When setting tiles the tile members are usually glued in place one by one. This requires substantial skill, e. g. because the tile members have to be placed exactly in line with each other and placed with equal spacing in order for the result to have a nice appearance. For this purpose so- called tile crosses and joint lines are used between the tile members, and these must be removed before the joints between the tile members can be filled with joint filler.

Besides, the tile will usually have to rest for 24 hours in order for the adhesive to dry before the joint filling can be performed. Both the individual setting of the tile and the following filling, plus the drying time for the adhesive, make the tiling process time-consuming and expensive.

From DE 2519284 Al a tile module is known which is made by casting the tile members in a foamed plastic material. This material forms a continuous rear side of the module and also fills the joints between the tile members. Along the edges of the module the foamed plastic is supposed to extend a distance equal to half the joint width between the tile members, so that when two modules are placed adjoining each other on a wall or floor, the adjoining, extending edge portions are meant to form a joint having the same width as the joints between the tile members of the module.

Additional joint filling between the modules is therefore supposed to be unnecessary. Such modules will not be

particularly suitable for installation in wet rooms because it is difficult to make the foamed plastic material sufficiently water tight, resistant to ageing and mechanically strong. Furthermore, an accurate installation of the modules edge-to-edge is difficult to obtain, particularly if the modules are large or the wall surfaces are not entirely flat or do not meet in straight corners.

In places where the tiles have to be cut or provided with holes for the passage of pipes or the like, it will be necessary to use a joint filler material which is different from the foamed plastic the tile members are cast into, thus giving an aesthetically undesirable result.

The purpose of the present invention is to speed up the tiling process and concurrently obtain an optimum technical and aesthetic result.

This is obtained according to the invention by a method of the type mentioned by way of introduction, where the characterising features are that a module is used where said flexible material comprises an elastomer having good adhesive and strength properties, preferably a silicone based elastomer, and in that there is no connecting layer on the rear side of the module.

It has surprisingly been found that by using a quite common sanitary silicone for such a combined connecting material and joint filler, one can make tile modules consisting e. g. of 28 standard tile members of the size 20 x 20 cm without any reinforcing backing and still be able to transport the tile modules from the production site and handle these on the building site without danger of the modules falling apart. Due to the elastic filler material, the individual rows of tile members of the module may be bent at least 90° with respect to each other, so that if desirable, the module may be mounted continuously in a corner of the room to be tiled. The flexibility of the modules also prevent

the tile members from breaking easily if the modules are handled carelessly.

The substantial size the tile module may have will of course permit the tile setting work to progress rapidly and result in the joints between the individual tile modules being few and easy to make accurately. The size also makes it possible to cover the normal ceiling height of a bathroom with only two tile modules. The upper one of these modules may advantageously be provided with decorative tile members.

Since the tile modules have their joints filled with a completely impermeable joint filler, any moisture in the tile adhesive may have difficulties in escaping. In order to solve this problem, one uses, in accordance with the invention, a cement based paste where the amount of water is kept so low that all the water is used to form water of crystallisation during the setting of the glue. Thus, there will be no need for releasing moisture and, furthermore, one does not have to wait for 24 hours before the joint between the tile modules can be filled, an operation which preferably is done with the same sanitary silicone used in the joints of the module.

The invention also relates to a tile module for use in the method mentioned above. This tile module comprises a plurality of wall or floor tile members which are connected to each other by means of a flexible material which concurrently serves as joint filler between the tile members, characterised in that the flexible material comprises an elastomer having good adhesive and strength properties, preferably a silicone based elastomer, and in that the tile module is without a connecting layer on its rear side. The tile members may be standard tiles of 20 x 20 cm, but it will be understood that it is also possible to use other commonly available tile sizes.

The size of the tile module may of course vary in accordance with the need and application in question, but in order to provide economy and an aesthetically good result, they should be at least 0,3 m2, preferably at least 0, 5 m2 and most preferably at least 0,8 m2. The modules should also preferably have a rectangular form in order to provide an optimum size without making transport and handling too difficult.

Further advantageous features of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.

The invention shall be described more closely below with reference to the exemplifying embodiments illustrated in the appended drawing, where: Fig. 1 shows a schematic plan view of a first tile module according to the invention, Fig. 2 shows a schematic plan view of a second tile module according to the invention, and Fig. 3 shows a cross-section at a larger scale taken along the line III-III in Fig. 2.

The tile module 1 shown in Fig. 1 is a so-called wall module or dado module consisting of 24 tile members 2 and having a number of six vertically and four horizontally.

The tile members 2 are standard tile members measuring 20 x 20 cm, but it will be understood that the tile module may be made up of tile members having any common size.

The tile members have an interspacing of about 2 mm, and the joints 3 thus formed are filled with an adhesive flexible material, here in the form a sanitary silicone, for instance the one having the trade name Bostik 2650 and containing an acetic acid releasing polysiloxane. Thus, the

sanitary silicone serves both as joint filler and adhesive between the tile members 2.

