Marble

[pcdee]

Hello

I'm a newbee to this site, I'm a not a pro at tiling. I'm more of a handy man, I've tiled a few bathrooms for friends and family.

I have now a new house and want to tile the entire ground floor with Marble. How easy is it to cut marble? Do I need a special tool?

Also, I would like to put in some heating mats. I will be laying down some ply, do I need to put insulation on it?

Sorry for all the questions, oh yeah, one more, any good sites for marble? Cheapest price I found for marble marfal creme was about £35 per sq/m.

Thanks

[devonmark]

Hello and welcome...
most of your cuts will be with a wet saw..if you want insulation..use insulation backer boards in place of the ply, they can be expensive but will save money in the long run, you should also use a flexible adhesive..Mark.

http://www.ambient-ufh.co.uk/index.php?cPath=30

[customceramics]

YOUR GONNA NEED A WET SAW to do your cuts,also the structure should be sound to suport the marble/weight.Any deflection in the subfloor will crack your expensive marble.Check your joist spacing and thickness/depth,plywood existing thickness and then we can help!

[Dave]

Insulation boards is the way to go to get your running costs down.....

[Leatherface]

Good wet saw.
Insulation boards or Schluter Ditra Mat then lay UFH
Self level over ufh before tiling.
White flexi adhesive.
Clean tiles thoroughly & leave to dry.
Seal.
Grout.
Seal grout if light coloured on floors.
Get paid
Go to pub !!!

[pcdee]

Thanks for all the advice.

After some further investigation I have found out the floor is concrete. Can I put some ply on this or does it have to be insulated?

If it does need to be insulated can I use PERFECTHEAT® thermal insulation tiles? I will be using PERFECTHEAT®kit for the ufh.

The PERFECTHEAT®kit includes:
· Highest quality produced in the UK by a British manufacturer.
· PERFECTHEAT® heating cable – ultra-thin section with tough all-Teflon insulation.
· Fully programmable digital PERFECTHEAT® 3000 thermostat – crammed with features.
· Floor sensor to measure and control floor temperature 10°C to 45°C
· Flexible conduit (only 10-mm diameter) to house the floor sensor.
· Extra strong self-adhesive tape to secure the heating cable to the floor.
· Comprehensive and clear instructions for simple installation.
· Special PVA floor primer - 0.5 litre (suitable for 6m2 floor area).
· Application roller for PVA floor primer.
· Lifetime guarantee certificate for BOTH the PERFECTHEAT® cable and PERFECTHEAT® 3000 thermostat.

This is the info for the insulation;
Technical Information:
Material Foamed Polystyrene
Material thickness 3 mm and 6 mm available
Density 3 mm - 40 kg/m3 6 mm - 33 kg/m3
Thermal conductivity 0.035 W/m2 K
Operating temperature - 60 ?C to +70 ?C
Melting temperature >160 °C
Thermal decomposition >330?C
Ignition temperature: with flame influence 350 - 400 ?C
without flame influence 450 - 500 ?C
Water absorption < 0.1%
Adhesive Use Vysa-Bond PVA adhesive (to BS 5270:Part 1:1989)supplied

Thanks

[customceramics]

im not too sure how it works in the uk but here in usa we usually pour a self levelling underlayment over the wires,then thinset the tiles down.
Other companies(nuheat.com,warmlyyours.com)the radient heat comes on a fibre sheet and we thinset this down then tile over.theres a picture of copper wire radient heat in the gallery i posted which i set using the wet set technique.
hope this helps.

[Dave]

I always use flexi self-levlling over any UFH i install as well....better to be safe than sorry...plus this makes a better and flatter surface to tile too