Tiles

Muhammad Salman
Department of Civil Engineering
IIT Bombay
Tiles
• A natural or manufactured piece of hard-wearing material that could
generally be used for covering, protection and/or decorating finished
or unfinished surfaces like roofs, floors, walls, ceilings, façades, slabs.

• Made of ceramic, stone, metal, glass.

• Sometimes made from lightweight materials such as perlite, wood,

and mineral wool, typically used for wall and ceiling applications.
History
• Beautiful tiled surfaces - oldest pyramid, the ruins of Babylon, and the
ancient ruins of Greek cities.
• Fired roof tiles - 3rd millennium BCE - Greece. The fired tiles began
to replace thatched roofs at two temples of Apollo and
Poseidon between 700 and 650 BCE
Ancient Greek Roof Tiles
History (contd.)
• Dutch roof tiles (14th century).
• The spread of the roof tile technique has to be viewed in connection
with the simultaneous rise of monumental architecture in ancient
Greece.
Roman roof tile
fragment
Advantages of using tiles
• Strength and stability
• Fire resistance
• Good sound resistance
• Damp resistance
• Thermal resistance
• Durable, hard-wearing
• Aesthetical cover (floors, roofs, walls..)
• Environment Friendly
• Low rate of Replacement
Manufacturing (Clay based tiles)
The operations involved in manufacturing of tiles involved:
• Selection of suitable clay
• Preparation of clay (quarried and refined)
• Moulding: Dry mixture of clay, magnesium silicate and other
ingredients are pressed into mould
• Shaping & Drying
• Burning: Fired at extremely high temperature
• Cooling
Classification of Tiles
• Based on:

• Materials

• Applications
Types of Tiles Based on Materials
• Clay
• Common
• Ceramic (Glazed, Vitrified)
• Terrazzo
• Mosaic
• Stone
• Glass
Common Clay tiles
• Extensively used in India (floors & roofs (IS 2690)
• A mixture of glass and clay.
• Materials are mixed and extruded in the shape of slabs
• Put in moulds and pressed to required shape.
• Fired at 1330 ˚C
Ceramic tiles
• Made from Special ceramic clays (manufactured in 2 phases)
• Fired around 1200-1300˚ C.
• Glazing (coated with glaze & again fired in Oven)
• Permanently hardened by heating
• Very thick, as is the case with tiles designed for flooring, or quite thin, in
the instance of ceramic tiles used to make trivets
• Extremely durable and wear resistance
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Easy to clean
• Wall tiles, Flooring of Offices, Airport…
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Vitrified Tiles
• Vitrification Process
• Made by baking fine minerals like silica, quartz, feldspar etc
• Heated at extreme high temperatures where the individual grains or particles melt
and fuse make a vitreous surface (glassy texture).
• Properties
• Porosity or Water absorption (0.5%) - Very low
• Breaking Strength
• Abrasion Resistance
• Chemical Resistance
• Less thickness/weight

• Alternative to Marble and Granite flooring

Terrazzo Tiles
• Artificial hard tiles
• Terrazzo = Coarse aggregates + Binder + Fine aggregates
(decorative (white or colored (white, grey, (marble powder or
Concrete) chips) or colored magnesite powder)
cement)
• Cement and marble aggregate in proportion 1:1.25 to 1:2, it is then mixed and
poured in situ onto a concrete base.
• Ground, (waxed sometimes) and polished.
• Durable
• Easy to clean.
Terrazzo Tiles Terrazzo Flooring
Mosaic Tiles
• Made of small pieces of broken tiles of china glazed/cement/marble arranged in
different pattern
• Tiles used are available in variety of patterns and colors
• Commonly used in theatres, temples, bathrooms and superior type of building
floors
• Mosaic tiles are often used to depict architectural beauty
Stones
Marble Tiles
• Form of metamorphic rock
• Made up of calcium carbonate
• Comes in numerous colors, white, grey, green
• Porous and must be sealed
Stones
Granite
• Form of Igneous rock made up of feldspar, quartz and mica
• Expensive
• Long lasting, as it is hardwearing and resistant to chemicals and has a
timeless look
• Comes in limited colors - black, red, green, grey, blue, pink
Granite Slab

Granite Flooring
Stones
Slate
• Foliated metamorphic rock. It occurs as a result of shale rock undergoing
metamorphosis.
• Normally grey in color. However, it can still occur in other colors: Purple,
green, Cyan.
• Can be slippery when used in external locations subject to rain
Stones
Limestone and Sandstone
• Derived from sedimentary rocks
• Limestone is rarely used for floors today as it
becomes slippery when it is worn.
• It is grey or beige in color.

