Do-it-yourself ceramic tile laying: laying process and laying technology video. Do-it-yourself ceramic tiles What tiles are made of

The assortment of building stores pleases with constantly emerging new products designed for modern home decoration. But be that as it may, ceramic tiles do not lose their popularity at all, and remain one of the most popular materials for facing floors and walls in rooms with specific operating conditions - with high humidity, with direct water on the surface, with a pronounced abrasive load. , with the need for frequent wet cleaning with the use of detergents. According to such criteria, this includes bathrooms, bathrooms and kitchens, hallways and corridors, balconies and loggias, entrance groups and some utility rooms.

In a word, in any house or apartment, such a finish will definitely find wide application. Therefore, the question is so relevant - how difficult is laying ceramic tiles with your own hands, is it worth inviting a master, or is it quite possible to manage on your own? We cannot agree with the opinion of the authors of individual articles who claim that tiling is a very simple task. Such a finish requires precise adherence to technology, knowledge of many nuances, a certain skill and increased accuracy. However, it does not seem impossible either - so many homeowners have successfully completed the finishing work on their own. We hope that this article will help the portal visitor to understand the basics of ceramic tile laying technology, to carefully assess their capabilities and make the right decision.

In modern factories and factories, tiles are often obtained by pressing and firing dry mass. Huge expensive pressing machines and special furnaces are responsible for this. At home, this is not the best option, so you will need to use wet clay, which you can shape into any shape.

Briefly, the process looks like this: wet clay is taken, it is shaped, it is dried, fired, glazed and fired again (to set the glaze).

Now a little more

Before starting work, wet clay rests in a bag and waits for you to make something out of it. When you start making a tile, it turns into a raw ceramic product. While you are molding the tiles, they will dry out a little, and by the end of the molding they will harden a little. This stage, when the clay is still moist, is called the hard skin stage.

When your tiles are completely dry, you will find that the color of the clay has become lighter. Now we can say that it is at the raw stage. At this point, the tile is already quite hard, but if you hit it lightly, it may crack or crumble. If you leave such a tile to dry outdoors and it is exposed to rain, then the tile may become limp and turn into a lump of clay. There is no need to get upset about this, because such a property of clay is very beneficial. If you make a bad sample, just toss it in a bucket of clay waste and forget about your troubles. Later, when the clay lays down, it can be reworked and made into something new and beautiful.

After all the moisture has evaporated from the clay and the tiles have reached a green state, they are ready to be placed in the kiln and fired. What you do next depends on what glazing technique you use; but in accordance with common practice, during the first firing, which is called biscuit firing, the clay is not specially burned after. Depending on the maturation temperature of the clay, the biscuit firing temperature can range from 850°C to 1000°C. Under these conditions, ceramic products remain porous and are able to easily absorb the glaze.

The second (glaze) firing takes place at the temperature necessary for the maturation of the glaze. This temperature may be below - but never above - the temperature required for the maturation of the clay; otherwise, the glaze will melt and turn into glassy balls.

Clay and ceramic mixtures. clay properties

Clay is the basis for the production of tiles. It consists of oxygen, hydrogen, silicone and aluminum, and when water is added, it changes its structure, becomes more flexible and viscous. When water is removed, the clay hardens and becomes rigid. It is very important to know that clay that has only recently been dug out of the ground is not yet ready to be used as a raw material for pottery. The working qualities of the recently mined clay leave much to be desired. The main characteristics of clay that will be important to you are plasticity, firing temperature range and degree of shrinkage.

plasticity of clay

Plastic allows you to get complex shapes(such as step angles, for example)

If the clay is too plastic, it will not have sufficient strength to make large-shaped objects from it, it will collapse at high temperatures. In this case, coarse-grained materials should be added to it. Clay with a coarse-grained structure will not be plastic enough, it will break when twisted and molded, it will not be possible to get the desired shape from it. In order to make it more convenient to work with, add more sticky or more plastic clays to the composition.

