Quartz Tiles and Quartz Slabs : How to warehouse correctly.

Quartz tiles and quartz slabs should be warehoused as recommended by the manufacturer, which clearly means you should take approrpiate action or you might just damage them.
Quartz slabs if not warehoused properly may warp, especially if the temperatures are high and the slabs is warehoused in an irregular manner. To properly warehouse quartz slabs you should follow these tips:

• use vertical warehousing racks

• make sure the racks  have at least 2 supporting points
• the distance between thethe two points are to 3/5 of the whole length of the slab, so in a 300 cm slab it will be 180 cm.

 

• The suporting beams should be at least 90% of the slabs width
• You should surround the support beam with plastic rubber (make sure this rubber doesn't stain the quartz) to avoid damages to your quartz
• The base of the slab rack should have a protection like nylon or any other product, it'll avoid rusting of the rack;
• Always keep quartz slabs warehoused indoor, it may damage with sunlight and stain with rain ... exposed to these factors during a long period of time

Some tips for tile warehousing, which are normally supplied in carton boxes:

• Make sure to keep them indoor, avoid water and humidity;
• Make sure all material is in an up right position;
• Do not stack crates too high
• Make sure you keep the tiles ID tag visible
• Avoid hot temperatures at all times, warping can be a problem

How to install quartz tiles?

Quartz tiles give you unique designed rooms, they require professional installation. Quartz tiles should follow recommended installation procedures, due to it's special behaviour and physical characteristics, namely low water absorption, contraction and dialation when exposed to different temperatures. Nevertheless, you should always ask for the tile installation manual, and look out for all the special recommendations that may regard this product in specific.
We have several producers world wide, and although most of them give you unique properties for all their product range, the truth is that each specific colour/item has specific technical information that can cause problems during the installation of you tiles.
The composition of a engineered stone is 90-95% natural stone, using polyester resin as a binding agent. As natural stone has a more or less stable behaviour, the polyester resin is what makes this product so complicated when applied in a tile format. You may have finished products which include 5% resin, and others with 10% .... Yeah well, the producer often says 5% or 7%, this is a figure of speech.... In reality the quantity of resin is defined by the type of quartz grain used in producing it. The bigger the grain, let's say 0,7-1,2 mm will use less resin, than a 0-0,7mm grain, we call these latter products fine grain.

I've circled the big grain in the picture so it'll be easier for you to identify, these types of products. The next picture is a fine grain, you'll easily see the difference, and the next time you come across these products you'll identify it quite quickly.

So you can have almost 10% resin in an engineered stone which may alter significantly its physical behaviour when exposed to day-to-day usage. I'm covering this product in respect to tiles, regarding countertops this information is less relevant, when dealing with countertops, they counter has open space to compensate all this we have spoken of.
One important thing just before we follow the 6 step installation method for quartz tiles. When applying fine grain quartz on floors, the manufacturers won't tell you this, but these types of materials react badly to traffic, after some traffic they'll show micro-scratches on the surface .... when the dirt accumulates, the floor becomes ugly and dirty, you can clean it, but quickly it'll return. While manufacturers claim that they their products are all alike, the truth is as I said before, their products vary ... so be careful. This doesn't apply to counters, as floors normally have more wear due to traffic, and other solid objects that come with it, like sand and gravel.
Install Quartz Tiles using these recommended 6 steps:

1. Clean the area before applying the adhesive, make sure their are no cracks or unlevelled area; Also the area must be dry, water is not recommended during the application of this type of adhesive.
2. Spread a thin layer (2-5mm) of the bi-component adhesive (this adhesive should use liquid latex, not water type adhesive), you should mix thoroughly before applying and make sure it doesn't harden before you finish steps 5.
3. Use the notched side of the trowel to comb the thin layer of spread on the floor (Step 2)
4. Apply a thin layer of adhesive on the backside of the tile
5. Use a rubber mallet to fit and level the tile
6. Use masking tape along side of the joints and then grout with polyurethane mastic