KnowltonBaugh162

stone wall cladding - Stone is a defining feature in any room and adds instant solidity, luxury and grandness whether you choose to cover all your walls with marble or simply use it for a simple round basin. Although stone is definitely a tough material once installed, the self -builder should always take special care to see the delivery and installation process runs smoothly. Dirt from foot traffic or a careless knock from your power tool could lead to a costly repair bill. Keep your room clean and tidy, check larger items like a stone bath, can fit via a door entrance (you may have to leave off architrave/frames to permit extra room). The weight of stonework does mean that it should be planned in on the home's design stage as load-bearing joists should be increased in size or even doubled up to cope with the weight.

Preparing floors

A brand new concrete screed is the perfect base for stone ceramic tiles, as long as the concrete is fully cured. New concrete should be at least six weeks old and show no indications of remaining moisture. You may need to use a thin screed of self-leveling compound to balance out any low spots. Again, leave the compound to completely cure before tiling.

In case you are working on new flooring grade T&G chipboard panels, make sure the edges are fixed at 300mm centers and tile onto the surface with a flexible adhesive all the trade adhesive manufacturers have powder mixes meant for timber flooring. To get a restoration project, never attempt to tile directly onto old floorboards. Instead, create a new sub-base with 15mm exterior grade plywood, screwed down at 300mm centers with stainless-steel screws. Stagger the board joints and adjust any uneven floorboards before beginning work. Coat it's with thinned PVA to seal the wood.

Old cork and vinyl carpeting should always be pulled up. Look at the floor beneath is dry, flat and powerful enough to support the newest stone tiling. If you're up against quarry or ceramic tiles, it's possible to tile directly within the surface as long as there are no signs of damp, cracking or movement. Prime the old tile surface to provide the adhesive a key' for bonding and make set out your new tiles so that the grout gaps aren't aligned with the existing floor. The exceptions are shower or wet room walls that needs to be lined with a waterproof lining panel to supply the tile base.

Installing real stone tiles

The porous surface of many natural stone products ensures they are more vulnerable to staining than glazed tiles. Look at the manufacturer's instructions for precise laying instructions and constantly seal the surfaces of the tiles, if recommended, before fixing it's all too easy to spill adhesive over a tile and not notice. Open the tile packs and work from the 3 major packs to evenly distribute any color variation between packs.

Tiling the ground

With a little planning and careful aiming, dramatic stone flooring can be as easy as tiling a wall. There's usually less cutting around awkward shapes than with wall tiles and you're simply not fighting against gravity. Remove skirting boards and door thresholds prior to starting work. In the starting off stages, it's important to ensure the tiles look directly from the entrance to the room. Often walls are bowed or out of true so check your measurements in several places along each wall. It costs slightly more but a powder mix rapid-setting adhesive is the best option for most floors. It's going to reach full strength after as little as 24 hours so the rest of the build isn't delayed.

Finally, plan in almost any movement joints required. They are 6/8mm wide and filled with flexible filler that enables for movement and prevents tile damage. These joints are typically installed where flooring abuts walling, steps, columns or another hard objects on large floor areas and also over structural movement joints. Floors less than four meters between walls won't normally need movement joints.

STEP-BY-STEP

1 Find the mid-points of the two longest walls and snap a chalk line over the room between these points. Repeat for your shorter walls but adjust the line so that it passes from the center of the first line at right angles. Attempt to work with as many whole tiles as you can, even if it means adjusting the grout line width slightly.

2 Lay tiles along the two lines to ascertain if they look right from the threshold. If any gaps at the walls are not even half a tile wide, shift the road across to make much more of a gap. Also move the guide lines to ensure that tiles around a dominant feature (e.g. a fire or French windows) are symmetrical and there are whole tiles at the doorway.

3 Spread about one square meter of tile adhesive/grout into one of the right angles made by the two crossing chalk lines. Scrap the notched fringe of the trowel across the mix to form ridges of the same thickness.