The plasticity of clay is easy to determine by eye, squeezing and rolling a lump. You can conduct a simple test - make a sausage out of clay and start bending it in an arc. The smaller the radius of the arc along which the clay bends and does not crack, the more plastic it is. Another simple way to determine plasticity is to break the clay sausage into 2 parts. If the ends of the edges are thin and stretch like threads, the clay is plastic. If the ends are thick and dry, like stumps, and the clay itself crumbles in the hands, it is of low plasticity. Potters refer to plastic clays as fat clays, and low-plasticity clays as lean clays.

We repeat that none of these types of clay can be used in its pure form for making tiles, they will definitely need to be mixed to obtain the material of the desired consistency.

Temperature range of firing clay

Each type of ceramic clay and each added ingredient has its own specific melting point, which determines the firing temperature required to sinter the clay when it is turned into ceramic. A clay mass formula or recipe may include several different clays, as well as other non-clay materials, which are added to obtain a material with certain properties, depending on the purpose of use of the product.

Potters distinguish low-melting clays (with a melting point below 1350 degrees), medium-melting (temperature from 1350 to 1580) and refractory (temperature, you guessed it, above 1580 degrees). The more plastic the clay, the lower the firing temperature it can withstand. To increase the temperature, add fireclay or pumice to the clay (with pumice, the temperature will drop to 800 - 950 degrees).

Clay shrinkage rate

Your the product will change its mass and dimensions during drying and firing as water evaporates from it. When you are going to make tiles that are specifically designed for some limited space, you need to know as much as possible about the degree of shrinkage of this clay.

The largest shrinkage occurs during firing. when chemically bound water leaves. Further, a continuous process of curing and compression occurs with the formation of glass crystals in the fired clay, which turn the clay mass into ceramics. The higher the firing temperature, the more the clay shrinks. To reduce shrinkage, increase the amount of chamotte in the ceramic mass.

Clay shrinkage testing For this test, you will need a ruler with centimeter marks printed on it. Roll out a small plate of clay and cut a strip of about 4 x 13 cm from it. Using a needle and ruler, very carefully draw a 100 mm line on the surface of the strip. Attach a label to the strip with the name of the type of clay, let it dry and fire it until it matures. Measure the length of the line: the difference between the measurements on the wet and fired clay strip will give the shrinkage percentage. The photo shows that a 100 mm line on wet clay decreased to 92 mm after firing, and the difference was 8 mm. The shrinkage of the clay is thus 8%.

How to avoid cracking and deformation of clay

Whether you succeed or fail in your tile-making venture depends on choosing the right type of clay. One of the most difficult tasks for you will be to avoid cracking and deformation of the products during drying and firing. Fortunately, this task can be made easier if add a significant amount of granules or particles of coarse-grained material, such as fireclay, to the clay. Ideally, the amount of chamotte should be between 15 and 40 percent, while it is desirable that the particles be of different sizes.

A good clay mass for tiles should contain 12/2? percent of fireclay fine grinding and 25% - medium grinding. For those who already have experience with ceramic masses, this may seem an extremely large amount (and it is not suitable for making small ceramic figures, where the content of chamotte is unlikely to exceed 20%), but the open pore structure that is obtained due to chamotte, allows the tiles to dry more evenly and avoid warping.

And exclusive, here are miracles, -

Made my own tiles for the bathroom

Make tiles with your own hands. What for? After all, hardware stores offer tiles of different sizes, colors, with different patterns, even for the walls of the bathroom, even for the floor, even for the ceiling. So what? Despite the rich assortment, all the same, one of your friends or acquaintances will definitely run into the same color, texture, pattern. If you are a designer at heart and you need something exclusive, then roll up your sleeves and make your own tiles. Many say that this is impossible, because special equipment is needed. This is not so: you need skillful hands and a bright head, and then according to the saying about the eyes that are afraid, and about the hands that do.

What do you need to have for the production of ceramic tiles?

