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stone wall cladding - Stone is a defining feature in almost any room and adds instant solidity, luxury and grandness whether you decide to cover all your walls with marble or simply use it for a simple round basin. Although stone is an extremely tough material once installed, the self -builder must always take special care to see the delivery and installation process runs smoothly. Dirt from traffic or a careless knock from your power tool could lead to an expensive repair bill. Keep the room clean and tidy, check larger items such as 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 also means that it should be planned in on the home's design stage as load-bearing joists might need to 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 flooring, as long as the concrete is fully cured. New concrete ought to be at least six weeks old and show no signs and symptoms 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 fully cure before tiling.

If you're working on new flooring grade T&G chipboard panels, check the edges are fixed at 300mm centers and tile to the surface with a flexible adhesive every one of the trade adhesive manufacturers have powder mixes meant for timber flooring. For any restoration project, never try to tile directly onto old floorboards. Instead, create a new sub-base with 15mm exterior grade plywood, screwed down at 300mm centers with stainless 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. Check the floor beneath is dry, flat and strong enough to support the new stone tiling. If you're up against quarry or ceramic tiles, it is possible to tile directly within the surface as long as there isn't any signs of damp, cracking or movement. Prime the existing tile surface to offer the adhesive a key' for bonding and make set out your new tiles so that the grout gaps aren't aligned with all 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 means they are more vulnerable to staining than glazed tiles. Look at the manufacturer's instructions for precise laying instructions and always seal the surfaces with the tiles, if recommended, before fixing it's all too easy to spill adhesive on a tile and not notice. Open the tile packs and work from several packs to evenly distribute any color variation between packs.

Tiling the ground

With a little planning and careful starting off, dramatic stone flooring is really as easy as tiling a wall. There's usually less cutting around awkward shapes compared to wall tiles and you are not fighting against gravity. Remove skirting boards and door thresholds before beginning 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 a number of places along each wall. It is slightly more but a powder mix rapid-setting adhesive is the best option for most floors. It will reach full strength within 24 hours so the remaining portion of the build isn't delayed.

Finally, plan in almost any movement joints required. These are 6/8mm wide and filled with flexible filler that enables for movement and prevents tile damage. These joints are usually installed where flooring abuts walling, steps, columns or another hard objects on large floor areas as well as over structural movement joints. Floors under four meters between walls is not going to normally need movement joints.

STEP-BY-STEP

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

2 Lay tiles over the two lines to ascertain if they look right from the doorway. If any gaps at the walls are fewer than half a tile wide, shift the road across to make more of a gap. Also move the guide lines so that tiles around a dominant feature (e.g. a fire or French windows) are symmetrical where there are whole tiles at the doorway.

3 Spread about one square meter of tile adhesive/grout into one of many 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 few tiles along the side of the longest center line. Gently press the tiles into place, making sure they also lineup with the other center line. Add plastic spacers at 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 look for the tiles are at the identical level. Now move across for the other side of the longest center line and add the remainder of the whole tiles. Leave to set for 24 hours.

6 Make use of the tile cutter to trim the extra edge tiles to the right shape. Measure the space at each side 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 between the tiles with the adhesive/grout. Force the mix 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

Stone tiles add a touch of luxury to your rooms. There's no special trick to locating out how many tiles you will require, 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 comes with an area of 100cm) to give the number of tiles you need. Add 10 percent for cutting and wastage. Installation is equivalent to for ceramic tiles but 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 reduce than ceramic. The additional weight of real stone ought to be considered use strong battens, at least 50mm wide and screwed towards the wall, to support the bottom line of tiles.

Make use of a saw tile to chop a tile to match around an awkward shape like a pipe or architrave. If you want to cut a curve, to match around the side of a basin for example, create a card template the identical size as the tile. Make cuts around 10mm spacing along the curve edge and press website into position. Trim the 10mm strips to fit exactly around the curve and transfer this contour around the tile. Remember to leave at least 2mm for grouting.

STEP-BY-STEP

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

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

3 Spread the adhesive/grout over most a square meter from the wall, starting within the corner made by the two battens. Use the notched side of the spreader to form even ribbons of adhesive. This is especially important for heavy stone tiles. Usually of thumb, 6mm notched spreaders are used for walls and 10mm versions for floors.

4 Learn to tile, pressing the tiles gently onto the wall and sliding into position before 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 flat surface. Continue to tile, taking care of about a square meter at the same time until you've fixed all the whole tiles. Clean off adhesive from your tile surface as you work.

5 Next, lay tiles alongside and front from the window reveal so that they cover the edges from the wall tiles. Wipe off any adhesive before it's 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 at the end 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 into the gaps between the tiles with a squeegee. Wipe off all the excess grout with a damp sponge, rinsed out regularly in water that is clean. When the surface is dry, polish using a dry cloth.

8 To form a flexible waterproof seal new tiles and a worktop, run a bead of waterproof sealant across the bottom of the tiles.

TIPS

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

Make screw holes for bathroom accessories using a masonry drill bit. To prevent the bit slipping and damaging the outer lining, stick some masking tape over the area to be drilled.

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

In order to form a pattern, draw an agenda of the room on graph paper to make sure the pattern will look in proportion and symmetrical.

To tile a room that has to be used everyday, tile one half of the area at the same time so you can still walk throughout the bare floor while the tile adhesive sets. If you learn you are working slowly as well as the adhesive is beginning to create, only spread around half a square meter at the same time. It's essential the adhesive continues to be wet when the tiles are increasingly being fixed.

Fireplaces

Stone Fireplaces are a defining feature for any lounge or living area, making the perfect frame with a wood, coal or gas fire. Obviously, 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 provide a design and install service that's well worth the money for such large and expensive objects. Otherwise, look at builder is happy to defend myself against the job. It may need extra lifting equipment nevertheless the installation process isn't complicated. You can choose anything from the clean lines of a contemporary fireplace to some reproduction Regency style or make contact with an architectural salvage yard to get a genuine period piece. Most yards will even undertake restoration work on stone and marble fireplaces.

Baths and basins

Baths, basins and washstands may be either stone resin or solid stone. There is a wide range of colors available from off-whites to reds, browns and blacks. Bear in mind the loading over a suspended floor baths can weigh from 200 to 500kg or maybe more.

As well as the luxury of the solid stone basin, some of the modern designs can 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 great but are softer and will scratch or stain. When you plan your kitchen, guarantee the runs of floor cabinets can withstands weights as much as 90kgs per square meter average to get a 30mm solid granite top. You can even specify 40mm tops, made from two 20mm layers having a ply central insert to reduce the weight. Your kitchen supplier should 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 needs to be removed and kept free from the work area. If you can, don't install the wall sockets until following the worktop is fitted this may avoid any accidental damage as the stone is slid into position over the units. With respect to the shape and size of each component part, the suppliers may suggest extra joints in solid granite worktops because the grain structure can be extremely 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 the walls. These are around 100m high with polished surfaces and edges. Color-matched silicone sealant can be used for the jointing. As with sanitary items, composite quartzite is able to reduce the price of the kitchen but nevertheless give some of the solidity and feel of your 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.

Cleaning and maintenance

stone wall - Keep a copy from the care and maintenance instructions supplied with your stonework as sealants and care procedures vary. Granite surfaces for example worktops don't need an excessive amount of specialist cleaning since the surface doesn't absorb stains just as as a softer travertine stone.

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

Stone should just have resealing every 3-5 years roughly and some products will never need resealing. After installing any natural stone, it's essential to clean up any mortar/adhesive residue right away as the resin-based adhesives bond' the stone surface and so 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 from the mortar/adhesive.