The fixing and sealing of your stone is as important as choosing the stone itself. The advice given by Travertine .ie is supplied in good faith and is to be used as a guide and general overview of the fixing and sealing of stone. Advice should also be taken from the professional who is fixing your stone.
Travertine .ie can only advise on the fixing and sealing of products that we offer, for example ARDEX X7r rapid setting flexible adhesive. We know this is compatible with our stones and can provide technical data sheets on such products. Where alternative products are being used their compatibility should be checked with the manufacturers/suppliers before use.
· Cement based tile adhesives are most appropriate for stone installations using the solid bed method.
· Fast setting adhesives are advisable in order that the moisture disperses quickly from the stone or terracotta, to prevent various reactions that could be caused by the moisture retention of the tile.
· Light stones require fixing with white adhesives to prevent possible discoloration should the alkaline mortar bleed into or react with the minerals within the stone body itself.
· Flexible adhesives are recommended when the substrate is wood, existing glazed tiles (floor application only) and under floor and/or under tile heating is present.
· For Uncalibrated tiles, ARDEX S20 / (white) thick bed flexible adhesive should be used.
· Cement based grouts are most appropriate for stone jointing. Stones with a textured surface tend to have grout joints of 6-10mm, whereas smooth honed and polished stone joints can be 3-5mm.
· \'Slurry\' grouting with the appropriate colored ARDEX Wall & Floor Grout is necessary with unfilled travertine and some limestone in order to fill naturally occurring pits and crevices.
· All stones and terracotta tiles should be treated prior to grouting as some tiles may absorb pigments from the cement grout.
· All natural stones and terracotta&rsquos are porous and require varying degrees of impregnation, i.e. a base coat application, to quell the porosity of the tile. Further surface sealing is then required to protect, maintain and provide a finish to the tiled wall or floor.
· We recommend that most natural tiles should be fixed (but not grouted) clean and dry prior to any treatments being applied. An exception would be unfilled travertine as the cement grout needs to fill up and adhere into the natural pits and the impregnation process inhibits this process to a certain degree.
· Impregnation, if applicable to the stone type or finish, is the first treatment and the number of coats applied will depend on the porosity of the stone. Applications must continue until the tile has virtually reached \'saturation point\' and any impregnator residues must be cleaned off the tile surface immediately.
· Tiles then undergo the grouting process and further applications of the impregnator can be applied to the grout joints and tile surface. Any residues must be cleaned off the tile surface immediately.
· After grouting, surface sealing and/or waxing is then necessary with a choice of either a matt, satin or shiny surface finish. At least two coats are normally applied but this will depend on the finished \'look\' required, each coat should be allowed to dry before the next application.
· All installations need a certain degree of cleaning and maintenance determined by their frequency of use.
· Heavily trafficked or used areas are more likely to require re-application of treatments, especially if the stones look dull or show surface wear.
· All abrasive cleaning detergents should be avoided as they remove the surface sealant.
· Incorrectly applied impregnators, sealants and staining problems all have their antidotes. Please refer to the Ancillary Product section for more information.
· Stones are often packed very tightly and are wet at the point of production and are unable to dry out until unpacked. They will often lighten in colour as they dry and dry tiles are necessary prior to installation as any unusual tonal markings can be placed in less visible areas or used in cuts.
· At the point of installation always ensure batches of stone are shuffled to ensure evenness in distribution of any such variation. This will mean opening all crates or pallets of materials supplied.
· Minor damage such as edge chipping is often caused in packing or unpacking tiles but it is deemed normal practice for these to be used as cuts during the installation process.
· Uncelebrated tiles need to be graded prior to installation the thicker tiles will dictate the floor level and should be installed first.
· Dimensions listed are nominal as slight variation in size and thickness can occur with most natural material.
· A dry level screed is an ideal fixing substrate. New screeds need to &lsquocure&rsquo or dry out at a minimum of 3 weeks drying before fixing tiles.
· Uneven floors can be smoothed with ARDEX K15 Levelling Compound, alternatively use ARDEX K15b base mix for leveling up to 35mm on concrete bases.
b. Floors - Screed
· These must be cured to their respective manufacturer\'s recommendations before tiling can begin as they retain moisture for longer periods than conventional sand and cement screeds or use ARDEX- WPC to suppress moisture.
· Wood or its man-made derivatives (chipboard/plywood/T&G/floating timber floors) will be subject to movement under load, temperature and humidity. Rigid tiles cannot absorb deflection or compression and will break or de-bond away from their substrate.
· To test a floor for \'bounce\', fill a glass completely with water until the \'meniscus dome\' is apparent on the surface, then walk around the glass and check for spillages.
· If spillages occur then remedial action needs to be taken. Install an overlay of 18mm exterior grade WBP plywood with staggered joints, suitably sealed on its back, face and edges with ARDEX 82 and screwed down at 300mm centres and 150mm centres along the board edges.
· Any loose tiles should be removed and the floor degreased and thoroughly cleaned
prior to fixing.
· Vinyl tiles will require sealing with ARDEX 82 prior to fixing with ARDEX adhesives.
· Glazed tiles require a slurry bonding coat (made up of 2 parts any ARDEX adhesive or ARDEX Leveling Compound to 1 part ARDEX 82), prior to fixing with ARDEX Rapid Flex or ARDEX S20. This coat can be brushed on to the existing tiles and allowed to dry before fixing.
· Unglazed tiles or natural stone that are solidly fixed can be adhered to with any ARDEX adhesive without remedial action where the removal of existing tiles is not possible.
· ARDEX-......... is a polyethylene membrane with a 3mm thick grid structure and is designed to act as an uncoupling layer for problematic substrates. Differing floor substrates can be overlaid with this matting to eliminate stress cracks at their abutments it can also be used to bridge screed and masonry cracks.
· Un-cured mortar screeds, heated screeds, floating screeds and Gypsum screeds can be subject to deformation due to residual moisture, shrinkage, load stresses or temperature changes. Using ARDEX-......... and providing the substrate is sufficiently load bearing, the tile covering can be installed immediately.
· This is a good vertical base for fixing stone tiles up to a thickness of 15mm (>38kg/m2 approx) with a maximum fixing height of 3.6 meters with ARDEX Tile Adhesive. To accommodate 20mm thick stone (>50kg/m2 approx) the render must be reinforced with stainless steel EML or similar. New renders need a minimum of two weeks to dry out.
· Plasterboard that has not been skimmed with a finish coat of plaster will take most 10 and 12mm stones (>32kg/m2 approx). In these cases the paper face of the board should be primed with ARDEX P51 Primer.
· Hardibacker is a cement based, water resistant tile backing board. This is available in a 6mm or 12mm thickness and when suitably screw fixed, provides a load bearing facility of >35kgs/m2, which is an adequate load bearing substrate for stone tiles up to 15mm in thickness.
· 18mm exterior grade WBP plywood can be used and should be sealed on all sides/faces with ARDEX 82 before suitably batten fixed with vertical and horizontal wooden supports at 300mm centers and screwed firmly at all joints and edges.
· These are not deemed suitable substrates as they do not have the weight bearing capacity required for stone tiles.
· If the underlying substrate is capable of supporting the installed load then Hard backer, plasterboard or plywood should be suitably primed, where necessary, then screw fixed to apply the stone tiles.
· Ground preparation for Stone Flagstones or Cobbles depends upon the intended use of the paved area and the site conditions.
· Care must be taken to pave or cobble at least 150mm below the damp proof course of a building and a gradient of 1:60 is necessary to provide a &lsquofall&rsquo to drain water away from a building.
· A stabilizing layer of at least 100mm of scalping/crushed hardcore must be installed, thereafter 30-40mm of a sand bed being compressed with a vibrating plate compactor. This then enables a wet or semidry mortar bed, dependant on stone thickness, to bed the stone flags or cobbles in.
· The correctly prepared substrate will support all exterior stone tiles, immaterial of their thickness
a. Waterproofing
· All tiled areas that will be subject to any amount of water ingress should have a waterproof substrate prior to fixing. This can be achieved with ARDEX WPC.
· ARDEX WPC is a waterproof 2 part coating for use on moisture sensitive backgrounds prior to tiling.
· ARDEX WPC is rapid drying and can be tiled over after 2 hours of second coat.
· Travertine .ie can also provide a waterproofing kit ideal for showers and wet rooms that contains everything needed a single simple to apply boxed kit.
· Structural movement joints in the flooring and bed must be sited directly over and be continuous with any structural joints in the base structure.
· Perimeter movement joints are necessary where the flooring abuts restraining surfaces, such as perimeter walls, columns, Krebs, steps etc. These joints should be installed unless the distance between restraining surfaces is less than two meters.
· Intermediate movement joint requirements depend on the dimensions of the floor. In floors with less than 10 meters between perimeter joints, generally no intermediate movement joints are necessary, however they are required to divide larger areas, and these are normally placed at 8-10 meter centers in each direction. Over potentially flexible type substrates and under floor heating, movement joints should be positioned at 6 meter centers in each direction. Additionally movement joints should be placed directly over supporting walls or beams.
· All existing movement joints in the base substrate must be carried through to the finished surface with a surface movement joint positioned directly over background or plane changes within the substrate.
· Intermediate movement joints should be placed vertically at 4 meter centers and at internal corners and columns, etc.
· Horizontal movement joints should be positioned at floor and ceiling positions.
· A wide range of movement and control joint profiles are available from ARDEX Systems.
ARDEX BUILDING PRODUCTS LTD
Technical assistance
Mr Craig Swanson
00353 86 3834472
00353 1 8222776
ARDEX UK LIMITED
Homefield Road, Haverhill, Suffolk CB9 8QP UK.
Telephone: +44 (0)1440 714939
Fax: +44 (0)1440 716660
Technical Services Fax: +44 (0)1440 716640
Email: technical.services@ardex.co.uk
Ardex Building Products .ie Ltd
Unit 6, PlatoBusinessPark
Damastown Industrial Estate
Damastown, Dublin 15 .ie
Tel + 353 (0) 1 8222 776
Fax + 353 (0) 1 8222 777
email:info@bal.ie
Click here for location map
