FLOORING
Prepared by
Ar.Krithika R ., M.Arch., (Ph.D)
SAID, SRMIST,
Kattankulathur Campus,Chennai.
Introduction
• The purpose of a floor is to provide a level surface capable of supporting the occupants of a
building, furniture, equipment and sometimes internal partitions.
• To perform this function and in addition, others which may vary according to the situation of the
floor in the building and the nature of the building itself, the floor must satisfy the following
requirements:-
i) Adequate strength and stability
ii) Adequate fire resistance
iii) Sound insulation
iv) Damp resistance
v) Thermal insulation
Components of flooring
1. Sub floor, base course or floor base:-
• The floor base is a structural component which supports the floor covering.
• For the ground floors, the object of floor base is to give proper support to the
covering so that it does not settle and to provide damp resistance and thermal
insulation.
• Ground floors may either rest directly on the ground or may be supported a little
distance above the ground.
2. Floor covering or simply flooring
Materials For flooring
• Cement concrete
• Lime concrete
• Stones
• Bricks
• Wooden blocks
• Vinyl
• Tiles
• Marble
• Granite
Selection of Flooring material
• INITIAL COST:- The cost of material should be in conformity with the type of
building and its likely use.
• APPEARANCE:– Covering should give pleasing appearance that is it should produce
the desired color effect and architectural beauty
• CLEANLINESS:– The flooring should be capable of being cleaned easily and it
should be not absorbent.
• DURABILITY:– The flooring should have sufficient resistance to wear, temperature
changes, disintegration with time and decay so that long life is obtained.
Selection of Flooring material
• DAMP RESISTANCE:– Flooring should offer the resistance against dampness so that
healthy environment is obtained in the building.
• SOUND INSULATION:– The flooring should insulate the noise. Also, it should not be
such that the noise is produced when users walk on it.
• THERMAL INSULATION:– The flooring should offer reasonably good thermal insulation
so that comfort is imparted to the residents of the building.
• SMOOTHNESS:– The flooring material should be smooth and should have even
surface. However, it should not be slippery.
Selection of Flooring material
• FIRE RESISTANCE:– This is more important for upper floors. Flooring material should
offer sufficient fire resistance so that fire barriers are obtained between different
levels of the building.
• HARDNESS:– It should be sufficiently hard so as to have resistance to indentation
marks, imprints etc. likely to be caused by shifting of furniture, equipments etc.
• MAINTENANCE:– The flooring material should require least maintenance.
Mud Flooring
• This flooring is cheap, hard, fairly impervious, easy to construct & easy to
maintain.
• It has good thermal insulation property.
• Over a well prepared ground a 25 cm thick moist earth is spread & then rammed
well to get compacted thickness of 15 cm.
• In order to prevent cracks, small quantity of chopped straw is mixed in the moist
earth before rammed.
• Sometimes, cow-dung is mixed with earth & a thin layer of this spread over the
compacted layer.
Advantages:
It is cheap
It is hard
It is fairly impervious
It is easy in construction
It is easy to maintain
It remains warm in winter and cold in summer and
hence it is most suitable for places where the
temperature is extreme during these seasons.
Disadvantages:
It is only well suited for small towns and villages.
Materials required for CONSTRUCTION
mud flooring
• Wet the base floor with water
• Spread out the mix
• sifted sand • Ram well so as to get consolidated thickness of
• clay 150mm
• cow manure • Water is not added during the process of ramming
• chopped and sifted • Flatten the floor surface with trowel
straw • To maintain the mud floor in good condition, a thin
coat of cement-cow dung is added once or twice a
week in proportion of 1:2 ratio
Brick Flooring
• It is used in cheap construction, specially where good bricks are available.
• This flooring is specially suited to ware-house, stores, godowns etc.
• 10 to 15 cm thick layer of lean cement concrete (1:8:16) cement, sand and course
aggregate or lime concrete is laid over the prepared sub grade.
• This forms the base course, over which bricks are laid flat on 12 mm thick mortar
bed in such way that all the joints are full with mortar.
Flag Stone Flooring
• Flag stone is sand stone available in 2 cm
to 4 cm thickness in the form of stone
slabs of square ( 30 cm X 30 cm, 45 cm X
45 cm, 60 cm X 60 cm) or rectangular size
(45 cm X 60 cm).
• Sub soil is properly compacted, over
which 10 to 15 cm thick lime or lean
cement concrete is laid. This forms the
base course.