Of course, first of all, clay, as the main raw material for the production of tiles. And water, under the influence of which clay changes its physical and chemical properties. Naturally, there must be a container for mixing them. Further:

• - there must be a form for pouring;
• - a matrix, for drawing drawing or a bas-relief;
• - tools for filling forms (shovel, scoop);
• - reinforcing mesh;
• - gloves to save hands;
• - you can prepare the filler, especially if the clay is very oily.

Clay properties

Clay is made up of aluminum, silicone, hydrogen and oxygen. At the moment when it was taken out of the ground, there can be no talk of any ceramics. Flexible and viscous, when something can be done from it, it will become by changing the structure. And this happens only under the influence of water. And now the quality of the tiles produced depends on the properties possessed by clay. Any good clay has the following properties:

• - when interacting with water, it forms dough and suspensions (this is cloudy water on top of the dough, which contains such small particles that they do not even fall down, but stay between water molecules);
• - ability to swell;
• - plasticity, that is, the ability to give the dough any shape, which, by the way, remains after drying (but in a smaller volume);
• - binding ability and stickiness;
• - the ability, after saturation with water, not to pass water through itself.

One should not lose sight of such a property as the color of clay. They come in white, red, yellow, green, black, as well as a huge variety of their shades. Naturally, using clay of different colors, multi-colored products are obtained.

And, although this no longer applies to the production of tiles, clay purifies (filters) petroleum products, fats and oils, is a raw material for the production of aluminum sulfate salts, and also has healing properties.

It is clear that not every clay has a set of all these properties, but here it is already the prerogative of a person which clay and how to apply it.

Clay types

Clays are often classified according to how they are used. The following clays have the greatest value as a mineral.

1. 1. Kaolin having a white color. We owe him earthenware and porcelain dishes. It also serves as a filler in the production of cardboard and paper.
2. 2. Refractory clays of white, gray and yellow colors. Withstand without softening for the melt up to 1580°C.
3. 3. Acid-resistant clays. One of the areas of application is chemical glassware.
4. 4. Molding clays characterized by increased plasticity, binding capacity and fire resistance. Used in the manufacture of molds for casting in the metallurgical industry.
5. 5. Cement clays, their purpose follows from the name.
6. 6. Brick clay. They are fusible, depending on the impurities give a brick of different quality.
7. 7. Bentonite clays with bleaching and cleanable properties.

There is another good classification of clays. This is their division into "skinny" and "fat". "Fatty"they are good clay with almost no impurities, while "lean" ones are loams, or worse, sandy loams with small inclusions of clays. If products made from "skinny" clay are fragile and easily crumble from slight pressure, then sand must be added to "fat" clay, since it often "breaks" during firing, which, oddly enough, strength is to blame. It’s just that different places or layers heat up and cool down in different ways, that is, they have a different expansion coefficient, and softness and plasticity during firing are already lost. And now the layers, shifting one relative to the other, are separated, forming a crack.

How to make ceramic tiles with your own hands?

You should not take too "fat" clay, preferably medium-plastic: in this way the tile will turn out to be moderately strong and will not "break" during firing. Clay must be taken sufficiently moist, and it must lie in a tied bag so that there is no evaporation of water. For what? Uncompressed clay has pores occupied by air, which does not contribute to its plasticity and binding properties.

Next, you can start shaping. Clay must be put into molds, tightly tamped, and so that the edges of the mold and the edges of the product coincide. The excess must be removed with a cutter, otherwise, after drying and firing, the edges of the tile will be quite sharp. And you should not beat them off, this is fraught with a break in the tile.

The next stage is the drying of the tiles. How long? It depends on the temperature and relative humidity of the place where it dries. The guideline is usually the lightening of the tile (raw it is always darker) and hardening. It turned out a semi-finished product. If you hit it even lightly, it will crumble, even though the raw material looks strong enough. By the way, raw is the last stage, when you can still change something. You can just throw the raw material into a bucket of wet clay, it will take on water, soften and become ready for reuse. Why is the last stage for change? And then there is firing, after which all the physical properties of clay will change.

