Laying large formats

Highest demands on installer and material

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.

 

 

 

Challenges and products

Subfloor preparation

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.

 

occurring shear forces and escaping moisture

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.

 

Grouting large formats

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.

Application

CODEX Products

FG 340 Protective primer

The low-emission protective primer codex FG 340 is universally suitable for all absorbent, mineral substrates and protects against moisture from the installation mortar.

FG 500 S 1-C PU Barrier Primer

The 1-component PU protective primer codex FG 500 S protects moisture-sensitive substrates from mixing water from overlying levelling or adhesive layers.

FM 10 Fine levelling compound

codex FM 10 is a self-levelling smoothing compound for interior use in layer thicknesses up to 10 mm.

FM 100 Dust reduced tile filler

Low-dust working with the dust-reduced filler codex FM 100 - The self-levelling cement floor filler with Level-Plus Effect for every layer thickness range.

Power CX 9 S2 Thin-bed mortar

Power CX 9 is a highly flexible mortar for the safe installation of tile and natural stone coverings. The 1-component S2 thin-bed mortar is extremely deformable and easily compensates for tension between the substrates and the installed covering.

Power RX 8 Flexible adhesive mortar for large format tiles

The rapid setting, highly flexible thin-bed mortar codex Power RX8 is particularly suitable for the installation of large format tiles thanks to its crystalline water-binding properties.

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