Grab Adhesive: How to Choose Between Gripfill, No More Nails, and CT1 (and Why Pin and Bond Beats Adhesive Alone)
The complete UK guide to grab adhesive: solvent vs water-based vs MS polymer chemistry, application technique, current prices from £2.32 to £14, and why instant grab is a myth.
The skirting in your new extension was glued on with No More Nails. The carpenter swore the bond would hold. Three weeks later, you lean against a board to put your shoes on and the whole length pops off the wall. The back of the skirting still has the adhesive bead on it. The wall still has the new-build contract paint on it. What failed was the paint, not the glue. The adhesive bonded perfectly to a layer of paint that delaminated from the plasterboard the moment any load went on it. Grab adhesive only works as well as the surface you stick it to, and most homeowners (and a fair number of carpenters) don't understand that until they're refitting timber that should have stayed in place.
What it is and what it's for
Grab adhesive is a high-tack construction adhesive sold in 280-400ml cartridges, applied with a sealant gun, used to bond timber trim to walls. The classic UK applications are skirting board, architrave, dado rails, picture rails, decorative panels, and the occasional bonded wall fixing where a screw isn't appropriate. The product was invented as a faster alternative to mechanical fixings, hence the marketing name "No More Nails" used so widely it's become generic for the whole product category.
The two giants of the UK market are Evo-Stik Gripfill (the original solvent-based formula, in pretty much every joiner's van for thirty years) and UniBond No More Nails (the water-based household name on the supermarket shelf). The professional shift in the last decade has been towards a third chemistry: MS polymer hybrid adhesives like Soudal Fix All, Everbuild Stixall, and CT1, which solve most of the limitations of the older two. Same job, different molecule, very different prices.
It is not a structural fixing. The adhesive holds the back of a board against a wall, and it does that job well, but it can't substitute for a screw or a nail when the load goes the wrong way. Skirting fixed with adhesive alone will eventually creep under thermal cycling, accidental knocks, and the small daily forces of a house being lived in. Combine adhesive with mechanical fixings (the trade calls this "pin and bond") and the result lasts decades. Adhesive alone on a long run of skirting is a gamble that experienced fitters don't take.
Grab adhesive is also the wrong product for a couple of jobs that look like they should suit it. Mitre joints between two pieces of trim are bonded with mitre bond, a different chemistry that cures in seconds. Wet-area junctions (bath edges, sink rims, splashback gaps) need silicone sealant, which is flexible and waterproof. The decorative caulking line along the top of finished skirting is filled with decorator's caulk. Each of these has its own product because the requirements differ. Grab adhesive is the workhorse for one job: bonding the back of a flat piece of trim to a wall.
The three chemistries (and which one you need)
Almost every grab adhesive on a UK shelf falls into one of three chemistry families. The differences matter more than the brand on the tube. Get the chemistry wrong for the job and you'll spend an afternoon refitting boards that should have stayed put.
Solvent-based (Gripfill, Pinkgrip)
This is the original formulation: a synthetic rubber resin dissolved in hydrocarbon solvent. The cartridge smells strongly when you open it. Apply it to a porous timber back, press it against a porous plastered wall, and the solvent evaporates out through both surfaces. As the solvent leaves, the rubber resin sets to a tough flexible bond. Cure time is fast (firm in 5 minutes, full strength in 24 hours) and initial grab is the highest of any grab adhesive on the market.
The catch is that the solvent has to go somewhere. At least one of the two substrates must be porous enough to let it escape. Bond two non-porous surfaces (painted wall to varnished timber, gloss to gloss, anything to PVC) and the solvent is trapped. The bond stays soft for weeks and may never fully cure. This is why community forums describe Gripfill failing on new-build walls finished with cheap contract paint: the paint is non-porous enough to seal the wall, the timber back is sealed too, and the adhesive has nowhere to release its solvent.
The other quirk is the skin. Solvent-based products skin over fast in warm weather (sometimes within a minute on a hot day). Press skirting onto a skinned bead and the bond will be poor. The trade fix, which appears in forum threads but never on the product packaging, is to rub the skirting back and forth slightly as you position it. The movement breaks the skin and brings fresh adhesive into contact with both surfaces. Without that rub, you've effectively applied glue to a thin film of cured rubber.
