Lion Tiles’ Leeds Renovation
Lion Tiles (a trading name of National Tiles) in Leeds took on a house renovation project to extend an open plan living and kitchen area, which included some indoor – outdoor living on a large scale.
The project included 600 by 1,200 by 11mm tiles on the kitchen floor and 450 by 900 by 20mm tiles on a 50 sq. meter exterior balcony. Lion Tiles used Palace Chemicals Fast-Flex Floor leveller to level the floor on an area which measured around 100 sq. metres. Kam Tadbir, Managing Director of National Tiles said: “In the past, I have used a lot of Indian sandstone outside, but these were porcelain, which are pretty new products for us to use outside. The customer wanted to go for a different look; so they decided to go for polished tile inside, and a matt finish for the outside.” Lion Tiles also used Laticrete 335R Superflex White Rapid Adhesive and Palace Anti-Mould Grout on the scheme, which were laid over electric under-floor heating.
Tadbir, who has been in the tile and stone business for 20 years, said Lion Tiles had been using Palace and Laticrete products since the contract business was established just over a year ago. “I have been in this business for a long time and we had a choice of a few different companies’ products,” explains Tadbir. “James Broadhead (Palace and Laticrete Area Sales Manager) came to see us. We like him. He is a very friendly guy, and his product knowledge is really good. We tried some samples of adhesive and grout, and gave it to the tilers. They like the product, so we decided to go with Palace.”
“Although mainly used for commercial projects up to now we have seen a huge increase in demand for larger format tiles. Our client saw these larger tiles and loved them and was looking at using a separate tiler, who said they were too big for the area. However, we recommended using our own tilers – they are well prepared and have the right equipment and cutting was not a problem. We have used larger tiles a lot in bathrooms and wet rooms – the advantage is you have less grout joints so it’s a lot better finish, and it’s a lot quicker to lay”, adds Tadbir.
Broadhead, echoes Tadbir’s views on the popularity of larger format tiles. “That’s the way the industry is going at the moment. The tiles are getting bigger and bigger. I’m coming across tiles that are 1,200 by 1,200 mm, or even 1,600 by 1,600m. Although it’s not always achievable, you need to get as close to 100 percent coverage on the back of the tiles. We have Palace Flexi-Set Pourable Thick Bed Adhesive, which assists in achieving this due to its thixotropic properties.”
Palace Fast-Flex Floor leveller is recommended for application over a comprehensive range of floor surfaces such as tamped or worn concrete and sand/cement floor screeds. It is particularly suited for installation in conjunction with heated sub-floors and can readily accommodate most types of wire-based and pipe fed sub-tile heating systems. It provides excellent levelling and floor to give a super-smooth finish; high early strength takes foot traffic after three hours; it can be laid from 2mm up to a 30mm bed depth. The single-part, protein-free formula for pump application can fix tiles after four hours and floor coverings after 24 hours.
Laticrete 335R Superflex conforms to BS EN 12004 C2FTE-S1 and is a fast-setting high-performance polymer fortified cement-based adhesive to be mixed with water when fixing wall and floor tile and stone, including low absorption porcelain; vitrified tiles and natural stone were the white version is particularly recommended for light stone and marble. Palace Anti-Mould Grout is a flexible, cement-based, tile grouting compound available in a broad range of colour shades, for joints from up to 15mm wide around all types of tiles.
It contains a fungicide which prevents the growth of black spot mould and can be applied using a sponge or rubber squeegee in areas where tiles are fixed to timber or where sub-floor heating is installed. It conforms to BS EN 13888 CG2 WA and has a four-hour working time.
Read more about the products featured here: Fast-Flex, Laticrete 335R Superflex, Anti-Mould, Pour-Able Thick Bed.