Black porcelain - General help

[dbroms]

Need a little help, looking at doing a patio in porcelain approx 13m2. Trying to find darkest black slab in Porcelain, most seem to be dark grey.
Has anybody used a white or very light slurry jointing compound ? looked at the Marshalls ones but dont seem to do a white one.
Need to cut the porcelain and know i need a diamond blade cutter , continuous with no segments but can you hire these or do you need to purchase ? Any other tips for laying porcelain appreciated.

[Tony McC]

Laying porcelain - https://www.pavingexpert.com/ceramic_01

Dark porcelain - a true black is not a popular choice for outdoor use. I've seen it in Italy, but not seen it from any of the major suppliers in Britain or Ireland.....yet! I suspect there will be some out there, somehwre, from one of the smaller importers that are below my radar, so it's simply a matrter of shopping around via your friendly, neighbourhood search engine (or Google!).

White grout - Mapei, Keracol, Ardex....they all do a white or 'off-white' outdoor grade grout.

[wario]

Kerakoll Fugabella Resin is arguably one of the best on the market IMHO.

Have you tried ‘Porcelpave’ ?

It’s my local supplier although I’ve only ever bought indoor Porc from them although I’ve seen they do sell very dark stuff.

[dbroms]

cheers for the info guys,much appreciated.Any ideas about the rough cost of an adequate cutter for 20mm porcelain to hire ? does the hire include a blade ?

[Tony McC]

Kerakoll products are invariably excellent for porcelain.

I'm sadly not up-to-date on hire costs, but the usual arrangement is a flat daily/weekly fee for the kit, and then umpteen quid per millimetre of wear on the blade, and it's never less than 3mm of wear....even if the damned blade didn't get used! Strange, that!

[wario]

Have a look on eBay for a second hand bridge saw. Make sure it’s capable of cutting thicker slabs. The last time I looked there was a lot on there.

Then get yourself a decent porcelain blade. Have a chat with Sam from Protiler tools, they do a lot of amazing blades. I think premtool make some good blades that don’t break the bank.

Hiring might be a bit of a lucky dip with what you get at the moment. It’s important not to just pick up something that a tiler might use as sometimes these are only capable of cutting 10mm thick porcelain at any speed.

I have a Battipav bridge saw, it’s incredible. Cuts slabs no problem. It’s only used for Bathroom work though.

Cutting thick porcelain, isn’t an easy job if you’re not geared up properly.

[dbroms]

Thanks Wario and everyone else, good idea about Ebay, will pick one up from there and can always put it back on after my patio is done, cheers.

[Tony McC]

A caveat about buying saws, espcially bench or bridge saw - from EBay - how can you be sure the blade is set-up correctly? Feedback from other site users over the years suggest that EBay is the preferred way to dispose of saws where the hub is distorted or damaged, so the blade doesn't sit true.

By all means buy second hand, but make sure you have some right of return if it turns out to be a lemon.

[wario]

Very true Tony, In particular some of the old Rubi saws. I had two of them about 15 years ago and they were both two millimetres out over 1m. I guess it’s knowing what to look for, which brands are good etc.

Hiring might be a better option after all

[dbroms]

another quick question about the sub base i need to put down, seen a video where the guy put down 2 layers (50mm each) of Mot1and compacted each one, he then put a layer of stone dust down and compacted this. Is the stone dust required or is it a little over kill ? I was going to just do 2 50mm layers of mot1 and full bed of mortar.

[Tony McC]

The correct methodology is fully described on the main website.