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The important
considerations for flooring are strength, durability, water
proofing and aesthetic appearance. Commercial and industrial
building floors should have resistance to abrasion, impact,
slipperiness and chemicals..
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Tiles Flooring
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Flooring tiles
used in the building are of the following types:
| Burnt-clay
and ceramic:
general purpose, paving and acid resistant type |
| Cement-concrete:
Plain, chequered and terrazzo |
| Plastic
and rubber:
Usually PVC with fillers, rubber and plastic tiles are also
made |
| Cast
iron: Usually
chequered shaped |
| Stone:
granite, marble, limestone |
| Timber:
Made
with selected species of timber |
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While
stone tiles are selected depending upon the local
availability, traditions, reliability of properties and
durability, care must be exercised in selecting stone tiles
for industrial applications. For example, granite or
sandstone tiles are suitable for acid resistance, unlike
marble and limestone, but the latter can be used where
alkaline effluents are encountered.
The
above precautions must also be taken with burnt-clay or
ceramic flooring tiles. These tiles are used generally
for light duty in residential buildings, schools, offices and
shops. However, high strength, acid resistant, vitreous
unglazed tiles are commonly used in industries. Glazed
and unglazed ceramic tiles come in attractive colours and
designs. They are used in bathrooms, swimming pools,
offices, kitchens, hospitals, with appropriate colour, glaze
and durability. Plain cement concrete tile is used for
light duty areas whereas chequered tiles are used for heavy
duty ones like footpaths. Terrazzo tiles are most
commonly used in residential, commercial and educational
buildings. The transverse strength, water absorption and
abrasion resistance must conform to the standards. Acid
resistant fire clay tiles are also specified for industries. |
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Metal Flooring
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Steel,
stainless steel sheets and cast iron chequered tiles are mostly used
in industrial building floors, which are exposed to heavy traffic,
organic acids, vegetable and mineral oils. Cast iron and
steel floors provide high abrasion resistance, but their resistance
to mineral oils, organic or inorganic acids is not very good.
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Wooden Flooring
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Wooden,
laminated boards or tiles, are used preferably with protective
varnishes and lacquers for interior floorings. However,
exterior grade compressed wooden boards / block boards are suitable
for flooring railway coaches, prefabricated houses, and the interior
grades are used for hotels, restaurants, conference halls, hospitals
and schools. The wooden flooring material whether made of cut
and sawn pieces or the chips reconstituted using phenol/urea
formaldehyde resins into boards or tiles of geometrical patterns of
a parquet are set together by tongued and grooved joints. The
wooden flooring sections / tiles should be pretreated with
preservatives or with oil or resins.
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PVC Flooring
:
PVC
rigid or flexible flooring sheets or tiles are marketed in various
pleasing colours and designs. These floorings sheets/tiles are
used in residential and commercial buildings, railway coaches,
hospitals etc. The sheets should be uniform in thickness,
appearance and finish and reasonably free from detrimental
scratches, pinholes, dents and pimples. Nominal thickness
varies as much as 0.1 to 10 mm for specified uses.
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Stones
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Red
and white quartzite, limestone, marble, granite and sandstone
are used in the form of small slabs and tiles for flooring.
Most of the stones provide good polish, smoothness, water
resistance, durability and impart their beautiful colouring
effects to the floors. Stone floors also provide good
wear resistance and selective chemical resistance.
Stone
floors should also be properly maintained. granite and
marble tiles are in great demand within the country and also
for export markets. Whereas granite offers very good
chemical resistance, marble and limestone are not resistant to
acids, and sandstone offer poor resistance to alkalis.
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