Residential building with an attractive natural stone facade

Safe bonding of slates without joints

In its elementary simplicity, natural stone harmonizes perfectly with a modern architectural style. At the same time, planners and builders today attach importance to energy-efficient construction. Both were to be used in combination in a private villa in the Ruhr area. The client wanted an external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) with slate tiles as the top layer - not an everyday task even for skilled craftsmen. The weight of the slates as well as the different flexibility of the components put the highest demands on the system and especially on the tile adhesive that has to hold the slates.

At first, the desired result could not be achieved. The installer used an ETICS consisting of various components that are cobbled together, a procedure that all manufacturers warn against. Accordingly, individual boards came loose even before the work was completed. After a thorough assessment, the planner, the client and the expert of the Technical Department for Applications of Saint-Gobain Weber decided to rebuild the facade. The full thermal insulation was re-applied and the reinforcement layer was re-worked with weber.xerm 844. This is an innovative tile and natural stone adhesive that also serves as waterproofing and de-coupling material. After drying, another layer of weber.xerm 844 was applied, into which the large-format slate tiles were embedded using the buttering-floating method.