Common Stone Flooring Mistakes. Part 3. Avoid Covering
Avoid Covering So in the end, don’t cover your new stone flooring! There are just too many problems that can happen. If you’re doing many works and renovations to your home, make sure that you do the floor at the end. You might be tempted to get it done in the beginning, but it’s just not worth it. Many professional installers will save the floor for last, especially in their demonstration kitchens. Do it like the professionals, and wait until the end of the programme. If you have some minor kitchen work to be done towards the end and you’ve laid your ...
Stone Flooring Mistakes
How to avoid “Picture Framing” in your new stone flooring Picture framing is a problem anyone with stone flooring can face, especially with an inexperienced installer or a DIY install. It’s easy to spot, because you’ll see discolouration of the tile around its edges; this is often happens after you’ve grouted the stone tiles, but can depend on a variety of factors. Using a Cheap Grout not Suited for Stone Tiles While you may be saving money in the short run, you’ll only be hurting yourself later. Cheap grouts are unstable and will discolour easily. When you buy and install your stone tile ...
The Simple Guide to Natural Stone Tiles. Part 3. Installing Your Stone Tiles, Care and Maintaining.
Installing Your Stone Tiles If you’re installing your stone tiles yourself, you need to read through installation guides so you understand exactly what you need to do to fit, cut and install your stone tiles. Reading up on installation only takes a few hours, it can take months to correct bad tile! Once you know how to fit and cut your tile, make sure that you have all the tools required for stone tile installation. Do you have a diamond blade wet cutting saw? Do you have all of your sealers, adhesive and grout? If you don’t have these tools, you can ...
The Simple Guide to Natural Stone Tiles. Part 2. How to Buy Stone Tiles
How to Buy Stone Tiles Remember before you decide to buy any tiles, you order samples of the tile you want to use, so you can put it in your space and see how it compliments it. Pictures are nice, but the physical product will help you really understand what you’re buying. Once you’ve made your final decision about which stone tiles you’re going to buy, you have two options; you order them off the internet or give us a call and we will handle it for you. Remember when ordering that you need to order an extra 10% so you have ...
The Simple Guide to Natural Stone Tiles. Part 1. Selecting Your Stone Tiles
Selecting Your Stone Tiles When choosing your stone tiles, you need to make sure you get them from the right source. At , we always have a wide variety of stone tiles on hand that can give you the best value and quality without breaking your budget. Before you can decide on which tiles you should buy, you need to understand how different factors affect the price and quality of stone tiles: Tile Finish: Different finishes give your surfaces different effects, and will significantly affect the look and feel. If you want a rustic or aged feel to your stone tiles, you will ...
Stone Flooring Mistakes
Is plywood the right way to go? If you’ve ever worked with plywood, you know that it’s ideal for many home projects, especially flooring. One problem that you will run into though with stone flooring is that it may just not be ideal for your project. One question you might have is “Why isn’t plywood good for stone flooring?” Stone is an organic material, but it is shape dependant; since plywood can swell and shrink, it can crack your stone flooring and leave you with a big mess. When you’re tiling a suspending floor, British Standards states that you need at least ...
The Simple Guide to Purchasing, Installing and Maintaining Engineered Oak Flooring. Part 4.
Making your Engineered Oak Floor Last Always make sure that you use the right products when treating and caring for your oak engineered floors; use Osmo wood soaps, oils, and other products designed for wood. If you use the wrong cleaners, you’ll end up with dull floors that need professional resurfacing. Before you use any products or mop, vacuum your flooring to ensure that you don’t press any dirt or debris into the cracks. When you mop make sure it’s damp but not soaking wet; too much moisture can damage your oak flooring. Protect your flooring from dents and scruffs by using soft ...
The Simple Guide to Purchasing, Installing and Maintaining Engineered Oak Flooring. Part 3.
Installing Your Oak Flooring Installing your flooring doesn’t have to be hard, but it can be depending on what techniques and knowledge you utilize. Here are some of the more common methods for installing engineered oak flooring: Structural Flooring: Here, you use the Oak boards as a structural floor by nailing them to joists to create a new floorboard or replace an old one; in this instance you’ll need thick narrow boards to do it right. Floating Floors: With the help of an underlay, you can easily create a floating floor from engineered oak boards; all you need to do is glue them together ...
The Simple Guide to Purchasing, Installing and Maintaining Engineered Oak Flooring. Part 2.
