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Floor Finishing
Floor Finishing
Floor Finishing
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
PULCHOWK CAMPUS
BUILDING MATERIALS II
FLOOR FINISH
Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a
floor covering. Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor
structure to provide a walking surface. Both terms are used interchangeably but floor covering refers more
to loose-laid materials. Materials almost always classified as floor covering include carpet, area rugs, and
resilient flooring such as linoleum or vinyl flooring. Materials commonly called flooring include wood
flooring, ceramic tile, stone, terrazzo, and various seamless chemical floor coatings,
The final finishes to the floors may be considered under the three main headings:
1. In-situ floor finishes
2. Applied floor finishes
3. Timber floor finishes
Uses
On account of its good wearing properties and decorations mosaic is becoming popular floor finishing of
offices, schools, hospitals, residential buildings and banks.
II. Vinyl
It is prepared from the mixture of oxidized linseed oil pulverized cork, wood and colored pigments spread
on uniform layer on canvas with desired pattern and print. They are clayed over labeled concrete surface
with gum, they have better look, washable and easy to clean and maintain.
Uses
They are used as floor finish material in offices, halls, studios, labs, corridors, etc.
III. Flexible PVC Tile and Sheet
Flexible PVC is a popular hardwearing floor finish produced by a mixture of PVC resin, pigments and
mineral fillers. It is produced as 300×300mm square tiles or in sheet form up to 2400mm wide with the
range of thickness from 1.5 to 3mm. The floor tiles and sheet are fixed with an adhesive recommended by
the manufacturer and produce a surface suitable for most situations. PVC tiles like all mother small unit
coverings should be laid from the centre of the area towards the edges.
IV. Linoleum
It is produced in sheet or tiles form from a mixture of drying oils, resins, fillers and pigments which is
pressed into a hessian or bitumen saturated felt paper backing. Linoleum gives a quite resilient and
hardwearing surface suitable sheet for most domestic floors. Thickness varies from 2-6.5mm for a
standard sheet width of 1800mm tiles are usually 300mm square with the same range of thickness.
V. Stone
a) Marble
It is costly type of stone. It has got many good properties like
It can be sawn like timber with desired thickness
It is non-absorbent
It takes nice polish
It is available in wide range of colors
It can be easily cleaned
Uses
It is most suitable for places like temples, multipurpose halls, library, kitchen, dining, lobby, staircases, and
bathrooms of residential buildings s where decorative floors are essential.
It is most suitable for places in hot climate as marble flooring keeps the house cool.
b) Flag stone
It is a type of sandstone available in the form of slab or patties. It is very hard and compact. It can take
nice polish also. So it has been used as floor finishing material from ancient times
Uses
It is used as floor finishing material for pathways, passages, courtyards, etc
It can be laid over mud flooring and concrete flooring with cement, sand mortar
III. Parquetting
Parquetting is superior form of wood block flooring made from specially selected hard wood chosen mainly
for their decorative appearance. Parquetting are the thin rectangular tiles, prepared from hard woods with
different dimensions and shapes and patterns. It is laid over punned, level with parquetting. After
completely covering the floor with parquetting, it is polished either with manpower or with machine using
special polish.
But parquetting is very costly to maintain because of the following points
Polishing should be done frequently
Parquetting should not come in contact with water. Water causes parquetting swell and thus crack the
floor surface.
Before parquetting punning should be done to concrete floor which makes this finishing costly.