Construction of mosaic flooring

Mosaic flooring is made of small pieces of marble, stone, glazed tiles or broken china set in cement mortar over a concrete base, and polished to give a decorative surface. Factory-made mosaic tiles (cement-marble chips tiles) are also used.

Construction (in-situ mosaic)

1. Base concrete: a concrete sub-floor (1:2:4, 100 mm) is laid, levelled and left rough. It is cleaned and wetted before the next layer.
2. Mortar bed: a 20-30 mm layer of cement-sand mortar (1:3) is spread and levelled.
3. Dividing strips: glass, brass or aluminium strips are fixed in the mortar to form panels, usually 1 m x 1 m.
4. Mosaic pieces: marble or china pieces of selected size and colour are pressed into a thin layer (about 3 mm) of neat cement grout or paste, in the pattern wanted.
5. Rolling and levelling: the surface is beaten and rolled for level and even setting.
6. Curing: kept wet for 7 days.
7. Grinding and polishing: ground by a machine with stones of increasing fineness, voids are filled with cement paste, and the floor is finally polished with oxalic acid and wax.

Mosaic tile laying

Precast tiles (25 x 25 or 30 x 30 cm) are bedded on a 20-25 mm cement mortar (1:4) over the concrete base, joints are kept thin and filled with cement slurry, then the floor is cured and polished.

   mosaic pieces + cement paste ~~~~
   mortar bed 1:3 (20-30 mm)    ....
   PCC 1:2:4 (100 mm)           ====
   brass/glass strip in each 1 m panel