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Before you begin, prepare all the utensils you’ll need for the installation such as a bucket of water, serrated trowel, rubber trowel, large sponge, tile spacers, level, pencil, knife, brush, spatula and mallet.
The surface should be totally level, in some cases this can be solved with the tile cement. You should waterproof wet areas or incline them to prevent pooling.
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Thoroughly clean the surface to be tiled and remove any material that may hinder the tile cement from properly adhering to the surface being tiled.
Gres de Breda catalogues recommend which tile cement you should use for each type of tile. You should try to achieve variation in shades by mixing pieces from one or several different pallets. If you are installing a special design, you should do a preliminary lay-out.
Spread the tile cement with a serrated trowel. Try not to leave any blank spaces so that the tiles are completely backed by the tile cement.
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Mark off the row along the wall or next to a previous row and fill it with cement, levelling out as necessary. Lay the tiles firmly in the cement. Keep the grooves facing the same direction. You can use a string to help with alignment.
Place tile spacers between the pieces and settle the tiles by pounding them softly with a rubber mallet until you see that the tile cement has filled the grooves.
It is not advisable for joints to exceed 5mm in small and medium formats and between 5 and 7mm in larger ones. Use Gres de Breda Interior for interiors or reduce the size of the joint.
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Partition joints should be installed every 20/25 metres for exterior surfaces and every 50/70 metres for interiors. In narrow passageways every 5 metres. Be sure to pay attention to expansion joints. If there is a skirting board, leave a perimeter joint hidden behind it (min. 10mm). Elastic joints should cross the surface on which they are supported.
Respect the expansion joints included in the structural plan, leaving a minimum of 10mm and filling them with an elastomer of the same colour as the tile.
Once the tile cement is dry, carefully clean the spaces between pieces to remove any cement that may interfere with grouting and grout setting.
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The grout should be suitably liquid to easily penetrate the joints. Apply the grout with a spatula or rubber trowel, using a diagonal motion to fill the joints.
In order to completely fill the joints, we recommend regrouting before the grout starts to set.
Using a wet sponge, clean off the excess grout but do not let the water penetrate the joint. Pass the sponge over the grouted joints several times, rinsing the sponge well in water between passes. After three hours, clean again in the same way.
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After laying the tiles we recommend that you cover them with a protective material (cardboard, plastic, etc.) until all construction work is finished and you can thoroughly clean them.
For the final cleaning, first saturate the joints with water, then apply a descaler diluted with water for 15 minutes and scrub with a hard-bristled brush. Finally, rinse with water or a pressure sprayer.
We recommend using bleach for daily cleaning. Because the surface porosity of our tiles is practically zero, any stains can be easily removed with a suitable detergent or solvent.
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