The difference in the two basically comes down to shrinkage. Because the non sanded grout has no sand in it to hold it's form it will shrink considerably once it dries . This will leave small, shallow, shriveled up joints. A general rule of thumb is to only use non sanded grout if the joints are smaller than 1/16th" such as ceramic bisque stackable tiles such a 4"x4" wall tile and small mosaics.
Other wise use sanded grout. A general rule of thumb is once the grout is smeared let it sit until the surface of the tile hazes over and then quickly remove the excess grout on the tile surface. Once that is done , come back over everything while the grout is still a little workable and strike the joints to uniform thickness and smooth out the surface to make it scare free.
For more information, visit Custom Touch Interiors
Monday, August 30, 2010
When should I use a sealer and what type should I use?
Let me first answer that with another question. When would you want to invest so much time and money and not help to insure it's longevity with a small amount more of time and energy?
Sealers are a great plus to help keep you marble and tile looking fresh for much longer.
The more foot traffic a floor gets the more it would ask to be sealed. Kitchen back splashes benefit greatly as well. I think almost always natural stone should be sealed.
There are many name brands of sealers. Some are good and others are almost worthless. Two finished looks need to be considered. One is all natural so that you can barely tell the difference a sealed portion next to the unsealed with the eye when both are dry. The other is a "wet look". This will make it obvious and it will look wet even when dry.
I personally will only use one name brand unless told other wise by my client. I have found over the many years in the trade the a 511 impregnator by Miracle Sealants is the very best in wear ability and ease of use. Because it penetrates deep into the surface it will never be walked off due to foot traffic and if you follow the instructions it would pretty hard to mess things up. Here's a link http://miraclesealants.com/
Sealers are a great plus to help keep you marble and tile looking fresh for much longer.
The more foot traffic a floor gets the more it would ask to be sealed. Kitchen back splashes benefit greatly as well. I think almost always natural stone should be sealed.
There are many name brands of sealers. Some are good and others are almost worthless. Two finished looks need to be considered. One is all natural so that you can barely tell the difference a sealed portion next to the unsealed with the eye when both are dry. The other is a "wet look". This will make it obvious and it will look wet even when dry.
I personally will only use one name brand unless told other wise by my client. I have found over the many years in the trade the a 511 impregnator by Miracle Sealants is the very best in wear ability and ease of use. Because it penetrates deep into the surface it will never be walked off due to foot traffic and if you follow the instructions it would pretty hard to mess things up. Here's a link http://miraclesealants.com/
Tips for maximizing thin set usage. How do I know how thick to mix my thin set adhesive?
The general rule of thumb is to mix it thick enough that when you comb out the thin set onto the surface with the notch trowel the ridges left in the mud will not slump much if any. One must take care not to get to far out ahead of what can immediately be installed, when your mud is this thick it won't take long for the surface to skim over enough that it has lost it's sticky ness. Especially in warm weather or with air movement in the room.
Some applications can use a little wetter mud but never so wet that the ridges slump more than half their height of the notch .
When mixing mud on of the best ways to make it easier on yourself is to allow the fresh made bucket of mixed mud to set undisturbed for about 10 minutes or so. After this resting time has passed, remix it with your drill. This will deter the hardening time by more than half allowing you way more workable time with your mud. If you have not used up the bucket before it gets too stiff to work any longer you can add a small amount more water and hand mix with a margin trowel. I would advise doing this only one time. If the remixed mud gets to hard now, after hand mixing throw the remaining amount away and make a new batch as the mud is now too "tired" to do it's job correctly.
Some applications can use a little wetter mud but never so wet that the ridges slump more than half their height of the notch .
When mixing mud on of the best ways to make it easier on yourself is to allow the fresh made bucket of mixed mud to set undisturbed for about 10 minutes or so. After this resting time has passed, remix it with your drill. This will deter the hardening time by more than half allowing you way more workable time with your mud. If you have not used up the bucket before it gets too stiff to work any longer you can add a small amount more water and hand mix with a margin trowel. I would advise doing this only one time. If the remixed mud gets to hard now, after hand mixing throw the remaining amount away and make a new batch as the mud is now too "tired" to do it's job correctly.
When do I know how far to go in my prep work? When is the surface ready to set on?
Prep work is paramount in this trade. You can't make chicken soup out of chicken crap! That's comparable to putting makeup on a pig.
The extra time getting the prep work as nice as possible pays huge dividends in the long run. I feel like wall surfaces should be almost nice enough to paint and look good enough to leave it at that. The closer you get to that place the better the finished product will be in the end. Make sure to tape all of your cement board joints with mesh tape and thin set, including the corners. Scrape or sand once there dry and apply a second slick coat if need be to get the surface smooth and flat.
