Mosaic floors at first sight are striking with their magnificence and sophistication. Durable and durable, they can serve more than 100 years even in the most passable places. The technology of manufacturing such a floor is not so complicated how much time-consuming. It requires a fairness of patience and good taste. In this article we will tell you how to make a simple marble mosaic floor with your own hands.
Content
Mosaic floor terrazzo
The main difference between the mosaic floors of Terrazzo from ordinary concrete in the fact that they are thin layer, but despite this, make it possible to realize a much larger number of designer ideas. This is a more decorative type of floor covering, which is characterized as stable and durability, like a strong concrete floor.
The concept of terrazzo combines all types of bulk mosaic floors. They differ only on the type of binder and the filler material. Thus, the mosaic function can perform marble, sand, glass, ceramic tile fragments, decorative stones and other natural environmentally friendly materials.
In this article, we will look at the creation of a mosaic floor with marble crumb, since this option is the most popular. For a similar scheme and technology, you can make floors with other fillers.
Depending on the use of the binder, several types of Floor Terezzo are distinguished:
- Fat floor is made on the basis of cement.
- The floor of the middle thickness is made of crumbs and a mixture of cement with polymer additives.
- The thin floor includes only mosaic elements and additive from polymer components.
Marble floor
Mosaic floors today make mainly from marble because of its excellent performance. This is a natural rock formation with extremely high density and characteristic crystal structure. Marble does not absorb water, does not react to chemicals and is quite easy to mechanically process. It is these qualities that are necessary to create an ideal floor that will serve not one decade.
High aesthetic characteristics, as well as the ability to transmit in detail the natural texture, found wide use in construction, landscape design and interior design.
But the use of whole marble plates would not only wastely, but simply impossible - pure marble is not so often. Therefore, an alternative and less costly method of using natural material was invented - the creation of a marble crumb. It is manufactured from the illiquid goods and waste production of marble products. At the same time it doesn't matter what goes to crusher - ritual plates or a common raw breed - marble mosaic floors are equally strong and durable.
The dignity of marble:
- strength (can be used even in places of large patency);
- concrete mosaic floor resistant to moisture (can be done in the bathroom, pools);
- wear resistance;
- environmental friendliness;
- simple care;
- durability;
- does not give a spark in mechanical impacts (can be used in workshops and enterprises with increased fire safety requirements);
- aesthetics (with appropriate skills, you can create completely stunning floors with suitius patterns, paintings and ornaments).
Today, the market presents a wide range of marble crumbs, which differs in size fractions, color and other characteristics. It is mainly used to arrange the floor in public institutions and on the street, because the home marble coverage will be too cold.
Among the shortcomings of the marble mosaic floor can not only highlight the coldness, but also susceptibility to burnout crumbs under ultraviolet light. And it's not just about the dyed product, but also the usual white marble - it begins to turn yellow over time.
Since the service life of the marble floor can be measured in decades and even centuries, it can be simply tired. So if you want to change the marble flooring, with the dismantling of the coating will have serious problems - split sturdy marble is very difficult.
And the last delicate moment - the high cost of the mosaic floor made of marble. The price of the service depends not only on the material, but also on the pattern that you want to implement. As a general rule, the calculation of the pattern to be paid separately, and to hire a designer for the job.
Make a mosaic floor from the marble chips is not too difficult, but you must follow the instructions accurately. So, you first need to prepare the base - rough floor should be leveled reinforced cement screed. Then - set separators, to prepare a mixture of marble, fill and perform polishing. Let us consider in more detail each of the stages.
Substrate preparation
To prepare a base for laying a tile floor, it is necessary to remove the old flooring, reaching the subfloor. It is considered to be an ideal basis monolithic reinforced concrete slab or screed.
Progress:
- If the subfloor is void, recess or crack, they must be puttied or pour the entire surface of the leveling compound.
- Pay special attention to places of entry into the floor pipes (risers in the high-rise building).
- Treat base stiff brushes to increase the adhesive ability of the floor.
- Remove all debris and obespylte surface.
- Install dividers. Seized of the best in the organization of cement covering, placing them in one and a half meters from each other. Best delimiters obtained their square tube with a side of 25 mm.
- If you are going to create a complicated patterned image, the need to install additional dividers for each insert. For this purpose, thin brass or aluminum plates of different shapes, at least - glass (for repeats of simple rectangular or images).
Preparation of a mixture of marble
For filling the mosaic marble floor, quite a large number of crumbs of various fractions will be required. Different dimensions of the elements allow you to create a more interesting and "alive" drawing. For outdoor creativity, crumb 5, 10 and 15 mm is usually used in diameter, selecting equal proportions of the material.
The specificity of the preparation of the working mixture:
- Mix the "single-caliber" crumb in equal proportions.
- Add cement (not lower than M400) in a 1: 3 or 1: 4 ratio.
- If you want to make a color floor, use special natural dyes - marble flour, ocher, iron suits, chrome oxide and others. Pigments in the mixture should be no more than 30% of the total mass.
- Before adding water, mix well all the components of the mixture, then portion pour fluid until a dense and low-lifting mass is obtained. Name the exact proportions and the amount of water is almost impossible, because different additives have different water absorption, so focus on the consistency, constantly stirring the mixture.
Useful advice: before adding a marble crumb into solution, it should be rinsed well with water from dust to ensure maximum grip with cement and eliminate the formation of voids inside the floor.
