Glass Mosaic Tiles

11th of January 2009

A comprehensive range of glass mosaic tiles with a wide choice of colours, tones, textures and designs.

Introduction

Bisazza is based in Italy but has a worldwide presence.  The company specialises in the design and manufacture of glass mosaic tiles and aggiomerate slabs.

Applications

Mosaics may be used to provide decorative surfaces in a variety of locations both internal and external.  These include restaurants, bars, hotels, offices, swimming pools, urban spaces and homes.  However, mosaics are most applicable to flat and curved surfaces within bathrooms, showers, kitchens, saunas and spa baths.  These may be floors, walls, ceilings, baths, steps, vanity and shelf tops and architectural features such as columns.
Authority Manufacture is quality assured to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

Description

The inherent flexibility of the mosaic format enables the designer to use them for discrete or decorative backgrounds, special designs and motifs, geometric or random patterns and to provide artistic features.  The extent of the colour ranges enables subtle graduation of colour.

there are 10 ranges of mosaic each with their own finish and colour range: Ventricolor 10 and Ventricolor 20 tiles have a uniform finish, the range includes a wide selection of colours and shades within each colour.  Le Gemme 10 and Le Gemme 20 are handmade and have a striated finish with random inclusion of second colours; the colour range is more specialised than for Vetricolor.  Oro tiles are of gold with a flat finish or crumpled gold leaf effect.  Opus Romano tiles are suitable for use in high traffic areas and have a smooth, single-coloured finish with a slightly rounded shape; available in a wide selection of colours and shades.  Sfumatura Bisazza is a sequence of glass mosaic blends supplied in bands of 5 tiles.  They range from light to dark and the height and intensity of colour can be selected starting from any band.  Sfumatura is available in 9 colour ranges.  Smalto 20 have a striated finish with the random inclusion of enamel to the glass giving a range of brightly coloured tiles.

Aria 20 is a glass mosaic of squared and bevelled tesserae (small blocs of stone, glass, tiles etc.  used in a mosaic).  It is paper face mounted or mesh back mounted with a joint of 1.57mm.  Overall sheet dimension is 322 x 322mm. Gloss 20 is a range of irridescent glass mosaic tiles with a choice of 12 colours.

Agglomerate slabs of glass and granite are also manufactured and available in sizes up to 3000 x 1200mm with a thickness of just 6.5mm.  Flexible and lightweight, these high traffic load slabs can be used on walls and floors both internally and externally; available in a large range of colours and finishes.

Composition, manufacture: Mosaic tiles (tesserae) are manufactured from solely glass or can have other materials such as enamel or avventurina added.  Gold tiles are of 24 carat gold leaf embedded in 2 layers of special glass.

Accessories: A range of fixing materials is available for both mosaic and slabs.  Start is mixed with water to form a tile adhesive suitable for most surfaces.  Up is mixed with Start for use in swimming pools where improved adhesive characteristics are required.  Go 1 + Go 2 is a 2-part adhesive compound for fixing aggiomerate slabs to most surfaces.

Shape: All tesserae are of a square shape which may be regular or handcut or irregular edges.

Dimensions (mm):

Vetricolor 10, Le Gemme 10 - 10 x 10mm

Le Gemme 20 - 20 x 20mm

Oro 10 - 10 x 10mm

Oro 20 -  20 x 20mm

Opus Romano - 12 x 12mm

Sfumatura Bisazza:
tiles - 20 x 20mm
band height - 118

Smalti 20 - 20 x 20mm

Aria 20 - 20 x 20mm

Gloss 20 - 20 x 20mm

Agglomerate Slabs - 300 x 300, 600 x 300, 600 x 600, 1200 x 600, 1500 x 600, 1000 x 1000, 3000 x 600, 3000 x 1200.

Performance

Weather: All tiles are frost-resistant to EN 202

Liquids: Glass mosaic showed no water absorption when tested to EN 99.

Chemical: Glass mosaic is classified as resistant to chemical attack when tested to EN 106 (glazed) and EN 122 (not glazed).

Light: Glass mosaic is resistant to colour fading when tested to DIN 51094.

Sitework

Cutting: Mosaic tiles can be cut individually using nippers or as strips or rows using a 100mm diameter diamond angle grinder.

Fixing: The surface being tiled must be sound, flat and perfectly clean.  Tile adhesive should be applied evenly and combed using a trowel with minimum 3.5mm teeth.  An area of approximately 1m2 should be prepared ready to accept the mosaic: any more than this and a skin will form on the adhesive before the completed area has been installed.

Installation: Sheets of mosaic should be pressed firmly into the adhesive being careful not to move the sheet relatively to neighbouring sheets.  A rubber float should be used to tap the tiles ensuring perfect adhesion.  If the sheets are paper-mounted, the paper should be wet with sponge and left for a minimum of 10 minutes prior to the paper being carefully peeled off.  Minor adjustments can be made to the tiles prior to the adhesive drying using a small spatula.  Tiles can be grouted after 24 hours.

Maintenance

Cleaning: For daily cleaning, normal neutral detergents are recommended. For special or heavy-duty cleaning a slightly acidic detergent should be used, rinsing immediately after application.

Supply

All products are supplied via distributors, details of whom are available from the company.

Services

Services to specifiers include a full design service to create patterns and blends to client's specification and specification writing.