• The Flag stones are then laid over 20 to 25
mm thick layer of bed mortar.
• In laying the slabs, work is started from
two diagonally opposite corners &
brought up from both sides.
Cement Concrete Flooring
• This is commonly used for residential, commercial & even industrial building.
• It is moderately cheap, quite durable and easy to construct.
• The floor consists of two components:-
a) Base concrete
b) Topping or wearing surface.
• They are constructed either monolithically or non-monolithically. When the floor is laid monolithically, good bond
between the two components is obtained resulting in smaller overall thickness. However, such a construction has
three disadvantages.
a) Topping is damaged during subsequent operations.
b) Hair cracks are developed because of settlement of freshly laid base course which has not set.
c) Work progress is slow because to wait till the initial setting of base course. Hence, in most of the cases, non-monolithic construction is
preferred.
• The base course may be 7.5 to 10 cm thick, either in lean cement concrete (1:3:6 to 1:5:10) or lime concrete
containing 40% mortar of 1:2 lime-sand & 60% coarse aggregate of 40mm nominal size.
• When base concrete has hardened, its surface is brushed with stiff broom & cleaned thoroughly.
• It is wetted the previous night and excess water is drained.
Cement Concrete Flooring
• The topping consists of 1:2:4 cement concrete, laid in desired thickness (usually
4cm) in one single operation.
• Other alternate layers are then laid after 72 hrs, so that initial shrinkage of
already laid panels takes place, thus eliminating the cracks.
• The prepared surface is protected from sunlight, rain, other damages for a period
12 to 20 hrs.
• The surface is then properly cured for a period of 7 to 14 days.
Terrazzo Flooring
• It is very decorative and has good wearing properties. The flooring is however
more expensive.
• It is widely used in residential buildings, hospitals, offices, schools and other
public buildings.
• Terrazzo is special prepared concrete surface containing cement and marble chips
in proportion to 1:2.
• When surface has set, the chips are exposed by grinding operation. The sub base
preparation and concrete base laying is done in the similar manner of cement
concrete flooring.
Terrazzo Flooring
• The top layer may have 40 mm thickness consisting of:-
a) 34mm thick cement concrete layer (1:2:4) laid over the base concrete.
b) About 6 mm thick terrazzo topping.
• Concrete of the grade 1:2:4 is then laid in alternate panels leveled and finished to
rough surface. When the surface is hardened, the terrazzo mix is laid and finished
to the level surface. Additional marble chips may be added during the temping
and rolling operations. So that, at least 80% of the finished surface show exposed
marble chips.
Terrazzo Flooring
• The surface is then floated and trowelled and left to dry for 12 to 20 hours. After
that the surface is cured properly for 2 to 3 days.
• The first grinding is done, preferably by machine using course grade (no. 60)
carborundum stones using plenty of water. The ground surface is then scrabbed
and cleaned.
• Cement grout of cream like consistency, is then applied and is cured for 7 days.
Then second grinding is done with carborundum stones of fine grade (no. 120).
Terrazzo Flooring
• The surface is cured for 4 to 6 days and final grinding is done with carborundum
stone of 320 grit size.
• The surface is thoroughly scrabbed and cleaned using plenty of water.
• Wax polish is applied with the help of polishing machine to get final glossy
surface.
Mosaic Flooring
• It is made of small pieces of broken tiles of china glazed or of cement or of
marble arranged in different pattern.
• A concrete base is prepared as in the case of concrete flooring and over it 5 to 8
cm thick lime-surkhi (Powder of bricks) mortar is spread and leveled.
• On this, a 3 mm thick cementing material in the form of paste of 2 parts of slaked
lime, one part of powdered marble and one part of puzzolana material is spread
and is left to dry for about 4 hours.
Mosaic Flooring
• Thereafter small pieces of broken tiles are arranged in definite patterns and
hammered into cementing layer.
• The surface is gently rolled by a stone roller of 30 cm diameter and 40 to 60 cm
long, sprinkling water over the surface, so that cementing materials comes up
through the joints and an even surface is obtained.
• Floor is allowed to dry for 2 weeks before use.
Tiled Flooring
• Tiled flooring is constructed from square, hexagonal, or other shapes made up of
clay, cement concrete or terrazzo.
• These are commonly used in residential flooring, offices, hospitals, schools and
other public buildings.
• Over the concrete base, a 25 to 30 mm thick layer of lime mortar 1:3 is spread to
serve as a bedding.
