Products made from cast basalt are smooth, especially when casting is performed in metal forms with practically no absorptivity. For better adhesion to binding materials, they are equipped on the back side with a finer or rougher grooving and sand is pressed to this surface during casting, individual grains of which are bound on basalt very firmly and make the surface rough. Tests on adhesion have verified that such „sanded” casts have very good adherence to classical as well as modern synthetic binding materials.
Grooving on the reverse side of the tile for better adherence during laying:
Marking „R” - rough grooving Marking „JR” - fine grooving
Rough grooving - „R” on the reverse side is used mainly on industrial tiles intended for
tilted and vertical container surfaces, lining of bulk feeders and other technological equipment.
Floor tiles have fine gooving on the reverse side - „JR”.
With regard to the fact that it has practically no absorptivity, we recommend using flexible adhesives for glueing of basalt tiles. Or adhesives for glueing of non-absorbent material.
Laying
Laying of basalt tiles is performed in the common way known in the building industry. It is necessary to be aware, however,
of greater thickness of the connective adhesive or cement due to the uneven thickness of the basalt tiles ± 2 mm or
possible uneven surface of base concrete.
Tiles are cleaned of dust prior to laying, especially by immersion in water. After cleaning and possibly further treatment of the tile base, tiles are layed on a bed of mortar or ton a bed of wet concrete mixture. They can also be glued with a cement, similarly to ceramic tiles, on a prepared well-cleaned mature and consistent concrete base. Glue must be spread all over the base surface. We recommend applying glue with a serrated spatula. On laying it is necessary to ensure no cavities are left under the tiles and that they were layed on the whole reverse side in the whole surface. The adhesive may penetrate to the joints at most 1/3 of the tile thickness. It is not allowed to apply adhesive glue on the reverse side of individual tiles. Laying temperature (including the base) according to the manufacturer of the glue.
Pointing
Pointing is performed after sufficient hardening of the glue, at the earliest in 1 - 2 days. It is possible to use
common types of pointing devices. The recommended size of joints between two tiles is at least 3-4 mm. Joints must be
even in width, in line and level and straight. Joints are filled with pointing substance and must not
rise above the floor surface. Excessive matter is removed.
Due to fine surface irregularities (absence of glaze) it is necessary
during laying and especially during pointing to pay attention to "cleanness" of the work. In case of leaving the pointing device for a while -
after it hardens - it is very difficult to remove hard remnants. We therefore recommend
cleaning immediately after partial hardening of the joints. Although there are chemical removers for removing the remnants from pointing,
why should you make more work and trouble for yourself?
Due to the temperature expansivity of cast basalt, we recommend accommodating
dilatation joints so that they are two times thicker than in the case of ceramic tiles laying or
separate the bases with dilatation joints two times densely.
LAYING OF BASALT CASTS ON SPECIAL CEMENTS
Special cements for laying basalt casts are used in every place with such
working conditions in which common glues cannot fulfil the conditions of perfect fixation of
tiles to the base in that particular condition. These include mainly areas that are strongly mechanically or chemically
stressed. It is only convenient to use these cements in these special conditions, since their application
is economically more demanding. The most frequently used cements for laying and pointing basalt tiles are
epoxide cements of domestic and foreign production.
In the case of a special kind of usage, we recommend consulting the whole matter with the cement producer.
CUTTING BASALT TILES
It is performed with diasaws under intensive cooling with water. Based on 30 years of experience of the producer with
cutting of tiles, it is possible to recommend building companies diamond discs made by DIAMANT BOART.
| Diameter | Labelling | Segment size |
| D250 | D2235 | 40 x 2.4x 8 |
| D300 | D2215 | 40 x 2.8 x 10 |
| D350 | D2218 | 40 x 2.8 x 10 |
| D400 | D2220 | 40 x 3.2 x 10 |
| D500 | D2074 | 40 x 3.8 x 10 |
Pražská 16
102 21 PRAGUE 10 - HostivaÅ™
The producer also enables supply of cut basalt tiles based on a drawing or a
design of the customer for a consideration. It is especially convenient to e.g. order with the supply of tiles cut
halves of FLORENTINA locking floor tiles in the longitudinal and transverse axis of the tile. The producer
also recommends that customers have socle tiles for covering internal and external corners
of tiled areas.
Basalt tiles may also be drilled with a diamond crown drill (e.g. for machinery mounting in
production halls or milling with diamond tools. The usual grinding may also be performed with
carborundum under dry or wet conditions.
MAINTENANCE
The surface of basalt tiles is dust free, it is easy to keep with common domestic and mechanical
cleaning agents and this applies also to anti-skid tiles, where the anti-skid pattern is designed for easy
cleaning. Basalt tiles are resistant to all strong chemical agents used for sanitary
cleaning.
The producer recommends cleaning the interior tiles after mounting with 8% acetate and wax with common
cleaning agents for floor tiles and then wiping off with a wet cloth.
Recommendation from practise: we can recommend, for the final cleaning of the floor, adding one tablespoon of petroleum
to the container with water and cleaning the floor with this solution.