Advice on natural stone floors.

[Michael]

Hi guys
Any advice on how to deal with 29m2 of limestone and travatine floor tiles in 6 patterns for showroom floor onto concrete ?
Sometimes we get ourselves into some corners !
What type cement ?
What type grout ?
What spacings ?
What pitfalls lie ahead?

No owner or manager on site,shop fitting contractor just wants it laid asap. Trying to get more information as to sealing and size of tiles from owner, but he's not answering calls. Contractor panicking as he says he's just been left to it by owner.
Tiles arriving Wednesday 8th. Infectious this panicking feeling. Any help gratefully received.
Thanks
Mick.

 

[McP77]

White flexible adhesive. When you say showroom is that commercial/heavy use?
Flexible grout (maybe BAL limestone in colour)
British Standards state minimum 3mm grout gap
Seal before and after grouting
Be careful with the limestone. It's a soft material and can easily be scratched.
Make sure you fill in any holes in the back of the stone with adhesive prior to fixing

 

[DHTiling]

Good advice by mcp77....Also you might need to incorporate expasion joints into the tiled floor at intervals of between 5 and 8 mtrs depending on what your longest run of tiles is....and what the shape of the room is......and if expansion joints are in substrate then yours need to go where they are.........

lithofin stainstop is good for natural stones of that type.........

floor also might want levelling to achieve a nice flat finish....

Smoothing and Levelling Compounds from ARDEX UK

Lithofin stone & tile care - buy online at Leafcutter Design

 

[Michael]

Its a new natural stone kitchen fitting shop opening in town, granite worktops and natural floors etc.
It has 6 seperate kitchens with cupboards, sink and cooker hood on display,all running alongside one another. 3 of them have island workstations in middle of floor.
If I get the floor right I get the worktops also,hence my caution, but what a good place to get your cards in first !
Its just natural stones of differing types thats worrying me and am looking for pitfalls against laying a normal one type ceramic like floor.
Mick.

 

[IvegotsTILE]

We're all here to help mate,I would dream of having that job,get it right you won't have to look for work anywhere else so just take your time.
Find out what your actually using then either come back on here and ask or knip down your local tile suppliers and they should give you all the info you need.

 

[Michael]

I agree, thats my problem. Not seeing the actual different kind of tile, but putting my name forward anyway.
Going to go with Bal PTB Flexible 20kg bags. What about coverage ? 5m2 per bag or less with naturals ?
Mick.

 

[IvegotsTILE]

I'd say a bit less mate,also depends what floors like.