Gardens of Elegance designs and composes luxury outdoor living spaces and was recently commissioned to create a garden in Lancashire. Leigh Harker, the owner of Gardens of Elegance, designed and created a garden that the client describes as “a magnificent extension of our open-plan kitchen … ahead of its time, exuding elegance in ways we never imagined.”
This included two patio seating areas, sunken firepit, outdoor BBQ kitchen and an outdoor shower area. The whole area with the exception of the planting was tiled with 1200x1200mm grey porcelain tiles.
The tiling was done by Harker’s team of workmen, with products supplied by Kerakoll via Pro Tilers Tools.
The company chose to use H40 Gel which Harker has called the “best adhesive in the game,” and Fugabella Color No 10 which was chosen to match the tiles and make the joints blend into the tiling scheme. Fugabella Color is resistant to UV rays so the colour will not fade with exposure to sunlight. The hybrid resin-cement grout’s performance values are close to the standards set for RG grouts, making it suitable for outdoor use.
H40 Gel is suitable for installing large format tiles as it’s soft and easy to trowel but still supports the tile and keeps it shape. The tilers reportedly chose it because they wanted time to work without the adhesive going off and H40 Gel has a long open time, and does not thicken or allow a skin to form. They spread adhesive on the floor and back buttered the tiles before bedding in with a rubber mallet.
H40 Extreme was used in the seating area round the firepit. Here the seats had a steel overhang to allow concealed lighting to be placed behind them. The tiles needed to be bonded to the metal and the hybrid gel-adhesive was “perfect” for this, says the company. It’s said to combine extreme fluidity with extreme flexibility and can “easily” cope with the expansion and contraction of the metal in an outdoor environment.
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