The invention relates to a building floor provided with a mosaic. The invention relates in addition to a method for laying such a mosaic floor on a building.
For centuries, mosaics, in particular made of marble, are a craftsmanship with ancient tradition. Laying or installing mosaics requires skilled artists who, with a lot of experience, manually cut small marble pieces or chips and join them together to form a picture. The mosaic is a great medium through which any type of design can be expressed effectively, in particular on floors, walls, or ceilings. The mosaic surface has an extraordinary artistic expression and, because it is completely handmade, appears as an individual piece of art.
The beauty of a polished mosaic lies in the glitter effect generated by light which is reflected by thousands of marble chips which are all laid with different angles to one another. From a distance, the mosaic generates the beautiful surface effect of sparkling diamonds.
Until today, mosaic artworks, in particular with marble mosaics, are products which are completely handmade. To simplify the fabrication of mosaics, special fabricating systems and supporting nets attached on the back side have been developed which allow to fabricate high-volume mosaic artworks without losing the artistic appearance of the product. Through these possibilities and through improved technical support, in connection with extensive experience when laying mosaics, it is possible to use this unique product on industrially used floors which have high traffic requirements. Such industrial applications can be found, for example, in company buildings, hotels, casinos, embassies, government buildings and shopping centers.
The final success of each mosaic installation depends on a highly experienced team of craftsmen and carefully selected installation materials and laying system. For this it is absolutely necessary to implement any kind of expansion connections or expansion joints in a quasi invisible manner within the decorative joint material of the mosaic because otherwise such expansion connections would destroy the design and artistic expression of the artwork.
The entire installation system must be compatible. Also, the entire construction must have a sufficient flexibility throughout the entire structure to avoid cracks in the mosaic surface or in the floor connections. For this reason, a structural integrity of the system is required to provide an abrasion-resistant, durable floor surface which, at the same time, retains its wonderful artistic appearance.
The mosaic finish, thus the grout filling of the joints between the individual mosaic chips requires a watertight system which has to be applied onto the installed reinforced concrete bed. Any moisture through this system would sooner or later cause that the mosaic chips get detached from the supporting net whereby the artwork would be partially destroyed. Mosaics must be laid on a completely plane and flat subsurface to avoid an uneven appearance of the mosaic surface after laying.
Also, maintenance of the mosaic floors plays an important role. For cleaning the finished mosaic floor, any kind of polishing machine should be avoided because the same would sooner or later eliminate the thin unevenness of the individual marble chips; in addition, the surface would then lose its glittering appearance.
Modern mosaics can be combined with illumination effects. In particular, illuminated crystals made from mosaic chips can be integrated in the mosaic. Hereby, the traditional marble chips are mixed in an unusual manner with brilliantly shimmering crystals and in particular combined with light and music to generate a truly magical scenario.
Glass fiber illumination creates dramatic illumination effects in any environment one can imagine. In combination with crystal mosaics, new ideas can be implemented into an astonishing reality. Through the freedom to integrate a wide range of special effects in light design, it is now possible to produce an extraordinary mixture of products which is brought to life by glass fiber illumination.
In order to be able to provide such a complex modern mosaic in a durable manner and for highest loads, the present invention proposes a special structure for the mosaic floor and an associated installation method.
Hereinafter, with reference to the
First, a basic pre-preparation of the floor is necessary. The pre-preparation of the floor surface prior to the mosaic installation is very important for the final result. A concrete bed 107 which is in particular reinforced by steel reinforcements serves as starting basis. Onto the concrete bed 107, e.g., one or two layers of a two-component epoxy resin 106 are applied for priming, on the one hand, and for sealing, on the other, to generate an effective sealing against water and water vapor to thereby avoid penetration of moisture into the structure. The mosaic finish requires a smooth and very flat surface prior to laying the mosaic. After the system is implemented in a watertight manner it is thus necessary to apply a self-leveling, smoothening floor mixture 105. After that, a dispersion primer 104 has to be applied to achieve, with an adhesive, a well-bonding finish. After a predetermined drying and curing time, the floor is ready for the installation.
Now, the basic mosaic installation follows. By using a suitable adhesive 108, the individual mosaic elements 101 can be placed according to
Pure mosaics can be fabricated industrially. Here it is possible to install this type of mosaics directly onto the specified pre-prepared floor without using the stress-distributing underlay board 103 if a particularly inexpensive installation is required. Pure mosaics can principally be replaced in parts at any time.
The above described standard installation system can only be used without illumination. As soon as a modern mosaic is to be combined with illumination effects, a conventional standard installation can not be used any more.
The present invention is concerned with the problem to provide, for a mosaic floor with illumination effects or for an associated installation method, respectively, an improved embodiment which is in particular characterized by a comparatively simple laying and preferably by a sufficient stability.
This problem is solved according to the invention by the subject matters of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments are subject matter of the dependent claims.
The invention is based on the general idea to construct the mosaic floor in layers, wherein the individual layers can be fabricated separately in particular within a prefabrication, which simplifies the laying of the floor considerably. Essential is here the subdivision of the mosaic floor in a mosaic layer which comprises the individual mosaic elements and the illuminating elements, wherein the illuminating elements are already connected to an electric cable or light conductor which is guided at the bottom out of the mosaic layer, and a channel layer in which a channel system for accommodating and laying the electric cables or light conductors is formed.
The original standard mosaic artwork requires a fabrication in a separate factory. Variants of crystal mosaic elements in different colors and shapes can be integrated. Therefore, it can be necessary to partly re-cut the mosaic panels according to the original mosaic design.
Further important features and advantages of the invention arise from the sub-claims, the drawings, and the associated description of the figures based on the drawings.