Gripfill at £3 – £4 is the cheapest mainstream branded option and still the right product for skirting fixed to a porous plastered wall on a porous MDF or softwood back. For new builds with sealed contract paint, or any non-porous substrate, it's the wrong product.
The Gripfill skin technique nobody mentions on the tin: as you press the skirting against the wall, slide it 10-15mm side to side once. That rub breaks the skin that has formed in the seconds since you laid the bead down and lets fresh adhesive contact the wall. Skipping this step is the most common reason a Gripfill bond feels weak two minutes later.
Water-based acrylic (No More Nails, Pinkgrip Solvent Free, No Nonsense Solvent Free)
Water-based products replace the hydrocarbon solvent with water as the carrier. The acrylic resin sets as the water evaporates out of the bead. Cure is slower (touch dry in 1-2 hours, full strength in 24-48 hours), the smell is mild, and VOC content is very low (No More Nails reports 19 g/l, effectively negligible).
The trade-off is initial grab. Water-based adhesives don't skin in seconds the way solvent products do, and they don't reach high holding strength as fast. The first 10-30 minutes feel weak. A piece of skirting bonded to a wall with No More Nails will sag if it isn't supported until the bead has gripped. Mechanical pinning is essentially mandatory unless you can prop the work in place for an hour or more.
Water-based products share the porous-substrate requirement of solvent products, for the same reason: water has to evaporate somewhere. UniBond explicitly states No More Nails Original is for absorbent surfaces only. If you need to bond plastic, glass, glazed tile, or any sealed surface, this isn't the chemistry.
What water-based adhesives buy you is forgiveness. The longer working window means you can reposition a board for several minutes before the bond sets. They paint over cleanly with water-based emulsion in a few hours, where solvent products need 24 hours and won't accept oil-based paint until fully cured. For a homeowner doing a careful job at their own pace on a dusty plastered wall, water-based is the friendlier chemistry. UniBond No More Nails Original 280ml at £4 – £5 is the household-name standard. The Screwfix own-brand No Nonsense at £2 – £3 does the same job for under half the price and is widely used by the trade for budget jobs.
MS polymer hybrid (Soudal Fix All, Everbuild Stixall, CT1, Bostik Sticks Like)
MS polymer (also called silyl modified polymer or SMP) is the modern professional default. The chemistry is a hybrid that takes the best of polyurethane (high strength, flexibility) and silicone (weather resistance, no isocyanates, no solvents). It cures by reaction with atmospheric moisture rather than by evaporation, which means it works on non-porous surfaces because nothing has to escape from the bead.
The performance gains are real. Bond strength on Soudal Fix All High Tack is rated at 320 kg per 10 cm² of bonded area. The product bonds porous to non-porous, dry to damp, painted to bare, plastic to metal, anything to anything in practice. Skin time is around 5 minutes (long enough to position carefully) and full cure is 3mm in 24 hours. CT1 is the premium UK brand, certified to BS EN 15651-1 EXT-INT-CC for interior and exterior cold-climate use, with an initial grab 50% higher than Stixall and a cure rate three times faster.
The downside is price. £7 – £8 for Fix All High Tack 290ml is two to three times what you'd pay for No More Nails. CT1 at £14 – £15 ex VAT is around four times the price of mainstream water-based products. For a single room of skirting, that's a real cost difference. For a whole-extension job with twenty cartridges, the gap between an MS polymer kit-out and a water-based one runs into the low three figures.
What you get for the money: it works on every substrate, paints over cleanly, doesn't smell, doesn't fail on new-build contract paint, and bonds reliably even when you've slightly over-applied or the wall is slightly damp. For a homeowner who only wants to do this job once, an MS polymer cartridge is the closest thing to foolproof.
Cure times and the instant-grab myth
Every cartridge says "instant grab" or "high tack" on the side. None of them mean the product is at full strength immediately, and the misunderstanding causes a lot of failed bonds.
