Materials for floor

Materials for floor

A large number of alternative materials are available for construction of floors now a days.

Our choice of floor material depends on many factors such as floor, traffic, finance available for construction.

Details of construction of sub-base and base

Preparation: In all grounds care should be taken to reduce capillary suction of water though the floor by providing a layer of coarse sand filling over the consolidated ground. This is called sub base.

It can be stone ballast or brick bats.

Then the hardcore is covered with the layer of clear and sand well consolidated to a thickness of at least 100mm and preferably not less than 150mm

Preparation of base concrete

Usually over the sub-base, layer of lime surki brick jelly concrete(1:1:3/12) or cement concrete (1:4:8)

This layer is called sub grade

Commonly used floors

Brick on edge flooring

Cement concrete

Clay tile

Glazed ceramic

Wooden

Terrazzo

Glazed ceramic

PVC sheet

Linoleum

Rubber

Asphalt

Glass floor

Ceramic tiles

Glazed tiles were originally used in old buildings

These were replaced by ceramic glazed tiles which are made of clay

They were originally used only for walls where there is no traffic

Were made in the production of fully-vitrified floor tiles

Ceramic tiles

Generally available at 30cm-30cm with an original thickness of 7.5mm

Also made in thickness of 10mm for medium duty industrial floors and chemical resistant lining in factories

Polished vitrified tiles are claimed to be twice as tough as granite or marble

Ceramic tiles

One of the advantages of these tiles and other ceramic tiles made of advanced techniques is that their edges are generally reground to perfect line after its manufacture so that the mortar joint can be vert thin as in terrazo floors

Terrazzo

As in in situ and tile floors were once popular in India

Essentially a decorative concrete in which the aggregate is white and the binder is cement and marble powder

Also called venation mosaic

Terrazzo tile can be laid in situ or from factory-made precast tiles

Terrazo

Main disadvantage of such floors is the difficulty to get good raw materials and the time taken for polishing the surface

materials

Aggregates

Cement

Marble powder

manufacture

Mix proportions

Mixing

Structure

Pressing

Test requirement

Absorption test

Abrasion test

Traverse strength test on dry tiles

Traverse strength after immersion in water for 24 hours

Stone flooring  types

Cuddapa slabs

Kota stone

Sand stone

Shahabad stone

Granite

Marble

Marble stone flooring types

Plain white marble like makrana white and Abu white

Abu panther marble

White veined marble

Black zebra

Black zebra with grey and white veins

Green marble

Grey marble

Pink plain marble with light and dark shades

Brown marble

Properties

Moisture absorption after immersion in water for 24 hours should not be more than 0.4 percent by weight

Its hardness on moh’s scale should be at least three

Its specific gravity should not be less than 2.5

Concrete

Alternate with panels

Direct method with strips

Resilient floor material

Resilient means able to bring to the original form after compression or stretching

Floors such as rubber, linoleum floors, PVC floors

These floors are used in places where we want to reduce noise to the nominal level as in libraries, computer rooms, offices

Rubber flooring

Rubber sheets 90 cm wide and 2.5, 3.5 and 5m long

Rubber tiles 20cm-20cm(3.2 thick)

30-30 cm(4.8mm thick)

45-45 cm(6.4m thick)

types

Plain or marble

Ribbed or fluted

With fabric backing or fabric inset

With sponge rubber backing

Plain rubber packing

The rubber sheets are expensive in initial cost and spilling of oil, grease and gasoline.

They are not used in situations exposed to direct sunlight or rain as they deteriorate quickly under these conditions

Linoleum flooring

Manufactured by mixing oxidized linseed oil with gym, resins, pigments, woods, cork dust and other filler materials

Usually supplied with a Hessian backing

The Hessian backing shall not have less than 43 ends and 33 shots per decimeter

And a piece 90cm-100cm should weigh less than 200 grams

Linoleum flooring

Can be laid on many types of surfaces like timber, concrete, metal

The main disadvantage of these tiles is that is subjected to rotting when kept wet

Not recommended for basements, bathrooms, kitchens

PVC Flooring and tile flooring

Used for decorative purpose in residential places

Can be laid on concrete metal or timber

Consists of thoroughly blended composition of thermoplastic, binders, filler and pigments

PVC Flooring and tile flooring

The thermoplastic binder can be vinyl chloride or a copolymer of vinyl chloride.

Polymeric material shall be compounded with suitable plasticizers and stabilizer

The thicknesses of these sheets are to be measured by a micrometer with a flat bearing surface of at least 6.5mm diameter at both the contact points