It is to be understood that the features mentioned above and yet to be illustrated hereinafter can be used not only in each of the specified combinations but also in other combinations or alone without departing from the present invention.
Preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and are explained in the following description in more detail, wherein identical reference numbers relate to identical or similar or functionally identical components. In the figures, schematically:
a shows a sectional view of a conventional mosaic floor,
b shows a sectional view as in
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The embodiment of the mosaic floor 20 shown in
In the example shown here, the channel system 15 of the rigid plate 7 is formed open to the bottom. Principally, an embodiment in which the channel system 15 on the rigid plate 7 is formed open to the top is also possible. The rigid plate 7 involves preferably a fiber foam plate. In case of a channel layer 14 with a channel system 15 that is open to the top, the second intermediate layer, thus the rigid plate 6, can close the channel system 15. The rigid plate 6 is preferably glued onto the rigid plate 7 of the channel system 4.
Moreover, a further or third intermediate layer can be provided which is also formed from a rigid plate 8. On top of this third intermediate layer, thus on top of the rigid plate 8, the channel layer 14 or its rigid plate 7 is placed and can be glued thereto. In the shown example, the rigid plate 8 of the third intermediate layer closes the channel system 15 which is open to the bottom.
The mentioned layers, thus the mosaic layer 13 with the mosaic elements 2 and the illuminating elements 3, the first intermediate layer with the flexible plate 5, the second intermediate layer with the rigid plate 6, the channel layer 14 with the rigid plate 7 and the channel system 15, and the third intermediate layer with the rigid plate 8 can form a completely prefabricated unit which, in the prefabricated state, forms a mosaic panel 21 which can be applied onto the appropriately prepared floor in a particularly simple manner.
For attaching the mosaic floor 20 on a floor, said floor must be prepared appropriately. This involves in particular a floor 12 which consists preferably of concrete and in particular a reinforced concrete. Onto the floor 12, a floor layer 17 is applied; the same comprises exemplary a flowing screed layer 10 by means of which the floor 12 can be leveled. In the shown example, between the floor 12 and the flowing screed layer 10, a synthetic resin layer 11 is applied, e.g. from an epoxy resin, by means of which an efficient sealing against water and water vapor can be achieved. Moreover, the floor layer 17 is provided here with a primer layer 9, e.g. in the form of a dispersion primer which is placed on top of the flowing screed layer 10. Onto the floor prepared in this manner, the mosaic floor 20 can then be placed, in particular in the form of individual mosaic panels 21. For this purpose, an appropriate adhesive 16 is used. Usually, a joint compound is applied not until after the laying of the mosaic panels 21 to fill the gaps between the individual mosaic elements 2 and the illuminating elements 3. However, it is principally also possible that the mosaic panels 21 are already grouted.
The light conductors 4, in particular glass fibers, or cables 4 of the fiber optics are laid in a cable channel system 15 specifically produced for this purpose and are fixed to the plate 7. On each side of the panel 21, the cables are put together and are guided to one or two outlets so that they can be connected later on the construction site with suitable projectors (cf. position 31 in
The portion of the festively illuminated mosaic panel 21, integrated with illuminating elements 3, e.g. crystal mosaics, requires prefabrication in a separate factory and is delivered as finished product to the construction site, ready for installation.
This unit 21 is produced as a sandwich system which includes different layers according to the respective requirements. The mosaic surface including the crystal elements 3 is installed on a decoupling plate 5, e.g. made of polyester glass fibers, which is connected and glued to a highly resistant and resilient plate 6 which provides structural strength to the system.
The crystal mosaic element 21 is pre-connected with the electric cables or light conductors 4, and the cable bundles lie in a channel system 15 specifically developed for this purpose underneath the mosaic surface. They are framed in a sandwich-like manner, e.g. with two compressed glass fiber plates 6, 8 which protect them against any pressure or damage.
According to
The standard mosaic art, which complements the panel 21 equipped with festively illuminated crystal mosaic, is installed on the construction site in the traditional manner. It is much easier to join the individual puzzle elements together if the standard mosaic portions are still on a net underlay and are flexible enough to be able to slide them into the gaps of the rigid prefabricated crystal mosaic units 21.
The portion of the prefabricated crystal mosaic 21 can be positioned directly onto the flowing screed 10. The channel system 15 for the cables 4 of this unit 21 is placed between the elements 26. After laying the cables 4 into the pre-prepared interspaces 30, it is covered according to the
In contrast to the cable system of the pre-prepared crystal mosaic unit 21, it is not necessary to prepare many interspaces because only one or two large cable bundles leave the mosaic panel 21 on each side, which requires that the channels 30 must be dimensioned wider and larger. The system is open to the top so that the cables 4 can be placed therein and after this process, it is then closed with a resistant and resilient plate 6 which is glued directly onto the channel system 30.
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After that, the floor 20 is complete. The mosaic work is now finally completed. With this installation technique it is possible to combine any kind of material with different heights such as glass, metal, marble or wood with one another. Thus, there are no restrictions for modifying portions of the art panel, e.g. with engraving techniques or inlaying techniques, because it is possible to prefabricate these units in a separate factory. This installation system is unique and represents a leading position worldwide in this specific field.
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For filling heights of more than 25 mm, a suitable filling material can be used (e.g. UZIN NC 190 with flexible polymer-modified additive UZIN PE 520).
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Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2006 008 848 | Feb 2006 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/DE2007/000335 | 2/22/2007 | WO | 00 | 8/2/2010 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2008/116431 | 10/2/2008 | WO | A |
Number | Date | Country |
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102004023707 | Dec 2005 | DE |
1469141 | Oct 2004 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20100290216 A1 | Nov 2010 | US |