Tiling Outdoors

Tiling outdoors is a perfect option for any outdoor area. Here in Australia, we have summers, autumn, winter, and spring. The elements and temperature modifications are subject to any material you use in outdoor spaces. If your tiles are not weather-friendly or incorrectly installed, your installation will fail. We saw broken tiles, stained stone, peeling grout, and excessive harm to water resulting from poor installation procedures.

Luckily, we’re here to assist you to select the correct materials and use the correct methods to build a lasting outdoor tile installation.

We service all these areas and more, Echuca, Barham, Moama, Shepparton, Cohuna, Bendigo.
Set-up a free consultation so we can help you choose the perfect exterior-grade materials.
Call 0417554219 or email us for a quote tiling@norvictiling.com.au.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE

ENVIRONMENT AND TEMPERATURE

The first consideration should always be the environment and temperature. This is vital to allow adequate time to dry, completely cure substrates in outdoor settings. To guarantee that planning involves time for negative weather conditions. This ensures to protect that tiling from the changing environment until the adhesive and grout are completely dry.

Consider the following:

• The tile and adhesive on the background must be able to resist changing weather conditions. Thermal exposure, penetration of water, pollution, and frost.
• During periods of exceptionally elevated or low temperatures, tiling should not be done. If such circumstances happen after tiling has begun. Suspend the procedure until conditions improve or take appropriate precautions.
• The approximate temperature range within which the installation with normal methods and materials can be carried out satisfactorily is 5 ° C to 35 ° C (taking into consideration the prevailing humidity concentrations and the degree of air motion).
• There is a need to protect any regions of prospective water penetration. For example, the top edges of parapet walls, appropriate flashing, trimming, and sills. This is to avoid the entry behind the tiling of water and waterborne dirt/contamination.
• Tiling cannot generally be carried out satisfactorily on backgrounds with temperatures above 40 ° C. Consideration should be given to the impacts of temperature variability on these tile facilities, such as shrinking or extension.
• If the prevailing temperature is outside this range, precautions are required to allow work to continue. For example, for external work cocooning against cold or direct sunlight protection.
• Consideration of the background structure is also very crucial as it can act as heat or cold sinks. Therefore may not achieve appropriate operating temperatures for some time after corrective action has been taken.

CLIMATE

The second consideration is that selected materials for the job should resist changing weather conditions when undertaking outdoor tiling work. The tiles must be resistant to frost such as mosaics, terracotta architecture and faience tiles architecture. But weather-resistant materials are not the only factors when carrying out work on outdoor tiling:

• Wherever tiling is carried out with a normal adhesive (setting time between 16-24 hours), individual tiles are supported so as not to place it under undue strain.
• No unique consideration is usually needed for mechanical fastening when fastening larger ceramic tiles up to a first story height (approx. three meters high) or when using mosaics.
• The building material and its adhesive should not occupy more than 25% of each tesserae’s region for mesh-backed mosaics; the critical factor is the spread of the adhesive across the tesserae’s backs. In accordance with the instructions of the mosaic manufacturer, the backing material and its adhesive must not deteriorate in service and must be compatible with the mortar or adhesive bed.
• And last but not least, use mechanical fixing always when tiling with large format tiles, 600 mm x 600 mm or larger.

EXPANSION JOINTS

You will need to include expansion joints in your setup to protect your tile from future damage. An expansion joint requires at least every 3 linear meters; and if you meet a solid surface or wall, it requires an expansion joint of at least 5mm wide around the perimeter of the installation.

TILING

Once a sound flat interface is reached, it is time to apply the appropriate, completely vitrified or frost-resistant tiles. Apply it to the solid-bed of adhesive. It is important to ensure that there are no voids under the tile. This will allow the collection of water that can freeze and expand, causing the tiles to crack. Preferably tiling starts from the highest point of the building. But, when you use standard adhesives, then tiling should start from the base of the top floor and then proceed around the circumference of the building. This is to allow the adhesive to dry before proceeding to the next row to ensure that the adhesive does not slump.

Use a tile adhesive based on extremely polymer-modified cement on walls and floors. It is important to note that dispersion adhesives should never be used for external tiling.

The tile adhesive’s working and setting time will differ with the outside temperature. This time period will decrease in elevated temperatures and will rise in warmer conditions.

DURABLE GROUT

After fixing, perform grouting as soon as possible. This is to ensure that the joints are free of dust or other harmful material. We do NOT suggest setting tiles without grouting (hard to wash, prospective thin-set or underlying harm, incomplete look) or without space between tiles (potential for tiles to expand, buckle, and separate from thin-set).

We suggest at least one 3mm grout joint to enable your tile to contract and expand. Also, use grout with some flexibility. These grouts are highly stain-resistant and non-porous, never needing a sealer.
Tent your installation to protect it against rain after grouting and allow airflow.