Flooring is a common and essential thing we have in our life. While creating any infrastructure (house, office, school, industry) owners pay attention to the floors as it has to bear the weight. Hence, the ultimate choice is a floor with high durability and strength. This need is satisfied by IPS flooring very well.
In IPS Flooring; IPS refers to the Indian Patent Stone. IPS Flooring in the construction industry has created a significance because of the unique construction method using panels. This unique method is the reason behind the strength that IPS flooring provides and avoidance of crack on floor which we usually observe in normal floorings.
Why panels are used in IPS flooring?
IPS flooring is designed using panels made up of glass strips or aluminium strips. These panels are used in this process to help to avoid expansion and contraction in the floor which happens because of temperatures of summer and winter season respectively. This expansion and contraction over the time causes cracks on floors.
This panel process followed in IPS flooring results in longevity of floor and can be used in floors used in any kind of space. While mixing the contents of concrete for the process of IPS flooring, workers have to stick to a formula of 1:1:5:3 for cement, sand and stone aggregates. The thickness of this flooring varies from 25mm to 75mm usually.
However, IPS flooring used for industrial areas is guided to have a thickness of nearby 150mm. This level of thickness for industrial space is maintained to bear the weight of heavy machinery and stock for a longer span of time.
Glass or aluminium strips used to design panels to fill concrete with should be cut out of respective sheets. The edge of strips should be smooth without any kind of bent or sharpness.
While cutting the strips for the panel, we need to be careful about the consistency in width and length. This consistency is maintained to avoid occurrence of any kind of undesired slope or inclination in IPS flooring.
Process of IPS flooring
- Initially a dummy line of dots will be created. There will be a gap of 1 to 2 meters between this dots. These dots will be helpful to design the floor and whether to have a slope or not.
- After creating the dummy line for reference, flooring thickness will be marked which will help to set the panels which will be of either glass or aluminium strips.
- If panels are for indoor floors then panels should not exceed the size of 3 square meters.
- If panels are for outdoor floors then the panel should not be greater than 2 square meters.
- Now, concrete in the panel and fill these panels very well.
- Now, trolling process starts for which wooden float or trowel both are very helpful. This process provides a firm texture to the surface.
- For glossy appearance, neat cement punning which should be 2 to 3 mm thick and allow it to get soaked by floor.
- After soaking the cement a metal trowel should be applied on the surface for 3 to 4 times in a few hours.
- For curing of IPS flooring use wet hessian cloth. This curing process continues for 15 days.
You must also read about Red Oxide Flooring.
Advantages
- Durability: Floors created by use of IPS flooring technique have longer life when compared to normal flooring.
- Low maintenance: IPS floor requires very low maintenance or better to say no maintenance. Sweeping and mobbing is enough to clean these floors.
- Versatile: This method of IPS flooring is versatile as these floors are useful in almost every kind starting from house to basketball court.
- Shades: Floors made by this method can be created in any shade of choice.
- Monolithic appearance: Use of wooden floats helps a lot in trowelling that provide monolithic appearance even after use of panels.
Disadvantages
- Hard surface: Floors created using cement concrete by nature have hard surfaces.
- Coldness: The floors made of cement appear cold in nature. These floors are too cold, especially in the winter season.
- Time taking: Curing process of this IPS flooring is time consuming. It takes 15 days to cure using a special kind of cloth.
- Labour search: Labours required to this process should be well trained. Any mistake by labours while sealing the floor could create cracks on the floor; hence skilled labours are required.
- Coldness: Floor made up of cement is too cold in the winter season which has adverse effects on health. It’s better to wear any kind of footwear to avoid direct contact in the winter season.
CONCLUSION
IPS flooring is a kind of flooring which asks for very little extra effort. All the extra work done here is to install panels which are worth the durability and strength it provides. Addition of minimal amount of polyurethane fibers in the concrete helps to avoid cracks.
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