What "instant grab" actually means is the initial tackiness that holds a piece of trim against a wall without falling off. That's a few minutes of work, not a structural bond. The real bond develops over hours as the chemistry cures. Until full cure, the joint is vulnerable to load, paint, and movement. Apply emulsion over a Gripfill bond at 6 hours and the paint will craze. Lean a heavy box against a No More Nails skirting at 12 hours and the board will slip.
| Product | Initial grab | Touch dry | Safe for water-based paint | Safe for oil-based paint | Full cure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gripfill (solvent) | Seconds, skins fast | 30-60 min | 12 hours | 24 hours minimum | 24 hours at 20°C |
| No More Nails (water-based) | 10-30 min | 1-2 hours | 4-6 hours | 24 hours | 24-48 hours |
| Fix All / Stixall (MS polymer) | 5 min skin | 1-2 hours | 4-6 hours | 12 hours | 24 hours per 3mm |
| CT1 (MS polymer premium) | Higher than Stixall | 25 min skin | 4-6 hours | 12 hours | 8 hours per 3mm |
Cure time also depends on the substrate combination. Bonding two porous surfaces (timber to plaster) is the fastest. Bonding two non-porous surfaces with MS polymer is the slowest, because moisture has to find its way into the bead from the very edges of the joint. A 290ml bead trapped between two sealed surfaces can take a week to fully cure in the centre. For most skirting jobs this doesn't matter (the grip at the edges is enough) but for any deep bond, allow extra time before applying load.
Painting too soon over uncured grab adhesive causes paint to crack, craze, or peel. The community failure mode appears in dozens of forum threads: skirting bonded on Saturday, painted Sunday morning, paint cracking by Sunday evening. The fix is to wait the cure time properly, not to use a different paint. With water-based adhesives, 12 hours minimum before painting. With solvent-based, 24 hours minimum. With MS polymer, 4-6 hours for water-based topcoat, 12 hours for oil-based.
Pin and bond: why adhesive alone usually fails
The single most consistent piece of advice across UK trade forums is: don't trust adhesive alone on skirting. Combine it with mechanical fixings. The combined approach has a name in the trade: pin and bond.
The reasoning is not theoretical. Adhesive bonds are strongest under shear (sliding force across the bond plane) and weakest under peel (force lifting one surface away from the other). A piece of skirting glued to a wall sees mostly shear loads while the house sits still, but every accidental knock, every door slam, every box dragged along the wall puts a peel load on the bond. Add the slow effect of timber expansion and contraction across the seasons and the peel load becomes constant.
Modern straight, true plasterboard walls are forgiving. A clean adhesive bond on a clean substrate will hold a long run of skirting for years on a perfectly flat wall. The problem is that not every wall is perfectly flat, and not every adhesive bond is on a clean substrate. Old plaster has dust. New plaster is too absorbent until sealed. Contract paint in new-builds delaminates. Skirting bows away from a slightly uneven wall, putting peel load on every contact point. Adhesive alone in any of these situations is a slow-motion failure.
The pin-and-bond approach uses adhesive for what it does well (load distribution along the whole length of the board) and mechanical fixings for what they do well (resistance to peel, holding the board in place while adhesive cures, mechanical insurance against future movement). For skirting on plasterboard-on-stud, that's lost-head nails at 600mm centres into the studs (one for each stud as you travel along the wall). For skirting on solid masonry or dot-and-dab, it's screws and plugs at similar centres. The fixings hold the board in position; the adhesive carries the long-term load.
The trade knows this and does it as a default. A homeowner who hasn't been told sometimes sticks skirting to the wall with adhesive only and is surprised when boards lift in the first year. They've followed the marketing rather than the practice.
The exception that confirms the rule: long-run skirting installed with foaming polyurethane adhesive (Soudal Genius Gun, Dow Instastik) is sometimes fitted without mechanical pins because the foam fills wall gaps and bonds with much greater surface area than a 6mm bead. This is a specialist approach used by carpenters fitting 100m+ of skirting in one day on a new build, and even those installers usually add a pin or two for insurance.
Application: the sequence that doesn't go wrong
Get the chemistry right and the rest of the job is straightforward. Get the chemistry right and skip the prep, and you'll spend the afternoon refitting timber.
Substrate preparation
This is the step that fails more bonds than any other, and it's the step most homeowners skim. A bond is only as strong as the surface it sticks to. New plaster needs sealing. Old painted walls need checking. Dusty walls need cleaning. The product on the tube will tell you what it bonds to; it won't tell you that the wall behind your skirting is cheap contract paint that delaminates if you breathe on it.
