Eco-Gres Installation

ECO-GRES™ Asia and Mosaic Installation

For installation care and maintenance there are not too many differences between our porcelain tiles and other ceramic tiles, however following points should be observed:

Setting materials (adhesives):
They must be specifically addressed to lay porcelain tiles (very low water absorption / impervious). The majority of setting material manufacturers like Mapei, Laticrete, etc., have a specific brand of adhesives for this purpose. Usually they are cement/sand mixtures with addition of polymers or latex that can increase the bond strength a lot of times relation normal glues for porous ceramics. Follow Guidelines of the NTCA installation guide for Porcelain Tiles.

Pre-Grout Treatments:
Some unglazed tile products have rough or open pores in the surface that can trap grout particles during the grouting process. These grout particles become difficult to remove and can leave a stained appearance on the surface of the tile. For these products it is necessary to seal them with a pre-grout sealer to protect them from trapping the microscopic grout particles. This will also ease the grout clean-up process. Industry guidelines recommend that, prior to grouting, you seal porcelain with a high quality penetrating/impregnating sealer or with a temporary grout release sealer. Always test an area first to obtain best results. Glazed porcelain materials do not need to be sealed prior to grouting.

Post-Grout Clean-Up:
Grout haze is a film that has been left behind on the surface of the tile as part of the final grouting process. Usually this is buffed off the surface after the grout has achieved its initial 12 to 24 hour cure. The removal of the haze is often difficult when buffing with a clean rag or floor machine.

Cementitious grout haze can be successfully removed with "sulfamic" acid, which is a mild acid that attacks and breaks down cement smears. However, there are several products on the market called grout haze removers which are suitable. (i.e. Fila Deterdek).

Similarly, epoxy grout haze can be removed with an epoxy haze remover. These removers are formulated to safely and quickly remove cured epoxy haze from new tile installations. Their unique formulation will soften most epoxy hazes for easy removal without damaging the grout or tile, usually in one application (i.e. Fila PS 87).

Final Step:
Immediately after the porcelain tile has been properly installed and grouted, the new installation should be covered with brown paper to protect it from debris during the remaining construction process. The grout joints should be dampened daily with clear water using a clean sponge or mop during the first 7 days. This procedure facilitates the grout cure and color lock. The paper will allow for two important things: (1) to protect the newly installed tile grout and (2) to allow moisture to escape from the grout as it cures further protecting the look and utility of the floor. This is an important step in achieving color consistency. Never use plastic or non-absorbent materials to protect freshly installed tile. These types of non-absorbent products will trap moisture causing the grout to discolor during the curing period. The protective brown paper should remain until construction is complete and the floor is opened for intended (post-construction) use.

Eco-Gres Asia and Mosaic Installation
 

ECO-GRES ™ Ultra Installation

Eco-Gres ™ Ultra is a completely innovative porcelain material, the only one of its kind, manufactured in 39 " x 118 " slabs, only 3/16 " thick. Thanks to its unique characteristics, Eco-Gres ™ Ultra is the ideal surfacing solution in any climate condition, suitable for both interior and exterior applications. Eco-Gres ™ Ultra is obtained from fully-natural raw materials, colored with inorganic pigments and, thanks to its manufacturing process, totally environmentally friendly and easily recyclable.

Cutting with Glass Tools

The main thing to remember is that Eco-Gres ™ Ultra is extremely hard but fragile: a material that can be compared in many ways to glass. This means that it can be cut with tools normally used for glass, from small simple "glass cutters " to big industrial cutting machines. The advantage of this kind of cutting is that it is extremely clean, very accurate and quick. You are advised, however, to make a few preliminary test cuts to get the right pressure with the cutter head on the sheet (normally, the pressure required to cut a laminate porcelain sheet 3/16 " thick is slightly higher than for a glass sheet, and the shapes of the cutting wheels can also vary). If you use glass cutting machinery you can obtain all the finishes and shapes normally obtained with glass: grinding, chamfering, edge-rounding, drilling, threaded chamfering, flat-threaded chamfering, drilling, etc. The dimensional tolerances of this cutting technique are determined exclusively by the degree of precision of the machinery used, which in general is approx.+\-1/50 ".