How to Choose Your Engineered Oak Flooring There’s no end to what choices you have when choosing your engineered oak flooring; but with each options you can get a different look and a different price, so it’s important to know what your options are. Purchasing Your Engineered Oak Flooring When you buy your flooring online, you’ll be able to get the best prices; one thing to look out for is the quality of the flooring, so be sure that you get samples to make sure you’re getting the right product for your project. When you order your engineered oak floor, be sure that ...
The Simple Guide to Purchasing, Installing and Maintaining Engineered Oak Flooring. Part 1.
How to Choose Your Engineered Oak Flooring There’s no end to what choices you have when choosing your engineered oak flooring; but with each options you can get a different look and a different price, so it’s important to know what your options are. Choosing your Board Size: Widths: The first thing about board sizes is to figure out which will best compliment the room they will be installed in. Some will opt for mixed widths of wide and narrow boards; this will lend a more casual and homey feel to your room. Lengths: The most common length is 1860mm, but we at offer lengths ...
Avoid Covering
So in the end, don’t cover your new stone flooring! There are just too many problems that can happen. If you’re doing many works and renovations to your home, make sure that you do the floor at the end. You might be tempted to get it done in the beginning, but it’s just not worth it.
Many professional installers will save the floor for last, especially in their demonstration kitchens. Do it like the professionals, and wait until the end of the programme. If you have some minor kitchen work to be done towards the end and you’ve laid your new stone flooring, they can temporarily cover the floor and remove their sheets when they’re done.
If you just can’t get around laying your stone flooring after you do the work, make sure you keep the floors protected properly! After the work day, make sure you or the people conducting the works sweep up at the end of the day so nothing scratches the surfaces of your tiles. If you must tape a dust sheet, be sure that you tape the wall next to the floor, and not the floor itself.
So, cover if you must, but let the floor breathe. A stone floor tiles are organic and need to breathe! Remind everyone to be careful with your floor, and you’ll do fine.
How to avoid “Picture Framing” in your new stone flooring
Picture framing is a problem anyone with stone flooring can face, especially with an inexperienced installer or a DIY install. It’s easy to spot, because you’ll see discolouration of the tile around its edges; this is often happens after you’ve grouted the stone tiles, but can depend on a variety of factors.
Using a Cheap Grout not Suited for Stone Tiles
While you may be saving money in the short run, you’ll only be hurting yourself later. Cheap grouts are unstable and will discolour easily. When you buy and install your stone tile flooring, make sure you use brands like Ardex, Mapei, and Bal; these are more suited to organic materials like stone.
Installing Wet Stone
Stone tiles come straight from the manufacturer wet, to preserve the size, shape and colour of the tile during transport. Before you install your stone tile flooring, be sure that the tiles have completely dried out; you will know that the stone is dry when the color is visible around the edges. You may not want to wait, but this will give you a floor that will last you many years!
Grouting your Tiles before Sealing
Your stone tiles must be sealed properly with an impregnating sealer before you grout them. Grout will stain tile without proper sealing, and will give you that awful discolouration. Remember to make sure that the tiles are completely dry, seal them with sealer and let them dry overnight before you install and grout.
Choosing a Variety of Stone that is Susceptible to Framing:
Some varieties of stone tile are just more susceptible to picture framing, and you will have to take great care to prevent framing! Make sure that you seal them heavily with impregnable sealers and that they are completely dry before you begin to install and grout them. Examples of stone that is susceptible to framing including dark basalts (black, grey, etc.), fine fossiled limestone, Jura limestones, Beglian Bluestone, and Moleanos.
By watching out for these mistakes, you can avoid these problems! Remember, it may be cheap and fast to install your stone tile flooring if you skimp on materials or proper time to dry, but the results are nothing less than disastrous. Stone tile floors are organic, and need plenty of time to breathe and dry. By following all these steps, you can ensure that you will have a floor that you can enjoy for years to come.
Stone by .
May 11
12
The Simple Guide to Natural Stone Tiles. Part 3. Installing Your Stone Tiles, Care and Maintaining.
Installing Your Stone Tiles
If you’re installing your stone tiles yourself, you need to read through installation guides so you understand exactly what you need to do to fit, cut and install your stone tiles. Reading up on installation only takes a few hours, it can take months to correct bad tile!
Once you know how to fit and cut your tile, make sure that you have all the tools required for stone tile installation. Do you have a diamond blade wet cutting saw? Do you have all of your sealers, adhesive and grout? If you don’t have these tools, you can buy them from StoneandWoodShop website. We offer only the best tools you need to do a correct installation.
