LAYING

Prepare mortar without lime with approximate proportions of 1:5

The tiles can be laid lengthways in 60 cms strips, using the following process: -Mark the strip between the wall or previous strip and a guide levelled so that, once the tiles are laid, the level is correctivel requerido. -Fill the strip with cement of suitable fluidity to allow the work to be carried out correctly and level it to the guide rule. -Place the tiles from the outside part of the guide so that they sit correctly on the cement. Always keep the same orientation of the grooves in the tiles. The guide may be marked with the positions of the tiles so that the joint width is correct. This enables accurate alignement to be maintened.

This system permitsrapid, quality laying of the tiles. If greater precision is required, the tiles may be laid by placing the cement , levelling, and correctly placing and seating the tiles one by one, using guide strings. Another system is to lay several crossed lines of guide tiles to ease alignment.

To obtain uniform tonality the tiles must be intensly mixed. If they are in several pallets, take one box from each pallet and mix the tiles prior to laying. If there is only one pallet take boxes from different levels. Never mix tiles with different measurement references.

ELASTIC AND EXPANSION JOINTS

The elastic joints incorporated in structures, pavements, finishes, etc. must be respected in order to absorb contractions, dilatations, uneven footing, torsion, temperature changes, etc.must be respected at all times.

In any case, areas of more than 25-30 m2 should not be laid without expansion joints. The edges of interior areas larger than these measurements should be left free for an elastic joint, in addition to any longitudinal and transverse joints required to achieve surfaces that do not exceed the above area. When the area is finished with a skirting board , the edge joint may lie between the floor and the walls and be covered by the skirting board.

It is understood that the elastic joints must also traverse the supporting pavement.

These joints are sealed with elastic materials that have physical and chemical resistance suited to the requirements of the pavement (interior or exterior, humidity, chemical attack, traffic, etc.).

JOINTS BETWEEN THE TILES AND THEIR SEALING

The tiles should be laid with a joint width of 5 to 10 mm. depending on the size of the piece. A wide joint is required to compensate for the size and flatness tolerances that are unavoidable in this type of material.

The joints should be sealed using any of the special products that exists in the market. We can supply a suitable product at cost price together with the tiles. We recommend dark grey colour for the joints as it has less maintenance problems.

The sealing compounds is mixed to a degree of fluidity that is no more than that required for it to enter the joints. Spread this mortar on the pavement using a trowel or rubber spatula to fill the joints diagonally. To completely fill the joints we advise repeating the operation before the mortar begins to set.

CLEANING

Before the excess mortar on the tiles is totally dry, clean with a large sponge soaked in water, make certain not to disturb the joints as their are still not set. The sponge should be rinsed frequently and the rinsing water often changed. After 2 or 3 hours with the joints almost completely set, carry out a second wash with clean water. This treatment leaves the pavement 90% clean and it is not necessary to take any further action until the work completely finished.

Final cleaning may be done using a d-scaling product diluted in water. First,wet the pavement in order to protect the joints. They will be saturated with water and not absorb the de-scaling agent. Allow the de-scaling agent to penetrate for 15 mn. and scrub vigorously with hard brush. Rinse with abundant water. If some paint stains remain use a dissolvent adapted to the particular type of paint.

We can supply or recommend the most suitable de-scaling agent.

Once the pavement is thoroughly dry, diesel fuel may be applied to complete the cleaning and give the pavement a light satiny finish. The diesel fuel may be applied either by wetting a sponge and, after removing the excess, wiping the pavement, or by spreaing saw dust moistened with diesel fuel.

Daily cleaning may be carried out using any detergent. The use of bleach is specially recommended as it easily eliminates oil and grease stains, etc. As our tiles have almost no surface porosity, any stain is eliminated easily by using a suitable solvent or detergent.

ENAMELLED CERAMIC TILES

The same instructions apply. Cleaning is easier because, with a minimum amount of care, the application of de-scaling agent is unnecessary. In addition maintenance is much easier as dust does not adhere to the enamelled surface.

For kitchen applications, the following instructions must be considered :

-Kitchen tops : Must be always sealed with epoxy resin cement.This is absolutely necessary due to the risk of stains from oil, milk, lemmon, tomatoe, vinaigre, etc.,that can attack, and in the time destroy a joint made with conventional grout.

After the sealing, the joint should be smooth and any cement remaining on the tiles removed with a sponge cloth soaked in water as hot as possible.

Rinse and renew the water frequently in order to get the tiles as clean as possible by completely eliminating all excess of cement.

After aproximately 24 hours, the tiles should be thoroughly cleaned with a mixture of one part of universal solvent and four parts of very hot water.

-Floor and wall recovering :Pavimento y revestimiento. The use of epoxy resin cement is also suitable regarding the low porosity and easy cleaning of these products, but we do not impose it so hardly.