Cutting with Glass Cutters

Using normal glasscutters requires a certain amount of experience, but, again, the results are highly satisfactory. When cutting, wear work gloves to protect your hands.

Cutting with Diamond Saw Blades

Finally, there is the traditional method most commonly used in the building industry: the diamond saw. The saw blades must be the continual crown diamond disk type and can be either on "hand-held " tools or cutting benches. In both cases, there must be a high rotation speed (2500 rpm) and a low advance speed (3.28 lf/min). Depending on the type of saw blade and length of cut, it may be necessary a water-cooling system. As for the best kind of wheel, it is enough to specify that the material to be cut is similar to porcelain stoneware. The advantages of this technique laying the ease of manual cutting (bearing in mind, however, that the material you are cutting is similar to glass) and the possibility of cutting while laying. The disadvantages, though, are that only straight cuts can be made and that the manual dry cutting creates a large amount of dust, making it essential to wear an FFP2 grade protective mask.

Water Jet Cutting

An excellent tool for all kinds of cutting is the water jet machine. This equipment makes for a practically unlimited range of cutting possibilities, both for single Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs and composite panels.

Drilling

When drilling manually, we recommend using glass bits up to a maximum diameter of 1/4 ".

1. Water-cool around the drilling point
2. Start drilling at low rotation speed
3. Don 't press too hard: set the pressure according to the toughness of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra. Holes of diameter greater than 1/4 " can be drilled with water jet systems, hollow mills (mounted on hand drill or drill press), commonly used in the glass processing industry. In the case of hollow drills, use a diamond particle size similar to that used for porcelain slabs.

Milling and Edge Finish

Milling and edge finishing can be done in several different ways and to different degrees of precision. Eco-Gres ™ Ultra edges can be processed with excellent results using glass machinery and tools. Good results can be obtained with machines and tools designed for machining natural stone, even if the level of finish obtained with natural stone machinery is lower than with glass processing machines. For manual processing with electrical or pneumatic tools, corundum-grinding disks, belts for expanding rubber drums, or adhesive diamond disks bond to supporting plates can be used. Hand pads with abrasive surface can be used for small edge finishing jobs.

How To Bond ECO-GRES ™ ULTRA

The question of bonding is of primary importance when working with Eco-Gres ™ Ultra. The type of adhesive and bonding technique obviously depends on the field of application and the requirements of the product in its final application. The list below, by no means exhaustive, should be seen as a kind of guide, giving general indications and making reference to the types of adhesives available on the market for Porcelain slabs and consolidated techniques generally used for porcelain products. To ensure that all characteristics of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra are exploited, bonding must, of course, be professional.

Laying Interior and Exterior Floors

The main requirement for this kind of application is to start with a perfectly flat substrate. The maximum thickness of the adhesive should be 1/8 ", using a 1/6-1/5 " serrated spreader. The adhesive must be applied with the spreader on both the slab and substrate surface. This technique is ideal for laying on existing porcelain slabs (of any type), reinforced concrete or smooth slabs, prefabricated reinforced concrete, finish plasters, plasterboard or fiber cement board. If laying on more uneven or non-flat substrates such as rough reinforced concrete, concrete slabs or plaster, the surface will have to be leveled with leveling or self-leveling products. Another important rule when "bedding " or repositioning with the adhesive still soft: the bedding must be done with both hands, exercising constant pressure on the entire surface of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra. The usual kind of bedding action (i.e. using your fist) is to be avoided, as is the use of other tools. When repositioning, re-leveling or checking the degree of adhesion, avoid lifting the slab by one side only: use suction cups to slowly "loosen " the slab. Use a cement-based adhesive for laying on horizontal and vertical surfaces. The information below has been compiled together with the KERAKOLL Study Centre - Subsurface - Laying Division, and so the materials listed below are from the KERAKOLL production range. This by no means implies that they are the only products to be used for laying Eco-Gres ™ Ultra as there are other similar or comparable products on the market. The main situations where Eco-Gres ™ Ultra can be used are:

• Interior/exterior laying on existing flooring
• Interior/exterior laying on smoothed reinforced concrete
• Interior/exterior laying on rough reinforced concrete/concrete slabs
• Interior/exterior laying on cement plastering
• Interior/exterior laying on plasterboard

In the above cases, KERAKOLL recommends laying with H40FLEX.The laying subsurface must be compact, with no crumbly zones, clean and properly set (clean with soda and make sure the setting shrinkage is complete).The maximum thickness of the adhesive should be 1/8 ",spreading double (i.e. applying the adhesive to both the subsurface and slab)with a 1/6 " serrated spreader. Uneven or non-flat substrates will have to be leveled before laying. For this, KERAKOLL recommends KERALEVEL, a high-tech professional thixotropic leveler, normal setting and compensated shrink-age, suitable for high-resistance leveling up to a thickness of 3/8 " floors and walls. An alter native could be KERATECH R30 a professionally, super fluid, HDE-technology (High Dispersing Effect) self-leveler with ultra fast setting, ideal for high-resistance leveling from 1/8 " to 1-1/4 " on uneven, non-flat surfaces. In both cases, existing joints should be respected and there should be expansion joints. If the subsurface is gypsum or anhydrite, on either walls or floors, before laying you will have to apply a surface insulator such as PRIMER A (here too, the subsurface must be perfectly clean and dry).The same type of primer can be used to block the absorption of highly absorbent sub-surfaces such as plasterboard or slabs. When laying facing slabs, latex should always be used mixing. KERAKOLL recommends its TOP LATEX product. In technical jargon, the "joint " is the distance left between two slabs during laying/bonding: the joint can be seen as seam. In certain cases, joints can have a decorative function, but their main role is to cushion and dampen contrasting movements between subsurface and slabs. When laying floors with cement-based adhesive, there must be a joint of 1/8 " and a movement joint every 100 SF. For bigger joints (1/6 ") the scaling of the movement joint can increase to up to 215.2 SF. As for the final grouting, KERAKOLL recommends FUGABELLA 0-5. Two other types of material can be added to the more common situations listed above:

Interior/exterior laying on polystyrene or polyurethane: In these cases two coats should be skimmed on the surface and a fiberglass mesh laid between the coats, using ISOBUILD 80.You can then use H40 FLEX, just like on the sub-surfaces listed previously.

Bonding with plywood, particle board panels, wood in general (absorbent types): In these cases polyurethane adhesives can be used, with a level of elasticity that dampens contrasting movements that may occur between the two materials. KERAKOLL recommends its product ELASTIK for these applications.

Joints for furniture tops: The expansion coefficient of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra is very low. For use on furniture, the combination of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra with wood (particle board, MDF, HDF, etc) or polyurethane, the joint is virtually zero. On supports that have an expansion coefficient that differs greatly from that of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra, suitable evaluation must be made when choosing the adhesive and size of the joints. In this case contact our technical service department for further information.

Guidelines for choosing adhesives and support materials: The main point to take into account is that Eco-Gres ™ Ultra is an impermeable product, and so if you want to bond it with another impermeable material (e.g. metal, plastic, etc.) then you have to use adhesives that bind by chemical reaction and not by evaporation of solvents. For bonding with permeable materials (e.g. wood), all types of adhesives can be used, including those that set by solvent evaporation. An exception is bonding with glass: in this case you can use PVB stratification technology, with excellent results.

Please note: With the information given in this booklet, Eco-Gres ™ Ultra has no intention of ruling out the use of other types of adhesives or instructing users to keep to specific types of adhesives. The bonding of materials of similar or
different characteristics is generally a problem that has to be evaluated on the basis of a series of factors, namely:

• Characteristics of locations: In climates/environments with large temperature ranges and freeze/thaw cycles you will obviously have to use adhesives capable of withstanding these stresses. In salty environments you will have to use adhesives resistant to the corrosive action of seawater.
• Type and characteristics of subsurface: Different kinds of subsurface react differently to mechanical and thermal stress. The adhesive used should therefore be able to compensate for these differences (within certain set limits) and prevent shearing and breaks by cushioning any contrasting movements. Water-absorbent sub-surfaces must be pre-treated with primers.
• Types of stress that composites have to with stand: Generally, flexible adhesives have a cushioning function, but if high impact resistance is required (such as in kitchen tops or work surfaces in general), it could be more practical to use a rigid adhesive that spreads the energy from the impact over a wider area;-For work surfaces, it is important to assess whether the coverings will have to withstand repeated temperature changes: Eco-Gres ™ Ultra does not have a thermal insulation action.

