Laying large formats

The laying of large- or gigaformats is technically very demanding. Nevertheless, in accordance with the trend, increasingly larger tile formats are being implemented. The customer's wish to lay large formats with the smallest possible number of joints and narrow joint widths is no longer a rarity. However, in addition to the highest product quality, laying the floor requires above-average professional skills of the installer, special knowledge, a high degree of creativity and special tools.

A particularly important criterion for the installation of large formats is the assessment of the substrate.
The subfloor must be perfectly level and load-bearing, as tensions are difficult to equalize due to the minimized number of joints. In addition, tiles in large format up to 100 x 300 cm usually do not exceed 6 mm in thickness and therefore have a very high residual stress. As the tensions cannot be compensated sufficiently in the case of large format tiles, a occuring crack would not be noticeable at the flank tear-off, as usual, but directly in the tile.

To avoid this, additional preparation of the substrate is often required to improve the evenness of the surface. The self-levelling smoothing compounds codex FM 10 - FM 100 are ideal for this purpose. If required, further increased strength can be achieved by using the renovation fleece RR 201. In case of renovation works, it is also useful to use the acoustic grade and decoupling protective plate UZIN Multimoll. 
Furthermore, laying aids or levelling systemsmake the work much easier, as they enable the large areas to be laid without teeth.

Since there are almost no joints when laying large formats, shear forces caused by changes in temperature (e.g. by underfloor heating or floor-level
windows) must be absorbed by the mortar itself. It is therefore essential to use at least an "S1", and in the best case even an "S2" adhesive.
The "S2-Class" is used to mark flex thin-bed mortars that have a high deflection and therefore a formability of at least 5mm. 

Moisture also plays a decisive role with large format tiles.
Similar to the shear forces, the small amount of joints presents the challenge here. Due to the combination of large tiles and few joints, the moisture arising from the thin-bed mortar has little space to escape. For this reason, it is advisable to use a crystalline setting mortar (e.g. codex Power RX 8).
Fast drying is particularly important on calcium sulphate screeds, as moisture can quickly cause damage here. It is therefore recommended to prepare calcium sulphate screeds with a protective primer such as codex FG 340 or, in best case, with a barrier primer (e.g. codex FG 500 S + H) to protect the screed from penetrating moisture from the adhesive.

If a normal setting adhesive such as codex Power CX 3, Power CX 7 or Power CX 9 is used, the covering should not be walked on for at least 3 days to ensure sufficient strength and drying.

When grouting the surface, make sure that sufficient expansion joints are used.
In this case, it is "better to have too much than too less" because the loads on the expansion joint are significantly higher due to the small number of normal joints.
We recommend the codex X-Fusion Epoxy grout, which impresses with its high colour stability and easy cleaning due to its beautifully sealed surface.