Once you have all of your tools, make sure that your floors are prepared; if you don’t know how to do this, read the installation guide. If someone is handling your installation for you, make sure they have experience in installing natural stone tile.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call us! We here at StoneandWoodShop are happy to help answer any questions you may have and help you get the job done right.
Care and Maintaining Your Stone Tiles
Once you have installed your stone tiles, you need to give them the proper care and maintenance. Since natural stone tiles will require special cleaning products like Lithofin brand products for stone tile; before you buy your tiles be sure to pick up Lithofin Easy Care (regular cleaning) and Lithofin Powerclean (deep cleaning) products to keep your floors shining and beautiful for years to come.
How to Buy Stone Tiles
Remember before you decide to buy any tiles, you order samples of the tile you want to use, so you can put it in your space and see how it compliments it. Pictures are nice, but the physical product will help you really understand what you’re buying.
Once you’ve made your final decision about which stone tiles you’re going to buy, you have two options; you order them off the internet or give us a call and we will handle it for you. Remember when ordering that you need to order an extra 10% so you have extras to fit those hard to reach spots, slack for broken tile and cutting.
Once you’ve placed your order, we’ll make sure your stone tiles are in stock and get them delivered to you. We will give you the exact date when you can expect delivery of your stone tiles, but since they’re an expensive item, be sure someone is home to accept the delivery.
Storage of Your Stone Tiles
Storage of stone tile is important; it needs to be kept in a dry place, on a soft surface in a vertical position so you don’t chip or break the edges.
Selecting Your Stone Tiles
When choosing your stone tiles, you need to make sure you get them from the right source. At
Tile Finish:
Different finishes give your surfaces different effects, and will significantly affect the look and feel.
If you want a rustic or aged feel to your stone tiles, you will want the “aged” or “tumbled” variety; these aren’t as shiny as other kinds of stone tiles, but they have a soft worn look about them. They are of the same quality as shiny tiles, but are put through a process at the manufacturer that wears the surface just enough to give you the look you need.
If you want a cleaner, modern look, the “Honed” or “polished” variety of stone tiles will be the right decision for you. These go through a process of straight cutting for precision fit, and are polished to a high shine.
Tile Colour:
The colour of your tiles is just as important as the finish; but unlike finishes, you have a gigantic variety to choose from. Since stone tiles are a natural product, different kinds will provide you with different surface effects and colour depths. “Clean” tiles give a slight gradient to colour; while “dirty” stone tiles will have an interesting change in colour. We have free stone tile samples so you can see which one will fit your design needs, and many high quality pictures so you can get an idea of what each stone tile looks like.
Tile Size:
Different stone materials will have different tile shapes, some have straight edges, some rounded, and some irregular mosaics; what shape and size you want will help you choose the right stone tiles for you.
Once you’ve figured out the tile size, colour, and finish you’re ready to buy!
Is plywood the right way to go?
If you’ve ever worked with plywood, you know that it’s ideal for many home projects, especially flooring. One problem that you will run into though with stone flooring is that it may just not be ideal for your project.
One question you might have is “Why isn’t plywood good for stone flooring?” Stone is an organic material, but it is shape dependant; since plywood can swell and shrink, it can crack your stone flooring and leave you with a big mess.
When you’re tiling a suspending floor, British Standards states that you need at least two layers of 9mm thick plywood on staggered joints, to provide support. All edges and sides should also be sealed and there should be gaps of a few millimetres in between each sheet of plywood.
Doing it this way will give your floor the best chance possible to move and breathe without cracking, but with all these problems it should help you understand how plywood might not be a suitable base to install your stone floor tiling. The reason that all the edges and faces of the plywood must be sealed is to protect it from the effects of moisture; this will keep your ply from shrinking or expanding, especially when you’re utilizing under floor heating.
But no one really installs plywood this way; you end up with one sheet a bit thicker than 9mm and unsealed plywood. Most plywood is stored in humid conditions, giving a shoddy base to your flooring. Add to this the fact that under floor heating is widespread in the UK, chances are if you have stone flooring installed with plywood you will end up with cracked floors. There are just too many problems with extreme temperatures and humidity that the plywood is going to swell and shrink over time.
Contractors, builders and installers will try and tell you that flexible adhesives will solve this problem, but it can’t deal with so much movement and you can end up with a ruined floor. You can always spot which floors have been damaged by improper installs over plywood: the breaks in the stone will match the widths of the plywood beneath.
When you choose the materials for your subfloor, you need to look for the lateral movement (side to side) and the “minimum deflection” rating (up and down impact as you walk on it or have things placed on the surface). Both of these factors can contribute to the damage of your stone tile flooring.