• Sandstone is used more in outdoor paving than

indoor but looks great in an area that flows to
the outdoors such as a conservatory.
• Its irregular natural pattern is its best feature.
Glass
Glass Mosaic Tiles
• Glass Mosaic Tiles are versatile and timeless.
• These tiles can be used on a variety of wall
decors, including kitchen and bath
backsplashes, fireplace surrounds, tub
surrounds, wet bars, etc.
• Some can even be installed in showers or
pools.
Based on Applications
• Roof tiles

• Floor tiles

• Wall tiles

• Ceiling tiles
Roof Tiles
• Designed mainly to drain the rainwater from the
roof and protect from the sun.
• Traditionally made from locally available materials
such as clay or slate.
• Concrete and plastic are also used, and some clay
tiles have a waterproof glaze

a. Flat tiles - laid in regular overlapping

Roof Tiles
b. Pantiles: with an S-shaped profile, allowing
tiles to interlock

• Batten lugs

c. Barrel tiles – semi-cylindrical tiles laid in

alternating columns of convex and concave
tiles.
• Mass-produced from clay, metal, concrete or
plastic.
Floor Tiles
• Commonly made of ceramic or stone.

• Stones like marble, granite, slate, limestone and sandstone.

• Recent technological advances have resulted in rubber/polymer or

glass tiles for floors as well.
Ceiling Tiles
Tiles used for covering ceilings of rooms
• Suspended ceilings
• Acoustic Ceilings
Acoustic Ceiling
Suspended Ceiling
Criteria for Selection of tiles
• Water absorption • Quality and thickness of glaze
• Breaking load (transverse • Sound insulation
strength/ Flexural strength) • Thermal insulation
• Permeability/Damp resistance • Fire resistance
• Resistant to wear, • Smoothness
temperature changes
• Hardness
• Impact resistance
• Aesthetics
• Flatness
• Cost
Tests on tiles
• Water absorption test

• Breaking Load test/ Transverse strength test (Wet)/ Flexural Strength Test

• Impact test

• Permeability test

• Abrasion test
Water Absorption Test (IS 654:1997)
• Tiles are dried at the temperature of 105 ˚C to 110 ˚C till they attain
constant weight
• Cooled and weighed (M1)
• Immersed in cool water at 27±2 °C for 24 hours.
• Specimen is then weighed (M2) within 3 minutes after removing the
specimen from the water
• Percentage of water absorption
W = (M2−M1)/M1 ×100
Breaking Load Test (IS 654)
Wet Transverse strength (IS 1237)
Flexural strength (IS 1478)
• Soak the tiles at 27 ± 2˚C in water for 24 hours

• Load rate of 450 – 550 N/min for IS 654 and IS 1478

• Load rate - not exceeding 2000 N/min (for IS 1237)

• Note down the breaking load in N (IS 654)

• f=3pl/2bt2 N/mm2 (IS 1237)

Impact Test ( IS 1478:1997)
• Steel balls - 35 mm dia, Mass – 170 g

• Tiles dried in oven at 100 – 110 °C and cool to room temp.

• Place the tiles (Upwards) over rubber sheet in turn rests on rigid surface.

• Steel ball is allowed to fall at the centre of the tile.

• Steel ball released from 7.5 cm height and increased until the specimen fails

• The maximum height of release of the test ball, which does cause a fracture in the tile,
shall be recorded in each case
 Table 1 Classification of flooring tiles (IS 1478:1997)

S. No. Characteristics Requirements for

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3
i) Water absorption %, Max 10 19 24
ii) Flexural strength , kg/cm
width, Min:
a) Average 6.0 3.5 2.5
b) Individual 5.0 3.0 2.0
iii) Impact, maximum height in
mm of drop of steel ball:
a) 15 mm thick 25 20 15
b) 20 mm thick 60 50 40
c) 25 mm thick 75 65 50
d) 30 mm thick 80 70 60
Permeability Test (IS 654)
• Use rectangular trough of size equal to the tile.
Watertight sealing has to be applied.

• Keep the tiles in similar position as in

application.

• Perform the test at 27 ± 2˚C and 65 ± 5 % RH

• Pour water over the tile = 5 cm for a period of

six hours

• Carefully examine the bottom of the tile for

dampness or leakage of water
Abrasion Test (IS 1237)
• Specimen - 7.06 cm x 7.06 cm (50 cm2)
• Dried at 110 ± 5˚C for 24 hours
• Thickness measuring apparatus – thickness at different locations.
• 20 g abrasive powder + load of 300 N on the specimen
• For every 22 rev. -change the abrasive charge and direction (90˚)
• Total rev- 220. Loss in weight is determined
• Wear in thickness is calculated as follows:
(W2−W1)V1× (10 mm)
t=
(W1×A)
t = average loss of thickness in mm
W1 = initial weight in g of specimen,
W2 = final weight in g of specimen
V1 = initial volume in cm3 of specimen
A = surface area in cm2 of the specimen
BIS Standards relevant to Tiles
• Mangalore pattern clay Roofing tiles IS: 654
• Flat terracing tiles IS: 2690
• Ridge and Ceiling tiles IS: 1464
• Clay flooring tiles IS: 1478
• Cement concrete flooring tiles IS: 1237
• PVC asbestos floor tiles IS: 3461
• Hollow Clay tiles for floors and roofs IS: 3951
• Ceramic unglazed vitreous acid Resisting tiles IS 4457
• Ceramic tiles IS 13630
• Pressed Ceramic Tiles IS 15622