IPS Flooring : Indian style concrete Flooring

IPS flooring stands for Indian patent stone flooring, it is a basic type of flooring which provides good wearing properties. It is generally used for all types of floors and mix of concrete used for IPS flooring specification is 1:1.5:3 (cement, sand and stone aggregates). As per the nature of use the flooring thickness of concrete is decided from 25 mm to 50 mm. It is laid over the concrete base (1:4:8), which is almost 3 to 4 inches thick plain cement concrete (PCC) base.
You can decide the thickness of the IPS flooring as per the requirement of work; in residential floor 75 mm floor thickness is sufficient whereas industrial floor thickness should be kept 150 mm.

Preparation work before IPS flooring

• Prepare the sub-base by watering and ramming and ensuring no loose material are left. Level the surface and stone soling layer of 150mm to 230 mm to be provided as per the requirement.
• It is recommended to provide adequate slope in Plain cement concrete (PCC) in a base course as it will not be possible to maintain slope in IPS layer due to limited thickness.
• Door frames should be fixed prior to flooring work.

Procedure of IPS flooring

• First of all make reference level on the wall transfer this marking to all location where flooring to be done with help of water level tube.
• Ensure there is no air bubble present in water and then it is exactly matching the water level while keeping both end together. Reference mark is to be transferred on all across the flooring area and it should be marked permanently with the help of line marker.
• Flooring thickness level to be marked and dummy level dots provided in every 1 or 2 meter ensuring required slope of flooring.
• After proper setting of these dummy concrete dots. Concrete in specified mix should be poured in panels to minimize shrinkage cracks. The size of panel should not  exceed more than 3 square meters for indoor and 2 square meter for outdoor flooring.
• Glass, aluminium or brass strip are fixed in cement mortar with their tops at proper level according to slope and allowed to harden for minimum 36 hours.
• After pouring of concrete, surface to be levelled with a Straight Edge and finished with a wooden float or trowel.
• The final troweling should be done before the concrete has become hard and sufficient pressure is required to make firm impression on the concrete surface.
• There should not be any mark left on the finished surface and care should be taken that no cement slurry spread on the surface.
• If glossy or smooth IPS flooring surface required then neat cement punning, 2 to 3 mm thick is spread over the IPS concrete surface and allowed to soak into the concrete. The surface is finished with metal trowel 3 to 4 times to give surface a glossy look.
• For curing of IPS concrete flooring surface pond or wet Hessian clothes are spread over surface for 15 days.
• If required, Vacuum dewatered machine to be used for big work to give surface smooth and better finish. This not only prevents concrete surface cracks but also increase the abrasion resistance of IPS concrete surface.
• Further to avoid surface cracks, polyurethane fibres are added to concrete, in small portion. This type of concrete is also called Ferro cement concrete.
• The casting of concrete flooring in panels to avoid shrinkage cracks and work as expansion joint. Therefore it is advisable to use Tremix flooring especially when large areas like platform surface, pavements and industrial flooring are to be done.

Also Read: Tremix flooring

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