Q.
Give your choices of floor finishes on solid concrete screeded floor.
A.
Bricks and tiles
There is a vast choice of tiles for flooring, ranging from ordinary ceramic tiles to luxurious tiles made from different types of marble. Tiles may also be made from baked clay or from materials like natural slate which is a type of stone.
Brick is a less usual choice than tiles, but brick paving may be used inside buildings.
Both bricks and tiles may be laid by skilled workers, alternatively contractors may employ artisans specialising in paving and/or tiling as sub-contractors, to do the work for them.
Bricks
Bricks are often laid in sand when they are laid as paving, but indoors they are usually laid on a screed. They can be laid abutting one another or by leaving a gap between the bricks which is then filled with mortar.
To give the brick surface a sheen use a mixture of boiled linseed oil (not raw linseed oil) and mineral turpentine to coat the bricks and then buff the surface with a floor polisher.
Ceramic tiles
The most common choice for kitchens and bathrooms, ceramic tiles are also laid on a screed, but they are fixed in place using a tile adhesive. Once they have been fixed in place they will need to be grouted so that all the gaps between the tiles are filled.
Ceramic tiles are manufactured with both matt and glazed surfaces. The shinier they are the more slippery they will be.
Marble and granite tiles
Considerably more expensive than ordinary ceramic tiles, marble and granite tiles are made from natural stone that is cut and polished. They should be laid on a screed according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Both marble and granite make a cool, hardwearing floor material that gives an interior a very classy feel. Because the material is polished, it does become slippery when it gets wet.
Larger marble and granite slabs are also available, but these are more commonly utilised as counter tops in kitchens or in bathrooms.
Quarry tiles
Made from baked clay, quarry tiles are used inside buildings and on patios. They range from small, regular tiles that are all exactly the same size, to large handmade tiles that may not all be exactly the same size.
Quarry tiles may be laid in a slush on the screed or they may be fixed using a cement-based tile adhesive.
Slate
A quarried material, slate is most commonly cut into tiles although irregular shapes are available for crazy paving and it is sometimes cut into slabs.
The range of soft floor coverings we can use includes carpets, matting and various types of sheeting, including tiles that are made from the same material as the sheeting. All must be laid over a screeded floor.
Carpeting
There is a huge selection of carpeting products available for use in homes and other buildings, some of which are more hardwearing than others. Materials include natural wool, acrylic fibre, tough, hardwearing polyester, and coir and sisal, both of which are forms of natural matting.
Wall-to-wall carpeting is commonly laid on screeded floors, and usually on an underfelt. This makes the carpet softer underfoot and protects it from the excessive wear and tear it would undergo if it was laid directly on the hard, abrasive screed.
Usually carpets are laid by special installers who also supply the carpets, rather than the contractor.
Sheeting
Rubber, vinyl and linoleum sheeting has come a long way in the last 20 years. The range has grown and various sheeting products now offer added extras including durability, slip resistance and static control.
Generally supplied in large rolls, rubber, vinyl (which is strong type of plastic) and linoleum (made mainly from natural raw materials) are all glued to a screed.
But now there are also more sophisticated products including woodplank vinyl laminated floor coverings that are supplied in plank form or in panels that you slot together without any glue. Laminate planks and tiles are also available, with or without grooved edges. And for people who want a slate or marble look that is not as expensive as the real thing and a lot softer and warmer, there are now luxury slate and marble vinyl tiles that are made with high quality photographic film so that they look like the real thing.
Other flooring products
Various other flooring products are available, some of which produce hard-wearing seamless surfaces. Some are floated into wet concrete while others are applied to the screed. Examples include:
• a granolithic material that is floated into wet concrete that strengthens and colours concrete floors,
• a coloured cement-based self-levelling floor cover that is rolled or wood-floated on concrete screeds to produce a 2-3 mm layer that won’t crack,
• specialist epoxy polyurethane flooring systems including polyurethane floor screeds and self-levelling toppings for floors, and
• a seamless stone flooring system that uses quartz aggregates and clear epoxy resins.