Behavior of materials on temperature increases. The table below lists a series of materials with their coefficients of expansion and lengthening per degree Centigrade.

Eco-Gres ™ Ultra is normally handled by means of standard suction cup systems used for glass. The number of suction cups to be used obviously depends on the diameter of the latter. At the production facilities of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra the products are handled by means of suction cups with a diameter of 3-1/4 " per 160 sq. in. of surface area. If manual handling is required, a series of rules must be observed, which vary according to the dimensions of the material:

1. Always wear glass protection gloves
2. Always wear safety footwear;
3. Two people should be assigned to handle Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs if dimensions exceed 39 " x 39 ". The material weight is 1.45 lbs/SF and therefore an entire slab with the dimensions of 39 " x 118 " weighs slightly 46 lbs.

Figure 1 - Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slab dimensions 39 " x 118 "

Lifting and handling the slabs up to dimensions of 12 " x 12 ". Eco-Gres ™ Ultra pieces can easily be handled by supporting it from one corner only.

Figure 2 - Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slab dimensions 12 " x 12 "

In the case of larger dimensions up to 39 " x 39 ", the Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs should be held with both hands.

Lifting and handling the slabs of dimensions from 12 " x 12 " to 39 " x 39 " Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs of these sizes can easily be handled by one person only, considering that the weight of these elements ranges from approx.0.12 to 1.45 lbs respectively. When lifting this slab size, it must be held with both hands on one side to move it to a vertical position. To handle these slabs they must be picked up from above using both hands. To place the slab on a flat surface, first take care to position one side of the slab and then slowly lower the rest of the slab onto the surface. The reference figures for handling slabs of this size are the same as those for handling larger slabs. Lifting and handling slabs with dimensions over 39 " x 39 " Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs of these sizes must be handled by two persons. To lift the slab, it must be raised slowly to ensure a good grip in the hands (see fig.3).

Figure 3 - Initial slab lifting phase At this point the slab can be moved to a vertical position, keeping it straight (see figs.4 and 5)

Figure 4 - Intermediate slab lifting phase

Figure 5 - Final slab lifting phase to vertical position when the slab is in vertical position, lift it from the upper edge and move, taking care to keep it straight at all times (see fig.6).

Figure 6 - slab handling The procedure to reposition the slab on a horizontal surface can also be performed by one person only.

To place the slab on a flat surface, lower one side of the slab first with care. At this point one of the two persons assigned must move to the middle of the slab and support it with the arms opened (see fig.7)

Figure 7 - Initial slab horizontal positioning phase.

Then slowly lower the slab onto the flat surface (see figs.8 and 9).

Figure 8 - Intermediate slab horizontal positioning phase

Figure 9 - Final slab horizontal positioning phase

Storing Slabs

Slabs can be stored vertically or horizontally (edge or flat storing). In the horizontal position there are no special provisions other than the handling procedures described above. If stacking several slabs, take care that the surface of each slab is clean and that the support surface is completely flat. The maximum number of slabs that can be stacked horizontally is 50.As regards vertical positioning the slabs should be placed on the longer edge (placing a protection element on the support surface, such as polystyrene, rubber or similar, see fig.10)

Figure 10 - Vertical positioning of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs

As regards handling with lift trucks, refer to figures 11 and 12.

Figure 11 - Correct lifting procedure, by means of lift truck, of a pallet holding Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs.

Figure 12 - Incorrect lifting procedure, by means of lift truck, of a pallet holding Eco-Gres ™ Ultra slabs.

Descriptive Texts for Specifications

The following points must be stated for an exact description of Eco-Gres ™ Ultra

1. Thickness: 3/16 "
2. Colors: see color chart with names of collections
3. Type of surfaces: N (normal),
4. Description of material: Eco-Gres ™ Ultra

Eco-Gres Ultra Preparation and Installation