Tiling of balconies and terraces

Common issues and queries you can face

General considerations

Balconies should be designed with a certain slope to allow drainage.

Water should not be allowed to stagnate.

The structure must be strong enough to support the expected load including tiles, adhesives, grouts and screeds if needed with minimal undue movement.

In exterior applications such as balconies and terraces, the thermal and mechanical stresses are much higher than in interior applications.

Climate constraints

External floors are subject to climatic conditions like rainwater.

Check the slopes of the substrate to be minimum 1.5 cm over 1m, in order to ensure the drainage of rainwater towards external sides of the terrace.

Achieving good drainage system will facilitate the evacuation of water and will help avoid carbonation that could lead to white traces on the grout.

Extreme temperature variations can also lead to strong mechanical constraints (freezing, tiles expansion due to thermal variations).

Constant water saturation under the tiles will lead to debonding of tiles.

This situation will be increased in case no slope has been included in the design.

Use a high performance and water-resistant tile adhesive, as well as a high-performance tile grout which will absorb the dimensional variations of the tiles.

Substrate preparation

The substrate must be sound, clean and able to bear weight, free from dust, dirt, grease oil or any contaminating material before tiling to prevent adhesion failure.

Step by step solution

weber solution

Tiling on terraces over a sand bed

Apply 2 layers of weberdry 210 AFC or weberdry gum, an acrylic waterproof membrane, between the substrate and the sand bed. After 24 hours minimum, fix the tiles with webercol floor, a thick adhesive mortar applied above the sand bed.
Concrete substrates - Tile adhesive

webercol flex, webercol max, webercol fast, webercol F1, webercol plus are particularly adapted to this kind of application. In case of large white tiles or stones, webercol fast or webercol F1 can be used.

The back-buttering method is mandatory (adhesive applied to the substrate and on the back of the tile) to ensure full adhesion between the tiles and the substrate and to avoid voids in the adhesive layer. Apply the tiles and press them firmly ensuring a good adhesion between the tiles and the substrate.
It is recommended to have a minimum joint width of 2 mm around the tiles.

Grouting should be done at least after 24 hours of fixing tiles (after 3 hours only when using webercol fast or webercol F1).

Use weberjoint perfect, a low water-absorption grout with Hydro Repell® and Mould Stop® technologies, should be used or weberepox easy, an epoxy based tile grout.