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

Preparing floors

A fresh concrete screed is the perfect base for stone flooring, as long as the concrete is fully cured. New concrete should be at least six weeks old and show no signs and symptoms of remaining moisture. You may want 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 to the surface with a flexible adhesive all the trade adhesive manufacturers have powder mixes meant for timber flooring. For a restoration project, never try and tile directly onto old floorboards. Instead, produce 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 prior to starting work. Coat the boards 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 strong enough to support the newest stone tiling. If you're confronted with quarry or ceramic tiles, it's possible to tile directly on the surface as long as there aren't any signs of damp, cracking or movement. Prime that old tile surface to give the adhesive a key' for bonding making set out your new tiles so the grout gaps aren't aligned with the existing floor. The exceptions are shower or wet room walls that ought to be lined with a waterproof lining panel to offer the tile base.

Installing real stone tiles

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

Tiling a floor

With a little planning and careful setting out, dramatic stone flooring is really as easy as tiling a wall. There's usually less cutting around awkward shapes than with wall tiles and you're not fighting against gravity. Remove skirting boards and door thresholds prior to starting work. In the setting out stages, it's important to guarantee 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 is slightly more but a powder mix rapid-setting adhesive is the best option for most floors. It's going to reach full strength in as little as 24 hours so the remaining portion of the build isn't delayed.

Finally, plan in any movement joints required. They're 6/8mm wide and filled with flexible filler which allows for movement and prevents tile damage. These joints are usually installed where flooring abuts walling, steps, columns or other hard objects on large floor areas as well as over structural movement joints. Floors under four meters between walls won't normally need movement joints.

STEP-BY-STEP

1 Discover 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 fishing 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 possibly can, even if it means adjusting the grout line width slightly.

2 Lay tiles across the two lines to ascertain if they look right from the doorway. If any gaps in the walls are less than half a tile wide, shift the fishing line 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 on the doorway.

3 Spread about one square meter of tile adhesive/grout into among the right angles made by the two crossing chalk lines. Scrap the notched edge of the trowel across the mix to make 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 lineup with the other center line. Add plastic spacers each and every corner to keep them a similar distance apart for grouting.

5 Work outwards in the middle of the room til you have laid all the whole tiles using one half of the floor. Use a spirit level to check the tiles are at exactly the same level. Now move across towards the other side of the longest center line and add all of those other whole tiles. Leave to set for 24 hours.

6 Utilize the tile cutter to trim the edge tiles to the right shape. Appraise the space at each side in case the walls are uneven and remember to allow for the grouting gap. Always wear goggles and gloves when cutting tiles.

7 Leave the adhesive to create for at least 12 hours, then grout involving the tiles with the adhesive/grout. Force this mixture into the gaps using a squeegee, working from side to side or more 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

Gemstone tiles add a touch of luxury to any room. There's no special trick to locating out how many tiles you'll need, just measure the height and width of the area and multiply these together to provide 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 10 % for cutting and wastage. Installation matches for ceramic tiles however you will need an electric tile cutter using a diamond wheel and the capacity to tackle your chosen depth of tile. Most natural stone is easier to cut than ceramic. The excess weight of real stone should also be considered use strong battens, no less than 50mm wide and screwed to the wall, to support the base line of tiles.

Make use of a saw tile to chop a tile to match around an awkward shape such as a pipe or architrave. If you wish to cut a curve, to suit around the side of your basin for example, create a card template exactly 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 fit around the tile. Remember to leave at least 2mm for grouting.

STEP-BY-STEP

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

2 Screw a batten for 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 of the area to be tiled. Again, use a spirit level to make sure it's vertical.

3 Spread the adhesive/grout over about 50 % a square meter from the wall, starting within the corner made by both battens. Use the notched side with 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 Begin to tile, pressing the tiles gently on the wall and sliding into position until you see adhesive squeeze out around the sides. Press spacers into each corner and hold a spirit level throughout the tiles to see if they form a set surface. Continue to tile, taking care of about a square meter at a time until you've fixed all the whole tiles. Clean off adhesive from your tile surface while you work.

5 Next, lay tiles along the sides and front of the window reveal so that they cover the edges from 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 with the window reveal. Fix in place.

7 When all 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 having a dry cloth.

8 To create a flexible waterproof seal new tiles along with a worktop, run a bead of waterproof sealant round the bottom of the tiles.

TIPS

In case you are tiling around an acrylic bath, half fill with water to produce the rim flex to the maximum extent before filling the gap with a bathroom sealant.

Make screw holes for bathroom accessories using 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 of the tiles you will need at one time if possible to avoid any differences between batches.

If you want to form a pattern, draw a plan of the room on graph paper to make certain the pattern can look in proportion and symmetrical.

To tile a space that has to be used everyday, tile one half of the area at a time so you can still walk across the bare floor as the tile adhesive sets. If you discover you are working slowly and the adhesive is beginning setting, only spread around half a square meter at any given time. It's essential the adhesive remains wet when the tiles are being fixed.

Fireplaces

Stone Fireplaces certainly are a defining feature to get a lounge or living area, making the perfect frame with a wood, coal or gas fire. Obviously, any chimney linings ought to be pre-installed in your self-build project as well as the surround really does come in the final stages of the project. Most companies provide a design and install service that's worth the money for such large and dear objects. Otherwise, look at builder is happy to battle 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 to some reproduction Regency style or contact an architectural salvage yard to get a genuine period piece. Most yards will also undertake restoration focus on stone and marble fireplaces.

Baths and basins

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

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

Worktops

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

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

Maintenance and cleaning

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

Wipe up any spills as soon as possible, especially liquids including acidic juices and alcohol. Fine grit will be the big enemy of gemstone flooring as ground in particles cause striations than eventually dull the outer lining. Use a mop, soft brush or vacuum to gather up the dirt. A neutral pH detergent and tepid to warm water will remove grease as well as other light stains but guarantee the floor is dried using a soft cloth to prevent a film build of residues.

Stone should really need resealing every 3-5 years roughly and some products won't ever need resealing. After installing any stone, it's essential to clean up any mortar/adhesive residue right away as the resin-based adhesives bond' the stone surface and are extremely difficult to clean up when cured. For kitchen and bathroom installations, avoid using any wax or soap cleaners for around the first six weeks. Otherwise, the stone pores will end up clogged and restrict the evaporation in the mortar/adhesive.