Floored By Flooring

In modern times, an increasing number of people around the world are conscious about the environment and the need to save it for the future. Many try to do their bit in saving the environment by choosing to purchase or use environment-friendly products. One such product available for flooring material, and fairly used, is stone flooring. Many people opt for stone flooring in their homes. Not only is stone flooring environment-friendly, it also lends a pleasing look to the house and it is very durable.

Stone flooring materials are available in various types and ranges. As with any material purchase, the more you are prepared to pay, higher the type and quality of the stone flooring you get. The kinds of stone that are being used in flooring since a very long time include granite, travertine, agglomerated stone tiles and marble.

Depending upon which kind of room in your home you want the stone flooring on, you can select the type of stone material. All stone materials are naturally found, and provide attractive options in flooring.

In marble, there are two kinds that are used for stone flooring - the polished marble and unpolished marble.

Polished marble is very popular and widely used in stone flooring. It is a soft stone and has a streaked look. While laying polished marble, you need to seal it with a natural stone sealer to retain its original look and feel for many years.

On the other hand, unpolished marble has several distinctions in its color design. Other designs or streaks are not visible. Its surface is not perfectly smooth and resembles a sponge in having soft porous texture and compressibility. This slightly irregular surface gives a good feel to your feet when you are standing or moving about on the unpolished marble stone floor. It also has many features of polished marble stone flooring with respect to appearance and still lends an attractive look to your stone floor.

As with most flooring material, you need to prepare the bottom floor before laying the stone flooring. Preparation basically means ensuring that the base floor is free from roughness and indentations, and is firm. You will have to place the marble tiles on the base floor with white thin set mortar. Ensure that you have placed the marble tiles as per your plan, and then, force it down on the mortar. You need to apply an acrylic sealer before you apply the grouting, if not, the grouting will leak through and stain the stone floor. Note that the grout lines will be of uneven width since the marble comes in different random shapes. However, this adds an atypical look to your stone floor. Finally, cut the marble flooring with a wet saw.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 9:19 am and is filed under Floor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.