Due to its good adhesion to the tile elements, its flexibility and its strength the sanitary silicone gives a strong and pliant hinge connection between the tile elements of the module 1, so that the module during transport and handling can be subjected to bending without the connection between the tile members being damaged.

Furthermore, the flexibility is so high that two rows of tile elements can be bent more than 90° with respect to each other, thus making it possible to mount the tile module in a corner of the room in such a way that it extends on both sides of the corner.

In Fig. 2 a so-called decorative module 4 is shown. It has the same width as the dado module 1 shown in Fig. 1, but consists vertically of five standard tile modules with a decorative tile member 5 inserted. The decorative tile member has a height of 7 cm. If the dado module 1 is mounted at the bottom of the wall and a decorative module 4 is mounted above it with a joint of 2 mm therebetween, the total height of the modules together will be 229,2 cm. The space above the decorative module 4 up to a normal ceiling height of nominally 240 cm can easily be covered by a suitable cornice. It will be understood that the tile module according to the invention may be adapted to any common ceiling height by a suitable choice of the size of the standard tile member 2 and the height of the decorative tile member 5. The joint width can also be used within certain limits.

Tile members according to the invention are also suitable for setting floor tiles. The floor modules that may be used for this purpose can be made even larger than the wall modules mentioned above because the floor modules do not have to be adapted to a standard wall height and, furthermore, do not have to be lifted by hand during the

mounting on the wall. A preferred size of floor modules is therefore four tile members (20 x 20) wide and seven tile members long.

Fig. 3 shows a cross-section through a joint between two adjacent or juxtaposed tile members. It may be seen that the joint filler 3 does not fill the entire height of the joint, but has a thickness generally corresponding to the width of the joint. This dimensioning has been found to be a suitable compromise between, on the one side, the wish to have a thin joint filler band between the tile members in order to give a good hinge action and, on the other side, the desire to have a thicker joint filler band between the tile members in order to obtain larger strength in the connection. The thickness of the joint filler 3 will of course also to a certain degree be determined by the elastic and adhesive properties of the joint filler.

Usually, it is preferred for the thickness not to exceed half the thickness of the tile members.

The placement of tile modules according to the invention on walls and floors is generally performed in the same manner as common tile setting. However, the tile modules will have to cover areas where passages are needed, for instance for toilet connections, drains and drainage baskets in floors, and concealed water connections and electrical connection boxes in walls. In such cases the modules preferably are adapted so that the passages fall within and preferably in the centre of a tile member, which is cut out of the module before it is brought in place. The tile member thus removed is subsequently provided with the necessary hole for the passages before it is put back in place in the module. In serial production of housing it is easy to adapt module design and location of the sanitary equipment in such a manner that the work relating to the passages can be performed in the quickest and nicest manner possible.

As already mentioned, the tile modules will be absolutely impervious due to the properties of the joint filler. When mounting the tile modules one will therefore try to prevent moisture from being trapped by the tile. For this purpose, it is suggested according to the invention to use a cement based paste where the water content is kept so low that the water in it entirety is consumed as water of crystalli- sation during setting of the paste. A rate between water and cement of maximum 0,14 is therefore preferred for commonly available cement pastes.

When manufacturing tile modules according to the invention the tile members are laid out on a supporting plate in the desired pattern, whereupon the joint filler is introduced into all the joints in a suitable quantity by means of a suitable tool or apparatus. Any necessary smoothening of the joints and removal of excess joint filler are performed before the supporting plate with the tile members is transferred to an intermediate storage place, where the module can rest until the joint filler has cured sufficiently for the module to resist handling without support from the supporting plate.

While the tile members lie on the supporting plate during the application of the joint filler, the tile members are fixed in the proper spacing relationship by temporary or permanent means on the supporting plate. For such temporary means one can use small pegs having the same diameter as the joint width which are moved up through holes in the supporting plate such that they extend a few millimetres upwards therefrom near the corners of the tile members and thereby maintain the tile members both in the proper position and with the correct spacing. The pegs may be made of a plastic material to which the joint filler does not stick to any appreciable extent, and the pegs are preferably removed from the supporting plate before it is moved to the intermediate storage place.

An example of a more permanent system of distance means on the supporting plate can be a chequered pattern of low ribs having the same width as the joint widths. The height of these ribs may be adapted in such a manner that when the joint filler fills the cavity in the joint above the rib, the joint filler obtains the predetermined height which gives the compromise mentioned above between strength and flexibility. The ribs must be made of a material or be provided with a releasing agent which makes deforming possible, preferably after the joint filler having hardened sufficiently in order to permit handling of the tile module. Alternatively, the tile module may be turned over onto another support at an earlier stage in order for the supporting plate with the ribs to be lifted off from the module before the joint filler is fully cured.

Even though the invention is described above with reference to two exemplifying embodiments, it would be understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but may be varied and modified by the skilled person within the frame of the following claims.