Tiling system for a quick turnaround

Tiling is typically considered a labour intensive, expensive and messy job. The noise and dust mean that when you’ve got a tiling job on the go, your business or home is often out of action for days and it can be highly disruptive.

But now there’s a tiling system for both walls and floors that can be rapidly overlaid onto existing tiles, with very little mess and no tile dust from cutting whatsoever.

The system is designed and made in Germany, is a composite ceramic and polyethylene product called Ceramin and is available in a number of finishes and formats. Creative Flooring’s Garth Dye says it’s lightweight, 100% waterproof and is ecologically designed for recyclability.

“It’s a mineral-composite floor and wall covering that is free from phthalates, plasticisers and volatile harmful substances. It is low weight per metre squared and yet still extremely robust, making it the ideal surface for flooring and walls, and although far lighter than ceramic, it’s just as stable, waterproof and heavy duty.”

Application

Ceramin is easy to lay or to float on either subfloor or straight onto existing tiled floors, walls or ceilings. The system comes in tongue and groove (T & G) modules that lock together to provide a completely waterproof system.

There is no need to remove existing tiles, to prepare, strip or sand back surfaces, other than giving the surface a good clean.

“You also don’t need to look at re-waterproofing existing tiled areas, which is a huge cost and time saver,” says Garth.

Cutting the tiles themselves is far simpler and a lot less messy than cutting traditional tiles.

“The beauty of it is you cut it with a Stanley knife. You score it and you snap it along that line. If you want to create a round shape you can use a protractor, or a hole saw at the end of a drill”.

This means there is far less wastage in the way of cracked, chipped or shattered tiles during the installation process.

Additionally, the tiles are so simple in the application that they can be DIY installed or alternatively a tiler can install them.

There’s three products within the Ceramin range - Neo, Sono and Vario. Neo and Sono are 4.5mm thick, they’re easy to lay, float or glue down to a surface, while Vario is only 3.0mm thick, meaning it’s lighter and suitable as both a floor and wall tile.

The weight of the tiles is a half or a third of the weight of equivalent ceramic tiles and this means handling them is far easier.

The products come in three different sized formats - 392 x 1180, 392 x 780, 315 x 642, and a range of finishes with a slightly textured ceramic-like surface that gives a warmer feel underfoot than traditional tiles.

Time-saver tiles

It’s not only the time to prep and cut the tiles that are greatly reduced with the Ceramin system.

“There’s no grouting required, they just fit together,” says Garth “The way the product fits together makes it look like it has a grout line – they’ve developed an edge on it similar to a T & G so it locates itself to itself.”

This means, unlike ceramic tiles, it doesn’t require spacers, another time-saving benefit.

They’re an excellent product for hospitality-based refurbishments such as hotels, motels or cafes where losing time due to the refurbishment of bathrooms or kitchens comes at a high cost.

“You could have a tiling job finished in half the time that you would with a typical ceramic replacement,” says Garth. “Someone could go in after hours in late-evening and re-line a bathroom of a reasonable size with minimal mess and disruption to business – the next day you’re ready to go again.”

As for any renovation, the shorter the period of time for refurbishments the lower the cost and more minimal the disruption – “it’s the same for someone doing it themselves at home – they could re-line their bathroom over the weekend.”

Do you need a tile job done, but the turnaround time is restrictive? Be sure to visit Creative Flooring on ArchiPro today or drop into one of their nationwide retailers.