Flooring, increasingly gaining popularity among the population - stone floor. In ancient times, stone was used for decoration, and in our time this tradition is returning. True, contemporaries prefer to use stone more often as a floor covering, rather than for wall cladding, since it is there that it is more appropriate to use it. There are several varieties of such floors - consider them in more detail.
Advantages
The first thing I would like to start with is to identify all the advantages and disadvantages of such sexes. Let's start with the pros.
- Stone is an environmentally friendly and safe material.
- The stone floor overnight makes the home more solid, it shows the welfare of its owner.
- Such floors are very durable, they are not afraid of hard brushes, nor abrasive cleaners, nor alkali. They are almost impossible to scratch or break.
- Stone floors are very beautiful. If you connect imagination, you can create whole mosaic paintings from natural or artificial materials.
disadvantages
Just like absolutely any thing, stone floors have their disadvantages:
- Objects that fall on such floors, beat very quickly. Also, stone floors are unsafe for small children.
- If you drop something on such a floor, the sound will be very loud.
- Natural stone is quite cold, so walking barefoot can be uncomfortable. Such a disadvantage is quite easily eliminated by installing a “warm floor” system.
- Stone - the material is quite massive, so in small rooms it will visually hide the area.
- Such floors have a higher price compared to the usual floor coverings.
There are several ways to install flooring such as stone flooring.
Kinds
- The coating is made from a mixture of quartz sand and stone chips using epoxy and polyurethane resins.
- The floor is made of stones and pebbles of an average fraction poured in a chaotic order.
- Laying flooring with stone tiles.
- Mirror stone floor.
In addition, it should be said that such floors differ in the material of manufacture. They can be made of natural stone - a more expensive option, or made of artificial stones - a cheap stone floor.
How to prepare the floor under a stone carpet?
The first thing to do before work is to perfectly level the floor. It should not have any cracks or differences in height. You should also remove the old flooring, leaving only concrete.
If your floor is uneven, then first you need to fill it with a self-leveling mixture and wait for a month until it dries completely. If there is no opportunity to purchase such a mixture for some reason, you can use an ordinary cement screed, but it also needs to be kept for about a month.
How to check the quality of the prepared floor?
- By level, identify all differences in height and bumps, as well as determine the level of the future gender.
- After running a palm across the floor, inspect the hand, and if there is sand on it, then carry out additional work to strengthen the floor.
- Try to make a small incision with a sharp object and check that the surface does not delaminate and does not crumble.
- Knock the prepared floor with a hammer, striking it with a sharp end with medium effort. No cracks, dents, or chips should remain.
- Check the floor for residual moisture. This can be done as follows: put on the floor a small piece of plastic film (about half a meter in size), glue all the edges with masking tape, and press down on top with something heavy, for example, a sand bag. Check the floor in a day - the surface under the film should be perfectly dry.
After you have made sure that the floor is ideally prepared for flooring, you need to remove all debris and dust from it, dry it well and cover it with a special primer. If a separate section requires slight alignment, you can do this with a special putty.
Styling features
Stone flooring is used in absolutely any room - from bathrooms to terraces and balconies. It can be found both in residential premises and in large institutions.
When using stone chips, you get a completely anti-slip coating, which is even more convenient in pools, bathrooms or in baths and saunas. In addition, stone floors are not afraid of moisture, which also speaks in their favor.
The installation process is simple, even a beginner can handle it. Ready mixes of various colors are available for sale. It is only necessary to mix all the components with a construction mixer, apply with a spatula to the floor, gently pressing, then over the finished surface you need to pass with a special fixing varnish and leave to dry for a day.
Features of laying stone slabs
The way a stone floor is made of slabs is almost the same as working with ceramic flooring. The stone is laid on an adhesive base, applied in a thin or medium thickness layer. Glue can be applied not only to the base, but also to the back of the tile to achieve maximum adhesion effect. It is especially good to use this method in rooms with high humidity, as well as for kitchens.
The process of laying a stone floor is as follows:
- Apply the prepared adhesive solution to a small area of the floor with a spatula.
- Press the stone tile into the glue and hold it for several seconds.
- Start work from the middle of the room, diverging to the corners. You can pre-make the markup in full size. Cropped tiles should run along the walls.
- After laying, it is necessary to polish the tile with fine sifted sand and cement (mixture in the proportions 30/70).
- At the end of the work, remove all dirt from the tiles and leave the glue to dry completely.
Features of laying the mirror floor
Initial technology is no different from laying stone floors from slabs. At the end of work, it is necessary to go through it several times with a grinding and polishing machine in order to smooth out all irregularities and seams. After this treatment, the surface begins to resemble a mirror.
It should be said that it is undesirable for beginners to undertake such work, since such installation of artificial stone on the floor requires skills in working with stone. In addition, the maintenance of such a coating is also quite complicated, it requires constant polishing and special chemicals.
Do-it-yourself stone floor
During installation, they use both large flat quartzites and small pebbles - it all depends on your ideas and creativity. Large quartz is laid immediately directly on the solution, and pebbles can first be glued to the grid, and then laid on the floor.
Naturally, the time spent working with small river pebbles is much higher, but such a floor looks much more interesting.
Note that if you decide to create a stone floor from small river pebbles, you will need to stack them one at a time, rinsing thoroughly and sorting by size. Carefully weigh your strength before starting such work.
After the entire floor is laid out, it is necessary to wipe all the seams.
Large quartz slabs are laid on cement mortar, diluted about 1/1 (it should be quite thick), and pebbles can be laid on both mortar and ready-mixed mixtures of epoxy and polyurethane resins.
Feedback and questions
And what do those who have already done such floors say? Almost everyone notes their convenience and durability. Unfortunately, in Russia the stone floor is more suitable for the southern regions, since it is quite cold.
There are also often questions about the fact that caring for him is rather complicated. If you do not take into account the mirror floors, which were mentioned above, then an ordinary stone floor does not require special care - wet cleaning and a vacuum cleaner, that’s all you need.
Questions about the high price are also quite reasonable, but it should be borne in mind that such a floor is done for many years. At the same time, it will practically not lose its appearance, will not be scratched and will not peel off. If you want to reduce the cost of work, then you can not use natural stone - there are a lot of types of artificial stones on sale, which practically do not differ from natural ones. Well, a home-made floor will generally cost you only the cost of cement.