Most often, the firing has two stages: the biscuit firing and the glaze firing. Biscuit takes place at a temperature not exceeding 1000 ° C. Skeptics argue that temperatures close to this value cannot be obtained at home. And now attention: no more than a thousand, but close to this value can be 900 ° C, and it is easily achieved in an electric muffle furnace. Why is firing called biscuit firing? This temperature evaporates the last moisture from the tile, making it finely porous, like a biscuit. The temperature should be from 850°C.

This could already be stopped. The tile has already acquired sufficient hardness and strength. But we are used to seeing shiny, smooth surfaces in cladding. Fired ceramics without glaze is called terracotta, it is in front of us. We want to get majolica - fired ceramics covered with glaze.

The pores formed during the biscuit firing play an important role in the glaze coating of the tiles. Thanks to them, the tile adsorbs and holds the glaze before and during firing. What is glaze made of? When preparing it under industrial conditions, about thirty different minerals are used. At home, it can be done like this: glass, tripolephosphate and kaolin are placed in a ball mill and ground. The resulting mixture is water-based. The composition is applied by watering, brush or spray.

The second firing is carried out. Its temperature should be lower than during the first firing. This is necessary for two reasons: it is impossible to reach critical temperatures when ceramics begin to sinter; at a higher temperature, the glaze will not be evenly distributed over the tile, but will turn into interspersed glass beads. The role of the glaze is twofold: it seals the ceramic item and allows you to achieve unexpected lighting effects.

There is one caveat to this whole process. As you can see, glaze and ceramics are made up of the same chemical elements. Therefore, if, while firing the glaze, you overexpose the tile in the oven, it may begin to melt by itself.

That, in fact, is all. Having experimented with minerals to achieve the desired shade of glaze, with the technique of applying a pattern or relief elements, you can begin to create exclusives.

Sometimes, when creating facing tiles, they do not reach the stage of the second firing, but the tiles still get glossy. It just uses a slightly different technology. After the first firing, the tiles are primed and a layer of varnish is applied. The dried varnish also creates a glossy surface.

So is it worth it or not to do the facing tiles yourself? Exclusivity and great moral satisfaction on one side of the scale and a lot of work and unpredictability of the result (for the first time) on the other. It depends on the specific person where these scales will swing, especially since there is no big problem - there are enough tiles and tiles in the neighboring store around the corner and in the construction market.

Ideas for inspiration:

14208 0

There was a period in the history of our country when the harsh reality forced us to do something with our own hands, namely the lack of the necessary product in the distribution network, and the only way to become the owner of this or that item was to make it from something at home.

The main ingredient for ceramic tiles is clay.

Now, modern industry and trade provides consumers with any range of goods, including satisfying the needs of buyers in the market of finishing materials. Ceramic tiles are presented in all conceivable and unimaginable types, sizes and colors.

It would seem that it’s easier: come, choose, buy, install, but this option does not suit everyone, in our rapid age of standardization and standard solutions, I want to highlight my individuality at least in the decoration of a particular room. And this raises the question, is it possible to make ceramic tiles at home with your own hands, realizing your own ideas, designing the interior space of a bathroom or kitchen. We will not languish. We answer. Yes, you can, but subject to certain simple conditions, which are described below.

What is needed to organize the production of ceramics

First of all, it is necessary to have a great desire, patience and confidence in a positive result, as well as to have the necessary materials, tools, fixtures and equipment available. Perhaps not everything will work out right away, but the efforts spent will eventually make it possible to be proud of yourself, demonstrating to friends and acquaintances such a rather technological product as ceramic tiles made of clay with your own hands.