The Better Choice
You should choose a material that actually works with stone flooring, not against it! Installing uncoupling matting over plywood before you install your stone floor will help it cope with movement as well as give it the spring it needs to move. A good kind of uncoupling matting is Schluter Ditra matting. You’ll find this product ideal for stone flooring, as it can deal with both lateral and deflection movement, keeping your floors beautiful for years to come. You can find Schluter Ditra matting easily, but we sell it here on our website (link), and if you’d like to know more you can check out the technical detail page for Ditra Matting as well as how to install it on your subflooring on Youtube here.
Stone by .
Apr 11
17
The Simple Guide to Purchasing, Installing and Maintaining Engineered Oak Flooring. Part 4.
Making your Engineered Oak Floor Last
Always make sure that you use the right products when treating and caring for your oak engineered floors; use Osmo wood soaps, oils, and other products designed for wood. If you use the wrong cleaners, you’ll end up with dull floors that need professional resurfacing.
Before you use any products or mop, vacuum your flooring to ensure that you don’t press any dirt or debris into the cracks. When you mop make sure it’s damp but not soaking wet; too much moisture can damage your oak flooring.
Protect your flooring from dents and scruffs by using soft pads under table and chair legs, and you’ll have a beautiful floor for years to come!
Take a look at some engineered oak flooring product.
Apr 11
13
The Simple Guide to Purchasing, Installing and Maintaining Engineered Oak Flooring. Part 3.
Installing Your Oak Flooring
Installing your flooring doesn’t have to be hard, but it can be depending on what techniques and knowledge you utilize.
Here are some of the more common methods for installing engineered oak flooring:
Structural Flooring:
Here, you use the Oak boards as a structural floor by nailing them to joists to create a new floorboard or replace an old one; in this instance you’ll need thick narrow boards to do it right.
Floating Floors:
With the help of an underlay, you can easily create a floating floor from engineered oak boards; all you need to do is glue them together and fix them to the underlay, and you have a floating floor.
Secret Nailing:
Secret nailing is the process of using a nail gun at an angle with a special kind of nail that hides where the nail enters, but keeps it in place. For this you will need a nail gun that can fire 38mm to 50mm serrated nails; smooth nails won’t work for this task.
Stickdown Flooring:
If you have a plywood, concrete or chipboard type floor, you should use stickdown; if it’s a timber floor make sure you use the secret nailing method above. You’ll need a flexible adhesive along with an acoustic underlay to make sure the floor works well, but make sure everything is dry before you lay down the floor.
Take a look at some engineered oak flooring products.
Mar 11
28
The Simple Guide to Purchasing, Installing and Maintaining Engineered Oak Flooring. Part 1.
How to Choose Your Engineered Oak Flooring
There’s no end to what choices you have when choosing your engineered oak flooring; but with each options you can get a different look and a different price, so it’s important to know what your options are.
Choosing your Board Size:
Widths:
The first thing about board sizes is to figure out which will best compliment the room they will be installed in. Some will opt for mixed widths of wide and narrow boards; this will lend a more casual and homey feel to your room.
Lengths:
The most common length is 1860mm, but we at
Thickness:
Thicknesses range between 15mm and 20mm; if you’re going to fix your boards to joists for a floating floor, remember that you need to get a thicker board. Thicker boards also have a 6mm wear layer to keep your floors lasting longer.
Finish:
Oak Engineered flooring usually comes from the factory prefinished in your choices of finishing like lacquer and oil, or you can get them unfinished so you can do it your own. Choosing your finishing doesn’t have to be hard, since there are only two choices.
Oil finish – This provides you with the most natural looking result for engineered oak flooring, as well as the easiest maintenance option; if you get any scratches in the flooring, you can easily do touch-ups with oil.
Lacquer finish – This option gives you a beautiful finish, but you won’t be able to repair it as easily without specialized tools like a French polisher.
Unfinished flooring – This will allow you to pick your own finishing; the boards will come pre-sanded from the factory, so you can do your own finishing at home. It’s worth to note that you will not save any money by going this route, the boards cost about the same amount with or without finishing.
Cost:
If you’re trying to save money, it’s good to remember that narrow planks will always be cheaper than wider ones; boards with imperfections will always be a more affordable. The cheapest option in engineered oak flooring is not always the best, so be careful to examine all the options available to you.
If you see something listed as “select grade”, you will pay more money. “Select grade” doesn’t always mean that you’re getting the best product, so make sure that you can look for value, but not for the cheapest deal. A great floor will last you for many years to come, so be sure to pick your materials wisely.