Got tiling tips?

[NM_Shooter]

I've gotten a ton of good help from this site, and would like to contribute some tips back.  I was a complete noob at tiling 18 months ago, and now have a few jobs under my belt.  I learned the hard way, and having started from zero knowledge I thought I might share what I learned to ease anyone else's learning curve.  Note that all of this was school of hard knocks  , so take this advise with a grain of salt as it could be all wrong. 

Please chime in with your own advice.

Okay.. here are the Cliff notes version:

1)  Like anything else, get decent tools.  You don't have to have the best, but don't buy cheap stuff.  Get a good sliding tray tile saw; they can be had at big box builder stores for about $250 or so.  Or get a used one off of craigslist.  Don't rent, you'll be in too much of a hurry.  If you buy and then sell when the job is done, you will be money ahead.

2)  This is probably obvious to everyone else, but have a good plan.  Know where that first tile is going to go... usually in the middle of the wall, middle of the floor, middle of whatever.  Use a chalk line and levels to set that first row.  Reuse the chalk line as you go to make sure your work is straight.  Don't count on the spacers to keep you even.

3)  Grout is evil.  The smaller the grout line, the easier it is to grout, and the less likely dirty grout is going to ruin your work down the road.  Seems like floor grout looks better a little wider, but for showers and walls especially, use 1/8 width spacing. 

4)  Beware porcelin (sp?) tile.  This stuff is crazy hard.  Ceramic is softer, and is easier on your blades.  I think that travertine is softest yet, but it needs sealing on a regular basis.

5)  For shower controls, get the kind that is one big control in the center of the shower.  Trying to drill 1.25" holes with a tile drill is darn near impossible.  If you get the big control in the middle, you can use your diamond wet saw to etch a circle top and bottom of the tile and bust it out with a hammer.

6)  If you are going to etch and then bust, do your etching, then put the tile down on some rubber tool shelf liner.  Use a hammer and nail to perforate inside the etch to make the break cleaner.

7)  BTW... for really large tiles, 18" square or so, sometimes the vibration from the wet saw causes the tile to crack as you are cutting it.  Use the same rubber tool shelf liner on your sliding tray to keep chatter down.  I broke a ton of large tiles before figuring this out.

  Don't bother using the laser if your saw has one.  No need to mark most tiles either.  Take your measurement for your cut, put the tile on the slide, and measure from the edge of the blade to the edge of the tile for perfect length cuts.

9)  If doing trim work with some of that fancy trim / stone tile, don't try to butt the stuff together.  It will look awful.  Space it apart by 1/8" or so and grout.  It will look great.

10)  Don't try to grout everything at once.  Do maybe 9 sq feet at a time.  Mix your grout a little thicker than pancake mix.  Use your float to rub it in, then use the float to squeeqie off as much as possible.  For walls, work your grout upwards.  It will drop gunk less.

11)  Wash off the tiles as you grout.  Use two 5 gallon buckets.  One is for the really heavy gunk, the other after the tiles are mostly clean.  Once the "clean" bucket starts to get cloudy, that then becomes the gunk bucket.  Scrap the old gunk bucket and refill with clean water.  By keeping two buckets you will really cut down on your cleaning time.  Never let the grout dry to a haze on the tiles if you can help it.   BTW... when wiping tiles, try to go in a diagonal across the grout lines.

12)  Buy the best grout sealer you can find.  They make a squeeze bottle / brush thing that is very handy.

13)  For inside radius cuts, mark your arc with a grease pencil.  Raise your tile blade, and score the top of the tile along the arc.  Then from the inside or "scrap" part of the tile, start cutting 1/4" lines inward towards the arc.  Use a pair of pliers to snap the fingers off.  you may need to use the wet blade to clean up the arc once the fingers are out of the way.  I've never used a nibbler, so that may be a better way to do this.

14)  You are probably going to start out using too much mastic.  For floor tiles, make sure that you support the entire tile, but you don't have to have 1/2" thick of mastic.  This is sort of a learn as you go thing.  Put a few down, and consider how it is going.  Sometimes you butter the tile, sometimes you butter the receiving surface.  For great big areas, butter the surface.

15)  As you are putting tile up, don't panic.  The empty grout lines with mastic behind them will look awful.  Once you start to grout, it will transform nicely.  Grout may be evil, but it also hides a bunch of mistakes. 

16)  One other thing about grout... it seems that if you use contrasting grout (color contrast to the tile), it highlights mistakes in alignment, and matching grout hides it.  Go figure.  Pick your grout color wisely.

