Stephani Stephenson on sun 25 oct 09
apologies, i sent the previous post off before i proofread it and at leas=
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t one statement=3D20
made no sense..so am resending so it is less painful for the reader to na=
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vigate :)
Leslie. just a few thoughts. As always, do your own checking and take ev=
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erything anyone=3D20
says as general suggestion only.
In my humble opinion,It is OK for wall tiles for an interior wall/stove s=
=3D
urround to have a=3D20
higher absorption rate. wall tiles for stove surrounds are not drinking v=
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essels.
These are not exterior tiles, pool or tub tiles or floor tiles. Their pr=
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imary job is not to=3D20
keep water out,or hold water in.
their primary job is to provide a stove surround which is non combustibl=
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e, attractive,=3D20
easy to clean, and which may, to some degree, act as a heat shield.
I would think in terms of whether your clay body and surface will meet th=
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e needs of the=3D20
application. in fact, thinset mortar may not easily adhere to imperviou=
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s or even vitreous=3D20
tiles.
Where needed, moisture barriers (such as plastics), as well as heat barri=
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ers (such as=3D20
metal foil )are sometimes incorporated into tiled walls for specific uses=
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(showers, stove=3D20
floor pads,etc)....
It is also likely that strawbale houses, like adobe houses, need to breat=
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he.
Strong fired tile which is somewhat permeable to moisture movement from=
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inside to=3D20
outside may be the ideal material in to use in
this case.
ANSI categorizes moisture permeability of tiles as follows:
nonvitreous: more than 7%
semi-vitreous- 3-7 %
vitreous .5-3%
impervious, less than .5 %
wall tile for general purpose interior walls can actually have up to 20%=
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absorption.
ART wall tile is ungraded.
ANSI (American National Standards Institute) measure permeability to wate=
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r by boiling=3D20
tile in water for 5 hours and dividing its gain in weight by its original=
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dry weight. I think=3D20
over the years a number of folks have posted info on absorption in posts=
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on freeze/thaw.=3D20
often quoting a procedure from Val Cushing's book, and Ron's procedure is=
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similar.
it IS valuable to know the absorption of your claybody at the temperature=
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to which you=3D20
fire. and if glazed, it is always good to have a glaze which fits the bod=
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y and is easy to=3D20
clean.=3D20
All i am trying to say really, is that the range for acceptable absor=
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ption is not as=3D20
narrow as you might think for this application
You might look up stove surrounds in a general tile setting book to find =
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out what to use as=3D20
a substrate (i don't know about strawbale and the thickness of interior p=
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lastering, but=3D20
usually cement backerboard along with latex free thinset mortar and grout=
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is used)
ALso find out whether the backerboard will be set away from the wall. Gen=
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erally, you can=3D20
tile directly to substrate ,(unprotected clearance")if you have 36" inch=
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es of clearance=3D20
between the stove and the wall... if it is closer, down to 12", you need =
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to create an=3D20
airspace between the wall and the subsrate, generally by using hat channe=
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l and allowing=3D20
for circulation of the air between the wall and the tiled panel...
you can easily research this, or , if someone else is doing the installat=
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ion , ask about=3D20
what they will do, as it might affect how you finish the edges of the til=
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ed area.
good success with your project!
Stephani Stephenson
Mike Gordon on sun 25 oct 09
I missed the original question about what these tiles were being used
for, and for the life of me I can't figure out from the explanation
Stephani gave whether Leslie is doing a heat barrier behind a stove or
a tile surround for a sink. Either way, water absorption doesn't seem
to me to be a problem if the tile is behind a stove. My wood burning
stove had a wood panel wall behind it, so I used 1"spacers to allow air
to travel behind the cement board that I put my tile on. I left 2" at
the bottom so cool air could travel up behind the tile wall which is
20" away and 16" above the top of my stove. Mike Gordon
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