Pavement renovation

Descripción sistema

Outlet shopping centre, located in Vila do Conde (Portugal), where it was decided to act on a degraded concrete pavement with a ceramic cladding. The Outlet Vila do Conde shopping centre was inaugurated in 2004, with a surface area of more than 15,000 square metres.

This article describes how the preparation of the old substrate was carried out and the details for the correct installation of the ceramic tiling with an urgent commissioning requirement.

Reason for the intervention

Concrete pavement in poor condition.

Laying of 90x90cm, 90x30cm and 30x30cm large format porcelain stoneware tiles without absorption.

Challenges and constraints

“Sanding and acid stripping of the concrete substrate.
“Quick-setting repair mortar on deteriorated pavement.
“Use of a high-performance, fast-setting tile adhesive cement for urgent commissioning.
“Limited execution time, the work had to be carried out in the early hours of the morning between 00:00 and 04:00 hours.

Molins Solution

“Cleaning and preparation of the concrete substrate by sanding and acid stripping.
“Repair of the pavement with very high-strength, fast-hardening, non-shrink, non-shrink mortar FERRODUR 600 R
(CT-C70-F7-A9), suitable for industrial flooring, complying with the requirements of EN 13813.
“Laying of the new ceramic tile with the high-performance, deformable quartz adhesive and fast setting VAT® FLEX RAPID (C2FTES1) in accordance with EN 12004.
“Grouting with BORADA® PLUS (CG2WA) special water-repellent and anti-mould mortar in accordance with EN 13888.

Execution

“First of all, the condition of the substrate was checked, eliminating all degraded or poorly adhered areas until a resistant substrate was achieved. The pavement was sanded, acid stripped and thoroughly cleaned to achieve a surface free of dust and loose particles.

“2. The pavement was repaired with rapid-setting, non-shrink repair mortar at cracked and chipped areas in the concrete.

“4. Laying of porcelain stoneware tiles without absorption, with VAT® FLEX RAPID, a high-performance deformable adhesive, based on specific additives that provide excellent workability, high thixotropy, no slippage and optimum adhesion, as well as rapid setting. The VAT® FLEX RAPID product, thanks to its rapid setting, allows the grouting of parts to be carried out 4 to 6 hours after application.
When laying large-format tiles, expansion joints were planned to be a maximum of every 30m2, as well as respecting the existing expansion joints in the flooring, and perimeter joints were made. At the same time, 3 mm joints were left between pieces.
The installation was carried out using the double gluing technique.

” 5. The grouting was carried out with BORADA® PLUS, a special water-repellent mortar with an anti-mould effect, designed on the basis of special cements, siliceous aggregates of selected granulometry, organic and inorganic additives and stable mineral pigments.

Technical note

In conditions of rapid commissioning of ceramic tile installation, quick-setting adhesives should be chosen. According to the standard for ceramic tile adhesives EN 12004, these are products with the letter F in the nomenclature. This means that they must obtain according to standardised test (EN 1348) a bonding result of more than 0.5 N/mm2
after 6 hours of installation. Our product VAT® FLEX RAPID (C2FTES1) more than fulfils this specification and was ideal for this very demanding intervention in terms of execution and commissioning time. In addition to being necessary due to the requirements of the flooring, size and absorption of the pieces to be installed, a deformability greater than 2.5 mm is required, whose nomenclature according to standard EN 12004 is S1.

Technical office