4 Lay the initial tiles along the edge of the longest center line. Gently press the tiles into position, making sure they also line up with the other center line. Add plastic spacers each and every corner to keep them a similar distance apart for grouting.

5 Work outwards from the middle of the room in anticipation of having laid all the whole tiles using one half of the floor. Use a spirit level to look for the tiles are at the identical level. Now move across for the other side of the longest center line and add the rest of the whole tiles. Leave setting for 24 hours.

6 Use the tile cutter to trim the extra edge tiles to the right shape. Appraise the space at both sides in case the walls are uneven please remember to allow for the grouting gap. Always wear goggles and gloves when cutting tiles.

7 Leave the adhesive to set for at least 12 hours, then grout involving the tiles with the adhesive/grout. Force a combination into the gaps with a squeegee, working from side to side and up and down the tiles.

8 For wide joint lines, run a piece of hosepipe over the grouting surface. Wipe off any grout from your tiles with a damp sponge, before it sets hard.

Wall tiling

Natural stone tiles add a touch of luxury to your rooms. There's no special trick to locating out how many tiles you will need, just measure the height and width with the area and multiply these together to give the area to be tiled. Divide this figure from the area of a single tile (e.g. a 10x10cm tile posseses an area of 100cm) to give the quantity of tiles you need. Add Ten percent for cutting and wastage. Installation matches for ceramic tiles however you will need an electric tile cutter with a diamond wheel as well as the capacity to tackle your chosen depth of tile. Most natural stone is easier to cut than ceramic. The extra weight of real stone also need to be considered use strong battens, no less than 50mm wide and screwed to the wall, to support the bottom line of tiles.

Work with a saw tile to chop a tile to suit around an awkward shape for instance a pipe or architrave. If you want to cut a curve, to match around the side of your basin for example, make a card template the same size as the tile. Make cuts at around 10mm spacing along the curve edge and press web site into position. Trim the 10mm strips to match exactly around the curve and transfer this shape to the tile. Remember to leave at least 2mm for grouting.

STEP-BY-STEP

1 To avoid lots of cut tiles or even an unbalanced look, make-up a tile gauge (a batten using the tile dimensions and grout spaces marked over the edge) to plan the positions from the tiles so that the tops with the last row of tiles under any window is going to be exactly flush with the ledge. You may find you'll have to cut the bottom row of tiles.

2 Screw a batten towards the wall along the line you have marked. Check with a spirit level that it's horizontal. Fix another upright batten along the left side with the area to be tiled. Again, work with a spirit level to ensure it's vertical.

3 Spread the adhesive/grout over about 50 % a square meter with the wall, starting within the corner made by the two battens. Use the notched side of the spreader to form even ribbons of adhesive. Many of the important for heavy stone tiles. As a rule of thumb, 6mm notched spreaders can be used for walls and 10mm versions for floors.

4 Start to tile, pressing the tiles gently on the wall and sliding into position before you see adhesive squeeze out round the sides. Press spacers into each corner and hold a spirit level over the tiles to see if they form a set surface. Continue to tile, working on about a square meter at any given time until you've fixed all the whole tiles. Clean off adhesive from your tile surface as you work.

5 Next, lay tiles along the sides and front of the window reveal in order that they cover the edges with the wall tiles. Wipe off any adhesive before it's got dried with a damp sponge.

6 Leave the splashback to dry fully before removing the timber battens. Now cut the tiles to suit into any gaps in the bottom of the splashback and at the leading and sides from the window reveal. Fix set up.

7 When all of the tiles are fixed, leave to dry. Force more adhesive/grout in to the gaps between the tiles having a squeegee. Wipe off every one of the excess grout with a damp sponge, rinsed out regularly in clean water. When the surface is dry, polish with a dry cloth.

8 To make a flexible waterproof seal new tiles plus a worktop, run a bead of waterproof sealant around the bottom of the tiles.

TIPS

If you're tiling around an acrylic bath, half fill with water to create the rim flex to the maximum extent before filling the space with a bathroom sealant.