Handmade Clay Ceramic Tiles

Raw material selection

Everyone probably knows what any ceramics is made of, the main component is clay. But about what types of clay exist, their properties and the possibility of using it for making ceramic tiles with your own hands. According to the composition, properties and applications, clays are divided into four groups:

1. Coarse ceramic. They contain a large amount of impurities in the form of pebbles and sand, as well as gypsum and lime inclusions. It is used for the manufacture of bricks, tiles, dishes and expanded clay.
2. Refractory and refractory. They have a high alumina content, good ductility and a high degree of refractoriness. They are used in the manufacture of refractory bricks and various ceramics.
3. Kaolin. Low-plasticity clays are used in paper and rubber production and as an additive for the manufacture of faience products.
4. Montmorillonite. Their main feature is their high ductility, they are used as drilling mud, in metallurgy and food industry.

Plasticity is the ability of clay to take any shape and retain it as it dries.

Clays are also divided into "fat" and "skinny". The former are plastic and products from them can be given any shape, but in order to make ceramics with your own hands at home, it is necessary to prepare the clay, for which the source material is diluted to the required composition with sand, fireclay or ground pumice.

You should not take too “fat” clay, medium-plastic is better

Choice of tools and materials

Having decided to make a tile, or ordinary ceramic tile with your own hands, you will need:

• raw materials: clay, filler for dilution, in case the clay is greasy, water;
• form for the production of future tiles;
• a cliche for the formation of an imprint of a drawing or a bas-relief on the front side of the product;
• spatula, scoop, trowel;
• mesh for reinforcing the product.

Stages of making ceramics

Do-it-yourself technology for the production of ceramic tiles consists of the following steps:

• Clay of medium plasticity is taken, poured into a container and filled with water. After several days of soaking, the clay is stirred and kneaded. Then, through a fine sieve, the material is ground into another container and then the mass is distributed on old newspapers or a rag with a layer of 10-15 mm. When the clay reaches the desired density, it is mixed and put into a plastic bag.
• The material prepared in this way is placed in the molds and compacted; this must be done so that the level of the molding mass coincides with the edges of the mold, for which the excess material is cut off with a knife or cutter.

The most high-quality forms are made of polyurethane, the products are quite even with the same parameters.

• Further, the technology for making ceramic tiles with their own hands goes into the pre-drying stage. It lasts until the mass acquires a lighter shade and this period depends on the ambient temperature and humidity. The result is a raw tile. If something went wrong with you, then at this stage you can still correct the situation, for which the spoiled semi-finished product is soaked with water, and the molding procedure starts over.
• The process of burning raw tiles is the most technologically advanced stage, because the semi-finished product must be exposed to a high temperature of about 1000-1200 degrees, which will require special equipment. To make ceramic tiles with your own hands, you can limit yourself to a temperature of 850-900 degrees, which is achieved in an electric muffle furnace. The production technology allows this, provided that the composition of the clay mass contains pumice, which is sintered at the specified temperature. Such primary firing is called biscuit for some similarity in the obtained finely porous structure of the workpiece, after evaporation of water from it. At the same time, the ceramic workpiece has already acquired the necessary hardness and strength. Such a product is called terracotta.

Stages of technology: making raw materials, firing ceramics and applying a decorative layer

• If you want to make majolica with your own hands, that is, fired ceramics, glazed on the front side, or, more simply, tiles, then the production technology does not end there. It is necessary to make one more firing, but with glaze, for which a multicomponent mixture is prepared, the main components of which are glass, kaolin and tripolephosphate in powder form. All components are mixed and diluted with water. The resulting mixture, with a brush or by pouring over the workpiece, is distributed over the product, and a second firing is made.

Particular attention should be paid to the control of the process temperature, it should not be higher than the primary firing temperature. Otherwise, the glazed surface may be damaged or the terracotta blank may be sintered.

This tile manufacturing technology allows you to create unique compositions on the glossy surface of the product, for which different glaze compositions are used. In the case when firing glaze is not suitable for you for some reason, then you can make an attractive, smooth and shiny surface with your own hands by treating the workpiece with enamel or varnish.

And so, if the article has been read to the end, and the difficulties of making ceramic tiles from clay with your own hands, reflected in this manual, did not frighten you, then honor and praise be to you. After all, knowing what and how to make such a unique finishing material, the originality and individuality of the lining, as well as the delight of your friends and acquaintances, are provided to you.