• Before laying the tiles it is cured for 12 to 24 hours, neat cement slurry is spread
over the bedding mortar and the tiles are laid flat over it, gently pressing them
into the bedding mortar with the help of wooden mallet till level surface is
obtained.
Marble Flooring
• It is a superior type of flooring used in bathrooms and kitchens of residential
building and in hospitals, sanatoriums, temples etc. where extra cleanliness is an
essential requirement.
• The base concrete is prepared in the same manner as that of concrete floor.
• Over the base concrete, 20 mm thick bedding mortar of either 1:4 cement-sand
mix is spread under the area of each individual slab.
• The marble slab is then laid over it, gently pressed with the wooden mallet and
leveled. The paved area is properly cured for about a week.
Wooden Flooring
• It is used for carpentry halls, dancing halls, auditorium etc.
• They are not commonly used in residential building of India because timber
flooring is quiet costlier.
• In hilly areas, where timber is cheaply & readily available, and where temperature
drops very low, timber flooring is quite common.
• One of the major problems in timber flooring is the damp prevention.
• This can be done by introducing D.P.C. layer below the flooring.
Asphalt Flooring
1) ASPHALT MASTIC FLOORING:-
• Asphalt mastic is the mixture of sand and asphalt in the ratio of 2:1, mixed hot
and then laid in continuous sheet.
• It can also be applied cold, by mixing with mineral oil and asbestos.
• The thickness of asphalt mastic may be 2.5cm for ordinary construction. It is laid
on cement concrete base course.
Asphalt Flooring
2) ASPHALTIC TILES:-
• These are prepared from asphalt, asbestos fibers, and mineral pigments by
pressing the mix in different sizes with thickness wearing from 3 to 6 mm.
• Asphaltic tiles are cheap, resilient, soundproof, non absorbent and moisture
proof.
Asphalt Flooring
3) ASPHALTIC MOSAIC:-
• This is prepared similar to mastic asphalt, the marble chips are used in the place
of sand. Asphalt may be either in black or other suitable color, and is laid in hot
condition.
4) ACID PROOF MASTIC FLOORING:-
• Acid proof blocks of asphalt are available. The asphalt blocks are first laid on
concrete base then acid proof asphalt is uniformly spread over the surface of the
blocks. Fined sand is spread over the liquid asphalt before it hardens.
Rubber Flooring
• It consists of sheets or tiles of rubber in variety of patterns and colors with
thickness varying from 3 to 10mm.
• The sheets or tiles are fixed to concrete base or wood by means of appropriate
adhesives ( epoxy-polyurethane).
• Rubber flooring are resilient and sound proof, however they are costly.
• They are used only in office and public buildings.
Linoleum Flooring (Covering)
• It is covering which is available in rolls and which is spread directly on concrete or
wooden flooring.
• The sheets are either plane or printed and are available in 2 to 6 mm thickness
and 2 to 4 m wide rolls.
• Linoleum tiles are also available which can be fixed to concrete base in different
pattern.
• Linoleum covering are attractive, resilient, durable and cheap and can be cleaned
very easily.
• However it is subjected to rotting when kept wet or moist for some time.
Therefore it cannot be used for bathrooms, kitchens etc.
Cork Flooring
• It is perfectly noise less and used in libraries, theatres, art galleries, broadcasting
stations etc.
• Cork is the outer bark of cork oak tree, is available in the form of cork carpet and
cork tiles.
• It is fixed to concrete base by inserting a layer of saturated felt.
• They are available in various sized (10cm x 10cm to 30cm x 90cm) various
thickness (5 to 15mm) and various shades.
Glass Flooring
• This is a special purpose flooring used in circumstances where it is desired to
transmit light from upper floor to lower floor and specially to admit the light at
the basement from the upper floor.
• Structural glass is available in the form of tiles in thickness varying from 12 to 30
mm.
• Glass flooring is very costly and it is not used commonly.
Plastic or P.V.C. flooring
• It is made up of plastic material called poly-vinyl-chloride (PVC) fabricated in the
form of tiles of different sizes and different color shades.
• These tiles are now widely used in residential as well as non-residential building.
• The tiles are laid on concrete base.
• The tile is laid when the adhesive has set sufficiently; it is gently pressed with the
help of 5kg weight wooden roller and the oozing out adhesive is wiped off.
Plastic or P.V.C. flooring
• The floor is washed with warm soap water before used.
• It is resilient, smooth, good looking and can be easily cleaned.
• It is costly and slippery and can be damaged very easily when in contact with
burning object.
