How to install marble flooring?/Procedure for laying marble flooring. ~ PARAM VISIONS

Now, let us go through the step-by-step procedure for laying the marble flooring.

Procedure:

1. Cleaning:

The base of the floor should be cleaned by chiseling the remnants of mortar mix or leftover loose concrete. The pieces of brickbats, aggregate wastes, formwork chips, etc. should be scrapped or removed from the PCC surface.

2. Hacking:

The floor base or PCC surface should be hacked at regular intervals as per the specification. The hacking work can be done by using the cutter tools or by an appropriate chisel. After hacking, the base should be cleaned by removing the chipped materials.

The floor base should be washed with water to remove dirt & other adhered particles.

3. Cement slurry:

The cement slurry of the lean mix should be evenly spread over the hacked surface. Cement slurry helps to achieve good bonding between the mortar & the existing floor base.

4. Spreading mortar:

Mortar of the required proportion should be prepared & spread over the floor base. Usually, the mortar of a 1:6 ratio is used while installing the marble flooring. The mortar should be prepared in batches to cover the smaller area of the floor base.

We have to keep in mind that the prepared volume of mortar should be consumed within 2 to 3 hours time. Preparing the larger mortar volume to cover the entire floor area of a day's work should be avoided.

5. Marking level:

The top level of the flooring should be marked or transferred to the 4 corners of the room as shown in the above drawing. Piece of marble, i.e. used in flooring work should be temporarily laid at the room corners as a benchmark for the required slope & level.

6. Leveling mortar:

By holding the lineout string over the benchmark marble piece, the mortar should be leveled uniformly. The top level of the mortar should be floor level minus the marble thickness. A marble piece should be used beneath the string to reassure the mortar top level.

The leveled mortar should be grooved or indented by a trowel & cement slurry should be poured over them. The entire mortar surface should be grooved to its depth & the prepared slurry should enter those grooves for homogeneous bonding.

7. Laying marble:

A marble slab should be laid over the prepared mortar. The laying work should be started from one end of the room. The string is held over the benchmark level & the marble slab is tapped to match the string bottom.

A wooden log or rubber mallet is used for gently tapping or hammering the floor top to achieve the level.

8. Successive laying:

Before laying the next slab, the edge of the pre-laid marble tile or slab should be cleaned or wiped with clothes. The next slab piece is laid in line & level with the pre-laid tile. They should touch one another without a gap in their junction line. The edges of the two pieces should match accurately without any level difference.

The same procedure is followed for laying all the marble tiles or slabs till the complete floor work is done.

9. Grouting:

The floor joint should be racked & wiped with a clean cloth. White cement or suitable grouting material should be used to fill the joints. The color of the filler material should be selected or prepared to match the marble design.

10. Polishing: