I am building a passive solar house in northern PA. In order to create thermal mass, the floors are rough concrete with radiant heat tubing. I would like to make the finished floor surface be a thin layer of concrete or concrete-like substance in the form of “tiles”,approximately 24 inches square, which would be cast in place. the joints between the “tiles” would be grouted, just as ordinary tiles.
I would add ordinary concrete pigment to each pour, hoping that the color would vary a little to provide a more “tile-like” appearance.
In order to minimize extra weight, I would like to keep these “tiles” to a maximum of 1/2 inch in thickness and think I might have to add fiber to reduce possible cracking. What should the concrete formula and aggregate size be?
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That sounds like a lot of work for basic colored concrete. Good luck with that.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Consider using the rubber molds and turning out something that looks like flagstone. See a lot of that here and it looks very nice.
SonInLaw did the radiant floor thingie with gyp. cement over the tubes and color added. He got too fancy for a newbie and tried colored borders. Don't. He also has a lot of cracks not at control joints.
In the MIL apartment behind the garage (last thing done) he used barrier tapes in the staining process and created faux tiles. That worked well. Looks good. No grout required.
The ToolBear
"Never met a man who couldn't teach me something." Anon.