Pole
The marble floor is filled with two layers, as a result of which an unusually durable coating is formed.
Progress:
- Prepare a classic cement-sandy solution M150. It should not be too thick to fill all empties and align the floor defects.
- Moisten the base with liquid cement mortar, highly diluted with water. Distribute the composition on the surface with a conventional broom or brush.
- Make a solution into cards and scatter with a wooden rail or plastic ironing, so that it turned out perfectly smooth and uniform layer with a thickness of about 2 cm.
- When the bottom layer hardens so much so that it can be calmly walk (it is not necessary to wait for complete drying), you can begin to the second stage of work - the fill of the marble mixture. Equally decompose the solution with a marble crumb to the cards between separators and crumple it with a smoil, making shock-progressive movements.
- When you filled all the cards, leave the surface to dry by 6-7 days.
Grinding surface
So that the floor covering has acquired shine and elegance for which it is appreciated, it should be stuck. When the marble floor is dry, you can start the surface of the surface with abrasive materials. For this, the grinder is used with a large abrasive, which easily copes with the removal of the upper layer of the hardened cement.
To make it easier and speed up the grinding process, moisten the surface with water and sprinkle it with a layer of small quartz sand. In case of detection after grinding, chosel and voids, they should be filled with cement mortar and thoroughly lure marble bars.
If we are talking about creating an expensive floor with a complex pattern, after ordinary grinding it is required to polish. Remove the entire smallest garbage and dust, put on the grinding the nozzle with the felt circle, apply a special paste on it and go through the entire surface.
In order not to give the floor to crack during drying, follows after the bookmark sprinkle a cement-marble solution with a layer of wood sawdust, and then sprinkled them with water as drying (once a day).
Mosaic tile floor
Laying mosaic floors can be carried out by the method of fill, as described above, or by laying up each element or fragments. Actually, it was created a real mosaic for centuries. If you need to make a reliable and moisture-resistant floor at home, it is not necessary to spend money on a massive and cold marble coating. The mosaic floor of the tile can be easily made with their own hands, not even having professional skills.
The pleasant news also is that at this event you can save greatly using a non-special mosaic tile, but an ordinary tile battle or at all fragments of ceramic dishes. You can buy such illiquid material in any large construction store or on the market.
Tying mosaic species
For the manufacture of tiled mosaics, not only ceramics or tile is used. There is a striking variety of textures, materials, shades and colors, among which you can find the product to the most pretty taste.
Mosaic tile happens:
- Tile - durable, durable, inexpensive, large selection of colors, textures, patterns.
- Glass - durable, hydrophobic, temperature-resistant, original appearance.
- Ceramic - durable, does not react to chemicals (can be used for kitchen and bathroom), does not fade, affordable.
- Concrete - more durable than the rest, frost-resistant, can be used on the street, withstands high loads, contains marble and granite inclusions. The disadvantage is a poor color palette.
- Metal - stainless steel mosaic on a rubber base. Very stylish, though quite cold. Suitable for floor lining in the kitchen, bathroom or hallway.
- Bitted ceramics - a special kind of mosaic, allowing to implement the most bold creative impulses. On the video - mosaic floor, made by hand from a bat tile:
Technology laying
If we are talking about laying a special floor tile, there is nothing complicated. In most cases, products are produced in the form of plates of small fragments, which are placed on a cement or adhesive solution like ordinary tiles. Describe this process will be excessive spending of your time, but this is really interesting, so this is the creation of a mosaic floor from a bit of ceramic or tile.
How can you make a beautiful and durable floor from the illiquid sloping tile? If you want to save money and time to the most, you can buy a tile battle of one color range and put pieces on the principle of puzzle. But if you intend to create the most real patterned mosaic, you need to know several secrets.
The principle of laying mosaic floors is pretty simple - the main contours of the figure are applied to the prepared grounds, colors are placed, after which the tile can be glued. Then the space between the mosaic pieces should be lured by a special composition of the appropriate shade. It sounds elementary, but there are two ways to lay tiles on the floor.
If you need to cover a small area, say, in a bathroom or toilet, you can quickly "sketch" an image with a pencil or chalk and immediately glue the suitable bit on the shape.
But if we are talking about a spacious room and a complex pattern on the floor, you will have to work out. To lay out a smooth and beautiful drawing as on the sketch, you must first collect fragments of the mosaic, and then glue them to the base.
How to do it:
- Live sketch on a real scale on a flat surface.
- Cover the sketch with a transparent self-tier film sticky side up.
- Secure the edge of the film with scotch, so that the drawing does not "move" in the process of work.
- Separate the protective coating from the adhesive surface and lay out the fragment of the figure in the sketch. Repeat the procedure for all major or most complex fragments that you would not be able to lay out "on the eye".
- Stick fragments to the base, slightly drowned in the adhesive composition.
- Wait for the whole drying of the glue and fill the seams between the tiles of the grout using a rubber spatula.
Useful trick: If you have a projector at your disposal, you can transfer the picture to the floor or the wall and lay it much faster.
Tip: If you are placing the mosaic tile on the floor in the kitchen, it is better to cover it with a protective casual lacquer, so that accidentally spilled coffee or wine did not leave ugly stains.
Finally, we suggest you to see what masterpieces can be made from the usual tile combat:
