Travertine Flooring Advantages

By | Posted in: Travertine Flooring |

As many designers already know, there are many advantages in choosing Travertine as a flooring choice. Travertine is not just a pretty face, Travertine flooring will not only look beautiful and enhance your home, it will serve as an environmentally friendly and durable flooring product that will stand the test of time, look stunning and, once properly sealed, will be relatively low maintenance and easy to clean.

Travertine flooring will enhance whatever decor you chose for your home. Although pure travertine is white, the impurities in the stone produce neutral colours and variegated shading that work with nature and seamlessly blend with its surroundings. With colours ranging from greys and creams to corals, Travertine flooring can be classic and sophisticated or rustic with lots of character depending on the choice of Travertine on offer.

With a number of finishes available, Travertine flooring is a designers dream. From the classic honed and filled Travertine which gives a look of chic sophistication to the rustic tumbled unfilled Travertine to impart that timeless charm of an era long gone, Travertine flooring allows you to be as creative as you want with a choice of tile sizes and featuring straight or chipped edge finishes, your Travertine flooring will be as individual as you.

Due to its unique composition, Travertine flooring is the perfect choice for under-floor heating, with its natural indentations and fissures, heat is able to pass through these many openings and grooves ensuring perfect heat conduction.

Travertine flooring is suitable for most areas within the home being hard wearing and durable, but due to the porosity of Travertine, it will need to be professionally sealed after installation. Travertine is alkaline and will react when it comes into contact with acids from liquid, food or harsh cleaners which can cause staining and damage. But with the correct sealing and the use of the right cleaning products, Travertine flooring can be safely used in kitchens and bathrooms to create an environmentally friendly surface that is easy to maintain, durable and will withstand even the most demanding households.

Sealed Travertine flooring will not absorb dust mites, chemicals, odours or gases and is the perfect choice for allergy sufferers. A Travertine floor is a healthy, bacteria free solution to creating an environmentally friendly home.

Travertine flooring cannot be duplicated by any other natural material and can easily be identified due to its unique rustic, yet simple elegance. Having Travertine flooring in your home will bring out the beauty of the stone as it occurs in nature giving a look that is truly matchless. If you are looking to add value, elegance and beauty, Travertine flooring wins hands down.

How to grout a natural stone tile floor

By | Posted in: Care Guides, Stone Flooring |

The grouting of your stone tiles should commence approximately 12 to 24 hours after the stone tile has been treated with a primary Seal of Lithofin Stain Stop. This will reduce the porosity of the tiles and discourage ‘picture-framing’ or edge-staining. We recommend Ardex grouts for natural stone tiles. Follow the manufacturers’ recommendations when mixing up the grout.

There are two methods used to fill the joints or gaps between the stone tiles:

  1. Pointing – the grout is pushed into the joints using a grout float/squeegee until flush with the surfaces. Wipe off excess as detailed below.
  2. Slurry grouting – spread the grout across the whole face of the stone tiles, working the grout into the joints using a grout float/squeegee. Slurry grouting is used to fill in any holes in the surface of the tiles such as tumbled unfilled or antiqued travertine, some limestone tiles and marble stone tiles. Remove excess as below.

Please note that only a manageable area should be grouted at a time to enable surplus grout to be removed before it dries. Clean the grouted area using a wet grout sponge, wipe several times, rinsing thoroughly between wipes. Care should be taken not to leave grout on the tile face, as it may be difficult to remove the residue when dry.

On completion of the grouting, the natural stone floor or wall tiles should be wiped over again to ensure that all grout residue has been removed. Once the grout has dried, the stone tiles should be buffed or polished with a clean, dry cloth to remove the ‘bloom’ (a dusty, cloudy residue). If there is still any excess grout on the floor after it has been cleaned, Lithofin Power Clean may be used to remove this.

benefits of stone flooring

Advantages and benefits of Stone flooring

By | Posted in: Stone Flooring |

Cleaning stone floor tiles and stone wall tiles natural stone is very easy to care for with the correct products. A well installed floor in a normal domestic environment should need no more than a regular clean with a good quality Stone soap, our Lithofin Easy Care is the perfect product for this. The floor should be swept or vacuumed prior to mopping to remove any loose dirt or debris. Then simply mop over with a diluted care product. These soaps are designed to be left on the floor as they clean and also recondition the floor. Think of it like applying moisturiser to your hands. Once all of the soap on your mop has been used simply rinse the mop in clean water, pop back into the diluted care product and continue like this until your entire floor is cleaned.