For new plaster (under three months old), seal the wall with a coat of diluted PVA at 1:4 with water, or a 60:40 watered-down matt emulsion as the trade alternative when PVA hasn't penetrated dusty surfaces. Either approach binds the loose fibres on the plaster face and gives the adhesive a stable substrate. Don't apply neat PVA: it forms a glossy film that the adhesive can't grip.
For new-build walls finished with builder's contract paint, test the paint before you bond anything. Press a strip of masking tape against the wall, peel it off sharply. If paint comes away on the tape, the contract paint is delaminating. The fix is to scrape or sand the paint back to plaster in the strip where the skirting will sit, then seal the bare plaster with diluted PVA. The cost of doing this is half an hour. The cost of refitting skirting that has popped off is half a day.
For old painted walls, check that any gloss is sound (not flaking, not peeling). Lightly sand glossy areas where the bond will sit; grab adhesive doesn't grip mirror-finish gloss reliably. Wipe down with a clean dry cloth to remove dust.
The cut backs of the skirting itself need to be dust-free too. Wipe each board with a dry cloth before laying down the bead. Sawdust on the back of the board acts as a release agent and weakens every joint.
The cartridge gun
A standard 12:1 thrust ratio sealant gun (the type sold for silicone) is not strong enough to extrude grab adhesive smoothly, especially solvent-based or MS polymer products in cold weather. The handle stiffens, the bead comes out lumpy, and you'll fight every cartridge. The right gun for grab adhesive is rated 24:1 or higher.
A decent 24:1 skeleton gun is in the entry tier and lasts years. Step up to a 26:1 cradle gun (a closed barrel rather than an open frame) for roughly twice that and you get more durability and better bead control. Cordless sealant guns are an order of magnitude more again, overkill for one extension but a real workflow upgrade if you fit trim every week.
Cut the nozzle at 45 degrees with a sharp utility knife. The angle of the cut determines bead width: more angle gives a wider bead. A first cut around 6mm from the tip gives roughly a 5mm bead. Cut the internal foil seal inside the cartridge thread with a screwdriver or the cartridge piercer built into most guns; if you don't pierce the seal, you'll squeeze the gun handle to no effect.
Applying the bead
The standard application is a continuous zigzag bead on the back of the board, snake-fashion, covering the full length. A straight single bead leaves the top and bottom edges unsupported. Dots leave the board flexing between them. The zigzag pattern distributes load along the whole length and gives the adhesive enough surface area to hold.
Bead diameter should be 5-6mm on a flat true wall, 6-8mm on uneven walls where the adhesive needs to bridge gaps. More is not better. A bead too thick squeezes out when you press the board against the wall, makes a mess, and (counterintuitively) reduces the bond strength because the squeeze-out replaces the air gap that MS polymer needs for moisture to enter.
A 350ml cartridge of Gripfill at 6mm bead covers about 12 metres of skirting back. A 280ml cartridge of No More Nails covers about 11 metres at 5mm bead. For a typical room of 18m perimeter, plan on two cartridges with one in reserve. For an extension with 60m of skirting plus architrave, plan on six to eight cartridges depending on bead size.
Pressing and positioning
Lay the bead. Lift the board into position and press it firmly against the wall. Apply hand pressure for 20-60 seconds along the full length, working from one end to the other. With Gripfill, slide the board side-to-side 10-15mm as you press to break the skin. With water-based or MS polymer, just press steadily without sliding.
Position the board exactly where it goes the first time. With water-based and MS polymer products you have a few minutes of repositioning window. With solvent-based, you have seconds. Get it right or expect to peel the board off and reset it (which usually means scraping the bead and laying a fresh one, because the original has skinned and won't re-bond).
Don't move the board for the first 10 minutes after pressing. Forum sources are unanimous on this: moving a board within the first 10 minutes creates a shear plane between the adhesive and the wall finish that permanently weakens the bond, even after the adhesive cures. The board may look fine but will fail under any subsequent load.
Drive the lost-head nails or screws into position once the board is pressed. The fixings hold the board flat against the wall while the adhesive cures over the next 24 hours. Punch nails 2-3mm below the timber surface with a nail punch, ready for filler and paint at the decoration stage.
Wipe any squeeze-out off the visible face immediately. For solvent-based products, use a cloth dampened with white spirit. For water-based and MS polymer, a damp cloth or clean tissue is fine. Soudal sells branded Swipex Wipes for cleaning uncured MS polymer and they work, but a damp rag does nearly as well.
Coverage and quantity planning
Quantity planning is where a lot of homeowners over-buy or under-buy. The ratio is reasonably consistent across products: roughly 11-13 metres of skirting backing per 280-350ml cartridge at a 5-6mm bead.
| Cartridge | Volume | Coverage at 5mm bead | Coverage at 6mm bead |
|---|---|---|---|
| No More Nails | 280ml | 11m | 7-8m |
| Fix All High Tack / Stixall | 290ml | 11m | 8m |
| No Nonsense | 310ml | 12m | 8-9m |
| Gripfill / Pinkgrip | 350ml | 14m | 10m |
For a typical 30m² kitchen extension with around 25m of skirting and 30m of architrave (three internal doors plus the new opening), planning numbers look like this: 55m total perimeter at 5mm bead needs about five 280ml cartridges or four 350ml cartridges. Add one spare for waste and adjustments. Order six to eight cartridges to be safe. The cost difference between water-based at £4 – £5 and MS polymer at £7 – £8 for that quantity is the cost of a takeaway across the whole job, against an extension build cost of tens of thousands. Cheap insurance against bond failure.
VOC regulations: what doesn't apply
A common misconception in DIY guides is that grab adhesives are subject to UK VOC limits, the same rules that govern paints and varnishes. They aren't. The Volatile Organic Compounds in Paints, Varnishes and Vehicle Refinishing Products Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/1715) explicitly cover paints, varnishes, and vehicle refinishing only. Construction adhesives sit outside the scope of these regulations, both in UK law and in the underlying EU Decopaint Directive.
What this means in practice: solvent-based grab adhesives like Gripfill are perfectly legal to sell and use, even though their VOC content is far higher than would be permitted in a paint product. The pressure on manufacturers to move to MS polymer comes from market preference (homeowners and trades increasingly prefer the lower-odour, lower-toxicity option) rather than from regulation. If you're working in a small, poorly-ventilated room, the smell of a solvent-based product can be unpleasant for hours. Ventilation matters more than the VOC label.
The standard that does apply to many MS polymer products is BS EN 15651-1, the British standard for non-structural sealants. Products certified to EN 15651-1 INT are tested for interior joint use; EXT-INT-CC adds exterior cold-climate certification. CT1 and Sumogrip meet EXT-INT-CC. Stixall meets INT only. For a homeowner fixing skirting indoors, the certification is academic. For a builder bonding cladding outdoors, it matters.
Brand and price comparison
The market has a lot of brand noise but only a handful of genuinely different products. The Skill Builder grab adhesive showdown tested 17 cartridges and the meaningful differences mostly came down to chemistry and freshness, not which name was on the tube. What follows is the practical buying advice for UK homeowners in 2026.
For a tight-budget skirting job on porous plastered walls in older properties: Evo-Stik Gripfill at £3 – £4 or Pinkgrip at £4 – £4 are the trade defaults. Both work well, both bond strongly, both skin fast and need the rub-to-set technique. If you're willing to compromise on brand for cheapest price, Screwfix's No Nonsense Solvent Free at £2 – £3 is the bargain pick and adequate for light interior trim.
For a forgiving DIY-friendly job where you'd rather have a longer working window: UniBond No More Nails at £4 – £5 is the household-name standard. Slow grab, low odour, paints over cleanly. Not for non-porous substrates.
For a job where you want one product to handle anything (porous, non-porous, painted, dusty, slightly damp), or where the wall finish is unknown or uncertain: £7 – £8 for Soudal Fix All High Tack or £7 – £8 for Everbuild Stixall. MS polymer chemistry, high grab, bonds anything reliably. The professional default in 2026.
For demanding bonds, exterior work, or substrates that have already failed with another product: £14 – £15 for CT1. Premium price, premium performance. The cure is faster, the grab is higher, and the certification covers exterior use. Worth the cost for problem joints or anywhere a failed bond would be expensive to redo.
The whole-market range sits at £2 – £15. Adhesive is a tiny fraction of an extension build cost and a large fraction of the visible quality outcome. Don't economise here.
