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October/November 2016
Floors & Walls
T
AL Marketing Manager, Gela
Ohl says, “Ceramic and por-
celain wood-look tiles can be
installed in areas of the home such
as bathrooms, kitchens and outdoor
areas – where humidity and damp-
ness would make wooden flooring
impractical. Many wood-look tiles
are the length of wooden planks
and are known as ‘large format tiles’,
where the length of at least one edge
is equal to or greater than 600 mm,
or where the area is greater than
3 500 cm².”
Installation tips
There are permissiblemanufacturing
tolerances for ceramic and porcelain
tiles, and large format tiles may have
permissible surface flatness irregu-
larities. For example, the tile surface
may be ‘curved’ or ‘bowed’. If this is
not taken into consideration when
planning the installation, there is a
risk of tile ‘lipping’ – whereby the
elevation of the edges and corners of
the tiles are inconsistent.
To minimise the risk of lipping it is
important to ensure that the floor is
level before starting the installation.
“TAL SCREEDMASTER, a self-smooth-
ingunderlayment,may be installed to
achieve the required surface finish.
Laying of tiles in a brick or running
bond pattern should also be carefully
considered because of potential lip-
ping caused by the curvature of large
format tiles. Amaximumoffset of 30%
is recommended.”
Tile tips
Wood-look tiles with different shades
per tileor box shouldbe laid randomly,
not according to the colours. Start the
layout of the installation from the
centre point in the room, ensuring
that the follow-on rows are offset by
amaximumof 30% in a running brick
pattern. To ensure full contact of the
large format tile with the prepared
surface, it is advisable to fill in the
voids on the back of the tile with a
thin coat of adhesive.
This process is known as ‘back but-
tering’. This, in addition to applying
the adhesive to the substrate using
a suitable notched floor trowel, will
ensure a solid bed of adhesive behind
each tile. The correct adhesive must
be used when fixing the tiles to the
prepared surface. TAL offers a range
of cement-based tile adhesives from
rapid or quick to standard setting, in
a grey or white colour.
The spacer sizemust be correct for
the type of tile selected. “The joint
width between glazed ceramic floor
tiles should be a minimum of 5 mm
wide, and a minimum of 3 mm wide
between porcelain tiles, including
rectified porcelain tiles. To achieve
the natural look, opt for grout colour
that is darker than the tile itself,”
explains Ohl.
Joint tips
Allowance for building, thermal and
moisture movement must be made
in all tile installations. Perimeter
joints must be installed around the
perimeter of all floors and around
any fixtures protruding through the
tile installation, such as walls, col-
umns and stairs. Intermediate tile
panel movement joints should also
be installed at maximum 5 m centres
in both directions for interior surface
bed applications, and maximum
3 m centres for suspended slabs and
exterior applications.
These joints must be a minimum
of 5 mm wide, must extend through
the tile and tile adhesive layers to the
substrate, and must be filled with a
good quality resilient joint sealant
and suitable backing cord. When
using large format tiles, there will
be a smaller number of grout joints,
compared with the same area of
normal format tiling. As a result, less
movement or ‘stress’ can be accom-
modated at the tile joints.
TAL products are designed, manu-
factured and tested according to its
high-quality standards. The Technical
Advisory Service provides a com-
prehensive range of solutions for all
types of wood-look tile installations,
ranging from dark-finish, whitewash
or lime-wash effect, as well as large
planks or smaller parquet blocks.
For further information contact
the TAL Technical Advisory Service
on 0860 000 TAL (825) or
visit
www.tal.co.za■
Fashionable ‘wood-look’
ceramic and porcelain
tiles are as aesthetically-
pleasingasgenuinewooden
floors.
The perfect
wood-look
installation
Gela Ohl