Marble flooring tiles can be used in any area of the home, particularly the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and even as decorative accents for walls and showers.
Marble Tile: Choices for Marble Flooring
There are two common choices for your marble tile flooring: traditional and tumbled. Traditional marble flooring tiles have a polished, shiny finished, adding class to your design. They look impressive on an entryway or foyer. Tumbled marble flooring comes in beige and milky tones. Instead of being polished, they are buffed, with an earthy finish and natural looking. These tiles work well in large areas, such as kitchen/dining room combination, as they often come in larger sizes.Marble Tile: Tips When Installing Marble Flooring
Follow these simple guidelines to have a correct installation of marble tile.
- Test the floorboards to make sure they are sturdy. If they are not, the grout between the tiles could crack.
- Check the slope in the floor. A level floor is a must for installing a marble floor.
- Reinforce the floor if needed. You can reinforce your floorboards with another layer of plywood or a cement backer board panel.
- Find the center of the room. Check the layout of the marble tile to avoid having a tiny edge on one end of your floor. If needed move the line away from the center to have equal spaces in both sides. To keep a symmetrical look, have the starting tile straddle the centerline if needed.
- Apply mortar, preferably a thin-set mortar. Place your marble tile on the mortar. Using this starting point spread the mortar and use a trowel to notch it.
- If you are applying mortar over seams in the floorboard, apply mesh tape to the seams to avoid cracking.
- After putting each marble tile on the mortar, place a 1/16-inch spacer between it and the next tile. This will ensure that the finished project has an evenly spaced appearance.
- When enough time has allowed the mortar to dry, seal the marble.
- The marble tile should be sealed using a neutral pH breathable sealer after installation. The sealer will need to be reapplied periodically, recommended every 12 months or so.
Marble Tile: Types of Sealers
There are three main types of sealers to choose from:
- Marble Tile Topical Sealers
- Marble Tile Penetrating Sealers
- Marble Tile Impregnating Sealers
Topical sealers of urethane or acrylic are simply applied to the top of a natural stone marble tile surface, acting more as enhancers. They do provide some level of protection but wear out quickly, especially if applied to high traffic floor tile or busy kitchen counter tops. Resealing will need to be done frequently.
The resulting finish is a polished appearance that will change the look of the natural marble and make the surface slippery when wet.
These sealers actually seep into the stone and are effective in repelling liquids and oils. This marble tile and natural stone sealer will not affect the look of the stone upon application. The application of a penetrating sealer may require the use of a special cleaner to avoid damaging its protective properties.
Though this type of sealer will last longer than the topical form, these also will need to be reapplied based on the manufacturer's recommendations, usually every six months to a year.
This is the best choice for superior protection. This natural stone sealer will bond to the marble stone slab or marble tile at a molecular level. It will not affect the surface color and will repel oils and waters from inside the stone.
Marble Tile Production
Italy produces a choice variety of colored marbles. Pavonazzo and Dove are both quarried in the neighborhood of Carrara. Some of the finest brecciated marbles are secured from the quarries of Piedmont, and the marbles of Sienna, Verona, and Brescia are well known and extensively used.
Many of the green marbles used are obtained from the Provinces of Tuscany and Curia; and some fine brecciated varieties have recently come on the market from the Calabrian district of Southern Italy, shipments being made from Messina.
Extensive deposits of onyx are also available, mainly from the neighborhood of Tivoli; and Italian alabaster, raised and worked in the neighborhood of Volterra, is known all over the world.
