Table of Contents
When was magnesite flooring used?
1960s
Magnesite floors were common in the 1960s, mainly in Sydney, as a slab topping or an underlay to carpet and other forms of floor covering.
Does magnesite flooring contain asbestos?
If your home was built in the 1920s-1940s, it is likely that your home has magnesite flooring. Magnesite flooring consists of Magnesium Oxychloride, which is a white asbestos material. Magnesite was applied to the top of concrete ground floors, which resulted in reddish-pink hued colored floors.
How can you tell if a floor is magnesite?
Identifying a Magnesite floor Another way is to hold a small lump of the screed in a gas flame, if it is magnesite, it will glow brightly around the edges.
What is magnesite flooring used for?
Magnesite flooring is typically common property and as such, it will usually be the responsibility of the owners corporation to remediate the damaged concrete slabs. As concrete cancer will eventually cause structural issues, works to remediate damaged concrete need to be done as soon as possible and cannot be delayed.
Should magnesite flooring be removed?
Magnesite should ALWAYS be removed and the concrete should ALWAYS be inspected for any potential concrete cancer that MUST be repaired for the safety of EVERYONE in the unit block.
How do you repair magnesite flooring?
To repair your floor, simply remove the magnesite topping and after locating all chloride contaminated concrete, remove those areas before replacing it with new concrete. Once your magnesite floor has been repaired, maintaining and managing your floor is much easier.
Can you tile over magnesite?
Basically Ardex does not recommend the use of any of its Flooring, Waterproofing or Ceramic Tile Adhesive products over Magnesite floor topping. This type of flooring is an in-situ composition that was commonly laid in the 1960’s and 70’s and is rarely applied today, though some types are still available.
Can you screed over magnesite?
Most magnesite floors are now coming to the end of their life, only if they can be guaranteed to remain unaffected by moisture can they be used as a screed to receive other floorings, otherwise the flooring should be replaced.
What is magnesite flooring?
Technically called diato magnesium oxychlorite (and also sometimes referred to as “diato flooring”) magnesite is a blend of magnesium chloride and a finely ground organic filler such as sawdust, mixed with water. Colorant is added to produce a wide range of hues.
How thick should a magnesite floor be?
It was typically laid between 10 and 25mm thick, but two coat applications could be up to 50mm thick. What’s wrong with Magnesite? Firstly, Magnesite contains chlorides, so if there is any embedded steel reinforcement within the floor slab, then the concrete can be affected by Chloride attack, which will corrode the embedded steel.
Can You encapsulate a magnesite floor?
However, you can’t encapsulate a Magnesite floor, as they are so vulnerable to deterioration when exposed to water. Obviously, if you tried to encapsulate by pouring a screed over the top, then you’d be introducing large amounts of construction moisture into the Magnesite.