Goyal Marbles Group has always made an endeavor to add value to its clients. Considering that there are different ways in which marble is being handled, we have produced this white paper to recommend our process for laying and handling Thassos and Statuario marble to get the correct flooring color and texture. This process is also designed to ensure that the finished flooring stays the same for years together.
Statuario and Thassos are the quintessential Italian marble, known for their beautiful grains and whiteness. Considering that both these are liked for their whiteness, it is essential that expert artisan/ marble layer who is conversant with working with these material is employed to get the required flooring.
Process of Laying
Pre Laying Preparation
Before starting the work, it is necessary that the complete material to be used at the site is received at the site. Not all areas at the site will have the same dimension. The same is also true of natural material. Each lot will have its own unique dimension, colour and grains. When the complete material is made available at the site, it’s easy for the architect, interior decorator and the marble laying expert to finalise the corresponding material for their respective floor based on its utility. This ensures appropriate cutting of material to minimise wastage and maximize the beauty of the floor. This also ensures that the complete laying can be completed as a single program.
It is important that while laying of marble, the site is completely free of all wood work. Any small piece of wood or metal can contaminate the base mixture used for laying white marble. If the base mixture has these impurities, especially wood, it can lead to seepage of the colour to the marble, giving its surface a brownish appearance.
Laying of Material
The beauty of white marble is in its whiteness. Hence it’s paramount that the marble laying expert is able to bring out the same in his workmanship.
Statuario and Thassos laying is done in the base mortar of white cement only. The sand (River recommended) used for the base mortar has to be sieved to ensure that the grains are of homogeneous type. The sand is then cleaned and washed with fresh water to ensure that all dirt and contamination is removed from it. After this, the same is sorted to remove any visible impurities from it. The base mortar material combination used is 1 White Cement: 4 Washed Sand.
As the base material is being made ready, simultaneously the marble is also cut to its final laying size after matching of grains. Special care is to be taken during grain matching and cutting to ensure that the corners are perpendicular to each other. The cut stones are to be carefully handled and stored in a way to ensure that the edges don’t chip. Sometimes ‘reverse stone laying’ is also used to get better grain matching in case the material and the site warrants the same.
The cut stone is thoroughly washed with fresh water and detergent (preferably one with oxybleach) and cleaned from all dust, grime, and surface contaminants. Special care should be taken to ensure that White marble is completely clean before any installation is attempted. Each of the cut stones are then applied with approved ‘Anti-Staining’ chemical coating on all 6 surfaces. The chemical coated stone is left for drying for about 48-72 hours as the case may be. The Anti-Staining chemical ensures 2 things
1.Gives the marble a protective layer to prevent it from any staining during the laying process
2.Fills any crack, pinhole or crevasse to ensure that the stone has uniform finish and strength
This chemically coated stone is laid on a white cement mortar base as indicated above. Care is to be taken that during and after laying, curing of the flooring is allowed for about seven days. In this period no work of any kind should take place on it.
Once the floor is cured, the Polishing of the floor can commence. The top surface needs to be polished with rough grinding stone. This is also the first layer of polish. Once this is done, the flooring can be completed by moving on to the Polishing stage. In case additional work is to be done at the site, Protective Coating has to be done on the floor at this stage
Protective Coating:
On the laid floor, after curing is done, the first coat of polish, also called ‘rough coat’ is done. This ensures that the joints that needs to be filled are exposed, any dust/contaminants which adhere to the floor during the laying process are removed.
In the rough coat, one layer of Anti-Staining Chemical is applied in a uniform homogeneous thickness coat is applied. This filling chemical has the same effect as the one done before laying of the stone. The process followed is also same.
On this chemically coated floor, a transparent sheet of polythene plastic is spread over the complete floor. On this sheet, 10 MM thick Gypsum boards are arranged to completely cover the floor. The space between the boards is filled with Plaster-of-Paris (POP) filling to bind the board on the floor. This POP is also poured over the board to make a uniform Protective Coating on the completely laid floor. This is allowed to dry for 48-72 hours as the case may be. Once dry, the floor can be used to complete other interior work like plumbing, ceiling,furniture, painting etc. Care needs to be taken that heavy equipment is not used on this protective flooring. Special care also needs to be taken to immediately replace any damaged protective coating as per the above process. This Protective Coating is to only be removed just before starting final polish. No other work should be done on the flooring once this is removed.
Polishing
Polishing of the floor is done to bring the mirror like finish to the marble. This is generally the last thing done in the site, just before moving in for use of the building.
Thassos Wonder Chemical of approved type is to be applied to the marble floor before every polish coat on the laid surface. This coating needs to be done before all the 10 coats of polish.
Polishing of the flooring can be done using either the Stone type polisher or the latest Pad type. In case the usage of the floor is heavy, a Polish-Protector Chemical of the approved type can be applied as a coating to seal in the polish and make the floor scratch resistant after the final coat of polish.
About Goyal Marble & Granite
Goyal Marble & Granite (GMG) is one of the leading and reputed marble houses in South India having presence across the Supply Chain – Processing of Marble Blocks to Turnkey Project Management. It is the leading supplier of italian marble in chennai.
GMG is built on the pillars of “Quality” and “Customer Service”. The focus on quality is such that even today the complete stock is hand-picked from across the world by the core team. GMG currently has over 400,000 sqft of warehouse space and 75,000 sqft of Retail showroom spaces spread across Chennai, Delhi and Kishangarh (Rajasthan) with representative office in Bangalore.
Please write to contact@goyalmarbles.com in case of any queries.
