You should never use regular masonry mortar as a direct substitute for thinset when installing floor or wall tiles. Regular mortar lacks the necessary polymer additives, fine sand consistency, and high-strength adhesive properties required to bond modern ceramic, porcelain, or natural stone tiles securely to a subfloor. Because regular mortar shrinks significantly as it cures and lacks flexibility, tiles set in it will almost certainly crack, debond, or pop loose under normal foot traffic and structural settling. Thinset is specifically engineered with water-retention agents and specialized polymers that allow it to form an unbreakable chemical bond in thin layers, making it the only appropriate cementitious adhesive for standard tile installations.
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