Make screw holes for bathroom accessories having a masonry drill bit. To stop the bit slipping and damaging the surface, stick some masking tape within the area to be drilled.

Buy all the tiles you will need at one time if possible to avoid any differences between batches.

If you wish to form a pattern, draw a plan of the room on graph paper to ensure the pattern will appear in proportion and symmetrical.

To tile an area that has to be used everyday, tile one half of the area at any given time so you can still walk throughout the bare floor even though the tile adhesive sets. If you learn you are working slowly and also the adhesive is beginning setting, only spread around half a square meter at the same time. It's essential the adhesive is still wet when the tiles are now being fixed.

Fireplaces

Stone Fireplaces really are a defining feature to get a lounge or dining room, making the perfect frame with a wood, coal or gas fire. Of course, any chimney linings should be pre-installed in your self-build project as well as the surround really does come at the final stages with the project. Most companies offer a design and install service that's definitely worth the money for such large and expensive objects. Otherwise, check your builder is happy to take on the job. It may need extra lifting equipment however the installation process isn't complicated. You can choose anything from the clean lines of a contemporary fireplace with a reproduction Regency style or contact an architectural salvage yard to get a genuine period piece. Most yards will even undertake restoration work with stone and marble fireplaces.

Baths and basins

Baths, basins and washstands can be either stone resin or solid stone. There exists a wide range of colors offered by off-whites to reds, browns and blacks. Remember the loading on a suspended floor baths can weigh from 200 to 500kg or more.

As well as the luxury of your solid stone basin, a number of the modern designs can also be breathtaking, with open wave forms, travertine mosaic and deceptively thin slab designs.

Worktops

Granite is regarded as the popular of the natural stonework surfaces. You can clean and contrasts well with lighter wood carcases. Marble and limestone look great but are softer and will scratch or stain. Whenever you plan your kitchen, guarantee the runs of floor cabinets can withstands weights as much as 90kgs per square meter average for a 30mm solid granite top. You can also specify 40mm tops, created from two 20mm layers with a ply central insert to cut back the weight. Your kitchen supplier may need to alter the design and add extra support around sink cut-outs and appliances. The suppliers will even need a clear work space so all sinks and hobs ought to be removed and kept free from the work area. If you're able to, don't install the wall sockets until following your worktop is fitted this will avoid any accidental damage as the stone is slid into position over the units. With respect to the shape and size of each factor, the suppliers might point to extra joints in solid granite worktops since the grain structure can be very vulnerable to cracking if there's any stress over longer lengths or around narrow cut-out areas. Be sure to order matching granite up-stands

for that walls. These are around 100m high with polished surfaces and edges. Color-matched silicone sealant is utilized for the jointing. As with sanitary items, composite quartzite is able to reduce the price of the kitchen but still give some of the solidity and feel of a real stone. In addition, it has the advantage of grain consistency and a wide range of solid reds, blues, greens and much more neutral tones.

Maintenance and cleaning

stone wall - Keep a copy of the care and maintenance instructions provided with your stonework as sealants and care procedures vary. Granite surfaces such as worktops don't need a lot of specialist cleaning since the surface doesn't absorb stains in the same way as a softer travertine stone.

Wipe up any spills as fast as possible, especially liquids for example acidic juices and alcohol. Fine grit will be the big enemy of stone flooring as ground in particles cause striations than eventually dull the top. Use a mop, soft brush or vacuum to gather up the dirt. A neutral pH detergent and warm water will remove grease along with other light stains but guarantee the floor is dried with a soft cloth to avoid a film build of residues.

Stone should only need resealing every 3-5 years or so and some products will never need resealing. After installing any gemstone, it's essential to clean up any mortar/adhesive residue straight away as the resin-based adhesives bond' the stone surface and therefore are extremely difficult to clean up when cured. For bathroom and kitchen installations, avoid using any wax or soap cleaners for at least the first six weeks. Otherwise, the stone pores will end up clogged and restrict the evaporation from the mortar/adhesive.