, but they demand more site time and more temporary fixings while curing.

If your project involves sealing a moving joint rather than bonding two fixed surfaces, it's worth comparing it with the Hybriflex 540 hybrid sealant, which is built more for flexible joint sealing than for structural-style bonding. Choosing between an adhesive and a sealant depends on whether the joint needs to move or stay rigid.

Which application gun should I use for Soudal Fix All High Tack cartridges?

Fix All High Tack comes in standard cartridge format, so it needs a caulking gun rather than a foam gun or trigger sprayer. For most jobs, a Soudal Manual Wortpistol caulking gun does the job well. It's built for smooth, controlled dispensing of 600ml cartridges and comes in both plastic and metal versions, so you can pick based on how often you'll use it and how much wear it needs to handle.

If you're running multiple cartridges a day on a bigger renovation or commercial fit-out, a manual gun becomes tiring fast. That's where the pneumatic Cox Airflow 3PNEUM pistol earns its keep. It's built for professional use with 600ml cartridges and gives smoother, more consistent output with less hand fatigue over a long day of fixing trims or cladding.

Pinnacle stocks the manual and pneumatic application guns needed to apply cartridge-based adhesives like Fix All High Tack cleanly on site, so you can match the tool to the scale of the job rather than fighting with the wrong gun.

Can Fix All High Tack replace screws or nails for interior fixing jobs?

For most interior fixing jobs, yes. That's the whole point of a high tack adhesive: it removes the need to drill into finished walls, chase cables out of the way, or fill and patch screw holes afterward. Skirting boards, architraves, mirrors, wall panels, and light cladding are all commonly fixed this way. The bond, once cured, is often stronger and more permanent than a handful of screws through thin trim material.

There are limits. Fix All High Tack is an adhesive, not a structural grout or anchoring compound. If you're dealing with load-bearing connections, heavy anchoring, or filling structural gaps in concrete, that's a different category of product entirely. Something like SikaGrout-212 for structural grouting is the right tool for that job, not an adhesive cartridge. Match the product to the load: decorative and light fixing work suits Fix All High Tack, while structural work needs a structural solution.

It's also not meant for submerged plumbing joints. If you're solvent-welding PVC pipework, our guide to Soudal High Pressure PVC Cement covers the product actually built for that kind of pressure-rated bond.

Getting the right result the first time

Fixing something permanently, rather than patching it for now, is the difference between a job you do once and one you redo every year. Soudal Fix All High Tack is built for that first outcome: strong instant grip, genuine tolerance for damp conditions, and a cured bond that holds for the life of the fixing.

Pinnacle Construction Products is an authorized, certified distributor of genuine Soudal products in South Africa, backed by expert technical support, so you're buying the real formulation with proper backup if you need application advice. Whether you're finishing skirtings on a renovation, mounting cladding, or fixing mirrors and trims, get the adhesive, the right primer for tricky substrates, and a properly matched caulking gun in the same order. Reach out to the technical team if your substrate or project has anything unusual about it.