Why Tiles are dumped in water before laying

[Venkatshanthi]

Good afternoon sir/ madam.
We are laying tile. But before laying tile dumped in water. Why tile are tumbeed in water any reason and it's uses
Please explain

 

[Mula Akhil]

Tiles are in types..
Ceramic and vetrified
To vetrified there is no need to soak in water , already they are finished with glozy and with no pores
Whereas in ceramic tiles we observe pores so they have tedancy of observing water due to which while applying adhesive or cement motar
To tile they observe the water ratio from bonding agent , due to lack of water ratio after applying tile to wall we face problems like hollow sounds, improper bonding between tile and wall.
so ceramic tiles need to soak in water for 30 to 40 mins and later need to apply so that there will be proper bonding between wall and tile.

 

[Venkatshanthi]

Tiles are in types..
Ceramic and vetrified
To vetrified there is no need to soak in water , already they are finished with glozy and with no pores
Whereas in ceramic tiles we observe pores so they have tedancy of observing water due to which while applying adhesive or cement motar
To tile they observe the water ratio from bonding agent , due to lack of water ratio after applying tile to wall we face problems like hollow sounds, improper bonding between tile and wall.
so ceramic tiles need to soak in water for 30 to 40 mins and later need to apply so that there will be proper bonding between wall and tile.

Thank you sir

 

[Dnyan Deshmukh]

Tiles are soaked in water for various purposes, some are listed below;

1. During manufacturing, the oil is used. to remove that oil film from the tile back surface, tiles were soaked in the water. As the oil is having low density than water, all oil coating comes out of the tile and floats on the surface of water (this is very old practice and now a days oil is not used by manufacturers).

2. As rightly said by @Mula Akhil, Ceramic tiles has high water absorption rates, if tiles used without pre-soaking, it will absorb the water from cement paste or adhesive which lead to less water for hydration / curing and the weakening of bonding between tile and binder.

3. During the transportation of the tiles from factory to site location or during shifting from site to site or store to work place, there are chances of tile getting damaged. Those damages generally occurs in back clay of tile as the glaze is harder. Such cracking or damage is not visible and may come on surface of glaze after installation and during curing period.

In order to ensure there are no defects or damages in the tile, it is recommend to soak it in water for at least 2 hours before installation. when tiles are soaked and has any defect in it, during taking out of tile from water, tiles get break at location of cracks and indicates that tile is defective. If percentage of such tiles is observed more, the action can be taken immediately by calling to manufacturer for replacement of lot.

Now a days, a powdery non sticky agents are used during tile manufacturing process, when tiles come out of the heating area, it is coated with powder which protects the tile surface from getting any kind of stains. When doing tiling work we should also ensure that, the back surface of tile is wiped with wet rag / cotton piece to remove that powder coating stuck on back surface of the tile.

So irrespective of type of tile, we should do soaking for minimum 2 hours in water and during installation we should wipe the back surface of tile with wet rag.

 

[Senthilcivil]

Tiles are two types mainly Ceramic and Vetrified.
Ceramic tiles base raw materials is clay and clay has water absorption is more 15 to 20 percentage.
During fixing if we not done pre soaking of tiles, water which is present in the cement paste or mortar will be absorbed by ceramic tiles.
Chances for de bonding and increase in hallow sounds.
You can easily identify ceramic tiles by back end it will be red colour.

Vetrified tiles are manufactured under the vetrification process (pressed tiles) and base materials are different, having hard surface and water absorption is less than 1percentage. So pre soaking is not required.