Hope this helps!   

Frank

[Redoverfarm]

Frank sounds like you have it well in hand.  I might add just one if I may.  I usually don't use a chaulk line. They get covered with thinset or mastic and it is hard to keep a straight edge.  I use a straight edge. 2X4 or 1X4 either screwed to the subfloor or tapconed into the cement floor.  I usually lay all run along that edge.  Then work off those first tiles to the wall.  Then remove it and lay the other half to the wall going off the tiles previously laid.  I said I didn't use a chaulk line but yes I do. That is what I set my straight edge to. 

[MountainDon]

Good stuff there Frank! Many many Dittos.  I've done more ceramic tile than I care to think about, and have more planned for the cabin.

A special BIG Ditto on #1. A nice saw is invaluable!! Much better than scoring and breaking, plus you can do things with a saw you can't any other way. And don't sell it, because your wife will be coming up with new floors to tile IMO.   Even the cheap saws do the job... they just take a lot more time as they cut slower.

#3   Ditto narrow lines for bathrooms. 1/8" or less, non sanded grout.  As for floors it's probably an individual thing, maybe even a room by room basis thing. We have a lot of 3/8" spaced tile and some 1/2" and they both look good in their spaces.

#4 Porcelain tile. Double edged sword time... definitely harder, but that's it's selling point. Harder and more durable. But then I don't think we're ever going to wear out our ceramic tile. Note there are also differing grades of hardness within the ceramic type. There is a hardness number rating, but I forget how it goes.

#5 Ditto on the single shower control setup. PLUS I love the temperature regulated ones. Extra cost but they do work well. In case you're not sure what I mean, they have a mechanism that keeps the set temperature from rising or falling if someone flushes a toilet or a laundry machine kicks in. If you have a tank type water heater they will even taper the flow off as you run out of hot water. It's an unseen detail, however I consider it to be one of the best things I did when I remodeled our master bath.

[n74tg]

Here's one more variation on the tile saw idea.  I had to cut 65 different tiles to complete the girlfriend's kitchen floor and utility room.  I used the same diamond blade on my table saw to cut the tile that I had used to cut all my concrete block.  Not a single tile broke, and they all cut beautifully.  Best of all, no water spraying all over everywhere.  I did borrow a friends cheap (Harbor Freight) water tray tile saw to cut a few of them.  It didn't do any better than my table saw and was substantially messier. 

And here's a tip about grout I got from an experienced tile man.  Most any grout you use on a floor will be a sanded grout.  It will dry to a rough texture that loves to pick up and hold dirt whether the grout is sealed or not. So, if you don't want the dirt (that's gonna be picked up and held anyway) to show, choose a grout color close to the dirt around your house.   

[MountainDon]

Re: dry sawing tile. Not a good idea IMO.

Yes, tile may be cut dry. The downside of dry cutting is that most, if not all tile contains silica. So do concrete bricks, etc. It's in Portland cement. Silica is on the "bad stuff to breath" list.  The same warnings apply to cutting HardiPlanl or other cement board products. Hardi does offer a circular lade that is supposed to reduce the quantity of dust produced when cutting cement board, BTW. Never used one myself. As well all that abrasive dust blowing around will find it's way into motors, sliding tables, hand crank screws, etc. I don't believe that is good for the tool. OMMV


FYI. One other thing I recalled about porcelain tile. One of the benefits of it being harder and denser is that it absorbs almost no water. Less than 1%, whereas ceramic tile can absorb up to 20% by weight. The low absorption rate allows porcelain tile to be used outside in freezing weather. However the low absorption rate means it's more difficult to get the adhesive to stick to it. So for vertical applications porcelain has to be supported until the tile adhesive sets.

[MountainDon]

Silica.

While it does take long term silica dust exposure (10 years or more to low amounts) before lung problems show up, silica is the second most common mineral found on earth. The more rocks you break, the more drilling of rock and concrete, grinding, cutting, the more concrete products you mix from dry state, etc, the greater the risk becomes.

Being so prevalent it's my personal opinion that it's better to avoid the obvious higher density sources. Of course I only reached this conclusion as I neared the age of 60 and found myself with slightly reduced lung capacity (fine wood dust exposure for many years may be that culprit). It takes a machine to measure the reduction, I'm not wheezing along with an O₂ tank. I'd like to remain active for a couple more decades at least. We'll see how that works out.

[n74tg]

Don:
Absolutely right on the dry cutting respiratory hazards.  My career was in safety, so I take respiratory protection and all safety seriously; enough so that it most always slows down the work at least some.