This simple cleaning routine should keep your stone floor tiles and stone wall tiles pristine and in excellent condition. If you do notice your floor beginning to look worn or more difficult to clean then the stone may require a re seal. Again this is a simple procedure and our Lithofin Power Clean and Lithofin Stain Stop are specially designed for this purpose. Please see our Guides section for detailed instructions on this.

Durability of stone flooring and wall tiles

Stone by nature is an incredibly durable material. People often have the false opinion that it can be difficult to care for and this could not be further from the truth. We simply need to look at how long stone has been widely in use to see that it is unrivalled in durability. You should ask yourself how easy would it be to mop the carpet when it gets dirty. The beauty of stone tiles is that they are hard wearing, water resistant and easy to care for. A good quality stone tile, installed correctly should last a lifetime, the perfect choice for any domestic or commercial situation.

Aesthetics of stone floor tiles and stone wall tiles

There is no substitute for the beauty and complexity of natural stone tiles which ceramic tiles and porcelain tile imitations cannot capture. The feel and appearance of natural stone tiles are luxurious and elegant. No two stone floors will ever look exactly the same, each piece of stone is truly unique and will add class to any decor.

Stone tiles are found in every colour, shape, size and finish you could ever possibly want. There will always be a stone out there which is perfect for the job.

how to measure a room

How to measure your room

By | Posted in: Guides |

Before ordering your stone tiles or engineered oak flooring, you will need to work out how much you need. Our products are sold by the square metre or multiples thereof to the nearest tile or plank.

If the room is square or oblong, then it is very quick and easy to work out the size of the area. Simply measure the length and width in metres (m) from wall to wall, multiply one by the other and this will give you the answer.

Example: if your room is 4.60m long and 3.75m wide, this is 4.6 x 3.75 = 17.25 so you require 17.25 square metres. We recommend that you add on 10% for cutting, wasteage and selection of material so this means another 1.725 square metres which equals 18.975 square metres. For ease, round it up or down to the nearest decimal point (18.9 or 19 square metres). You are now ready to order your natural stone tiles or engineered oak!

If your room is not oblong, it is best to draw it on a piece of paper first, then try and divide it into square/oblong areas. Measure each of these areas and then multiply the square metres for each. Add them all together and then add your wasteage to get a total.

how-to-measure-your-room

For smaller areas such as bathroom floors or walls, it is wise to try and draw the room to scale and to fit in to the drawing the tile sizes required as the amounts required can vary according to the tile size.

types of marble

Types of Marble

By | Posted in: Marble Flooring, Types of Flooring |

Marble is a stunning material which, once finished, is very elegant and beautiful. There are many varieties of Marble tiles in a huge array of colours. Marble tiles can range from rich, dark and opulent blacks to delicious, luxurious caramels and coffees to striking iridescent silvers and any other colours imaginable in between. A truly classic, tasteful and expressive stone which will complement any style of decor.

Marble is an incredibly hard and durable stone, easily able to withstand the rigours of any situation. It is one of the oldest building materials and due to its outstanding durability, historic examples of marble work is still in existence. Despite its durability,Marble is a porous stone with fairly low stain resistance it is therefore imperative to ensure that it has been well sealed, installed correctly and is maintained with a good quality stone soap and care products. Our Lithofin Easy Care is the perfect regular cleaning product for your marble floor and marble wall tiles.

Many people have the pre conception that Marble is very expensive and therefore often over look it. This is not true, Marble tiles, although slightly pricier than Travertine tiles and Slate tiles does not have to be awfully expensive. There are some very good quality Marble tiles available at reasonable prices. Please see our fantastic selection of Marble tiles.

What is Marble?

It is a metamorphic rock composed of fairly pure calcite due to regional or contact metamorphism of sedimentary carbonate rocks, either limestone or dolostone. This metamorphic process causes a complete recrystallisation of the original rock into an interlocking mosaic of calcite and/or dolomite crystals. The temperatures and pressures necessary to form marble usually destroy any fossils and sedimentary textures present in the original rock. The presence of swirls, linear patterns or banding is a key characteristic.

Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of very pure limestones. The characteristic swirls and veins of many coloured marble varieties are usually due to various mineral impurities such as clay, silt, sand, iron oxides, or chert which were originally present as grains or layers in the limestone. Green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally high magnesium limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallised by the intense pressure and heat of the metamorphism.