Cleaning, storage, and shelf life
Uncured grab adhesive cleans up differently depending on chemistry. Solvent-based products (Gripfill, Pinkgrip): white spirit on a cloth. Water-based acrylic (No More Nails, No Nonsense): water and a damp cloth, while still wet. MS polymer (Fix All, Stixall, CT1): a dry tissue while uncured, then white spirit if the bead has started to skin. Once any of these have fully cured, mechanical removal (scraping with a sharp blade) is the only option, and it usually damages the substrate.
Storage matters more than most homeowners realise. Solvent-based cartridges harden in the tube if stored with a partial seal: the solvent evaporates through the nozzle and leaves a hardened plug. Wrap the nozzle tip in cling film, secure with a cable tie, and the cartridge will keep for several months. MS polymer cartridges absorb moisture from the air through the nozzle and form an internal skin. They keep best with a screw cap fitted (Soudal sells inexpensive nozzle caps) or with a self-tapping screw driven into the nozzle to seal it.
Shelf life from manufacture is typically 12-18 months for sealed cartridges stored at 5-25°C. Once opened, expect 2-4 weeks of reliable use even with good resealing. After that the cartridge may extrude unevenly, the chemistry may have aged, and bond strength can be unpredictable. For a single extension job, buy what you'll use within the month. Don't bulk-buy and store a year's supply.
Where you'll need this
- Decoration - bonding skirting and architrave to walls during the trim-fixing stage that comes immediately before painting
- Snagging Checklist - inspecting bonded skirting and architrave for boards lifting from walls after the first heating season
These materials appear during the second-fix stage of any extension, renovation, or new-build project where timber trim is fitted to walls. The same techniques apply across all stages, regardless of project type.
Common mistakes
Bonding to unsealed new plaster. New plaster is dusty and absorbent. The dust acts as a release layer and the absorbency pulls moisture out of water-based adhesives before they cure. Skirting bonded to bare new plaster lifts within weeks. Seal first with diluted PVA at 1:4 or 60:40 watered-down emulsion.
Bonding to delaminating contract paint. New-build walls finished with cheap contract paint look fine until you put any load on them. The paint comes off on a strip of masking tape pressed and peeled. Test before bonding. If the paint fails, scrape or sand back to plaster in the strip the skirting will cover.
Using solvent-based on non-porous substrates. Gripfill and Pinkgrip need at least one porous side for the solvent to evaporate. Two non-porous surfaces (gloss painted wall to varnished trim, anything to PVC) trap the solvent. The bond stays soft for weeks and may never fully cure. Use MS polymer on non-porous bonds.
Skipping the rub on solvent-based products. Solvent-based adhesives skin in seconds, especially in warm weather. Press a board onto a skinned bead and you've effectively glued it to a thin film of dried rubber. As you press, slide the board 10-15mm side to side once to break the skin and bring fresh adhesive into contact.
Adhesive without mechanical fixings. Modern flat plasterboard walls might forgive adhesive-only work for a year or two, but the real-world failure rate is high enough that every experienced fitter pins as well as bonds. Lost-head nails at 600mm centres on plasterboard, screws and plugs at the same centres on masonry. The fixings hold the board in position while the adhesive cures and provide insurance against later movement.
Painting before full cure. Forum threads document this failure mode every week. Skirting bonded on Saturday, painted Sunday morning, paint cracking by the evening. Allow 12 hours minimum for water-based paint over MS polymer, 24 hours minimum for any paint over solvent-based. The cure time on the cartridge is not optional.
Over-applying the bead. A 6mm zigzag is right. A 12mm bead is wrong. Excess adhesive squeezes out, makes a mess, weakens the bond on MS polymer products (which need air contact for moisture cure), and increases the chance of staining the visible face. More is not better.
Using a 12:1 sealant gun. A standard sealant gun rated for silicone is not strong enough to extrude grab adhesive cleanly, particularly in cold weather or with MS polymer. The bead comes out uneven, the handle stiffens, and you fight every cartridge. A 24:1 or higher thrust ratio gun is the right tool. A modest budget buys a basic skeleton gun that handles grab adhesive properly.
Buying a year's supply. Once opened, even well-resealed cartridges age within weeks. Aged cartridges extrude unevenly and may not cure properly. Buy what you'll use in the month and start fresh on the next job.