Here's a trick to make floors flatter prior to setting the floor tiles on concrete. Flood the floor with water to the degree that puddles will form in the low spots. Circle the puddle with a crayon or equivalent marker. Remove the water, or let dry. Once it's dry you can now fill in the lower areas so as to raise up the low spots. You can use thin set and some kind of straight edge and flat trowel or most of the manufacturers have a self leveling type product. The self levelers are pricey but almost idiot proof if you follow the instructions.
Make sure in any installation that once your ready to begin that the surfaces are clean without dust on them. It's also advisable to use the flat side of the notch trowel and key in the adhesive first until you get total coverage. Once you have done that now your ready to comb in the adhesive with the notch side of your trowel.
I would also recommend skimming the back side of the tile if they are larger wall tiles and for sure do that on floor tiles, especially porcelains unless they are small mosaics.
The extra time getting the prep work as nice as possible pays huge dividends in the long run. I feel like wall surfaces should be almost nice enough to paint and look good enough to leave it at that. The closer you get to that place the better the finished product will be in the end. Make sure to tape all of your cement board joints with mesh tape and thin set, including the corners. Scrape or sand once there dry and apply a second slick coat if need be to get the surface smooth and flat.
Here's a trick to make floors flatter prior to setting the floor tiles on concrete. Flood the floor with water to the degree that puddles will form in the low spots. Circle the puddle with a crayon or equivalent marker. Remove the water, or let dry. Once it's dry you can now fill in the lower areas so as to raise up the low spots. You can use thin set and some kind of straight edge and flat trowel or most of the manufacturers have a self leveling type product. The self levelers are pricey but almost idiot proof if you follow the instructions.
Make sure in any installation that once your ready to begin that the surfaces are clean without dust on them. It's also advisable to use the flat side of the notch trowel and key in the adhesive first until you get total coverage. Once you have done that now your ready to comb in the adhesive with the notch side of your trowel.
I would also recommend skimming the back side of the tile if they are larger wall tiles and for sure do that on floor tiles, especially porcelains unless they are small mosaics.
Friday, August 27, 2010
What type of adhesive should I use?
There are a couple different types of adhesive on the market today and I will help to separate the two.With both , there are what they call regular use and then also a multi purpose use. The multi purpose has better bonding qualities, and can be used in wet areas such as shower walls and such.
Mastic is a pre made glue that comes in tubs. Thin set is a cementous sand and cement blend that comes in large bags and needs to be made by mixing water and stirring with a drill and a paddle spoon. I think the primary difference is ease of usage and spanning over less than smooth substrates. All tile or marble installations benefit best from having a smooth , flat substrate to begin with. I like to tell people it needs to be "paint able" to give you the best finished product. With that said, mastic is a great choice if your tile installation is the kind that you can smear some glue and then press the tile into the glue tight to the wall and move on. Smaller wall tiles work well in this fashion, such as 4x4's, subway tile, mosaic sheets ect. Unless unusually heavy, once placed in place the mastic will hold the piece in place so that it will not slide down the wall.
Larger tile create a bit of a challenge simply put, because there less forgiving when the span a larger distance and usually need a bit of help to make them lie flat to each other so a good thinset , mixed to proper thickness will help to fill voids behind the tile and will also allow you to press the corners of the tiles to massage them flatter next to each other. If need be you can also pull the tile and add a dollop behind it in low places to shim the edge out to help make it flush with surrounding pieces. This process is done repeatedly on floors if the concrete is not truly flat. That by the way, is normally the case on concrete. Never use mastic on concrete. And if you choose to use mastic for installing natural stone make sure it's specifically designed for such use.
Cost is the last factor. Mastic is more expensive but often times it's grabbing capabilities, its longer open time on the wall, and easability of use will, in the long run be money well spent.
Ryan Carlson
Custom Touch Interiors
http://www.customtouchinteriors.com/
Mastic is a pre made glue that comes in tubs. Thin set is a cementous sand and cement blend that comes in large bags and needs to be made by mixing water and stirring with a drill and a paddle spoon. I think the primary difference is ease of usage and spanning over less than smooth substrates. All tile or marble installations benefit best from having a smooth , flat substrate to begin with. I like to tell people it needs to be "paint able" to give you the best finished product. With that said, mastic is a great choice if your tile installation is the kind that you can smear some glue and then press the tile into the glue tight to the wall and move on. Smaller wall tiles work well in this fashion, such as 4x4's, subway tile, mosaic sheets ect. Unless unusually heavy, once placed in place the mastic will hold the piece in place so that it will not slide down the wall.
Larger tile create a bit of a challenge simply put, because there less forgiving when the span a larger distance and usually need a bit of help to make them lie flat to each other so a good thinset , mixed to proper thickness will help to fill voids behind the tile and will also allow you to press the corners of the tiles to massage them flatter next to each other. If need be you can also pull the tile and add a dollop behind it in low places to shim the edge out to help make it flush with surrounding pieces. This process is done repeatedly on floors if the concrete is not truly flat. That by the way, is normally the case on concrete. Never use mastic on concrete. And if you choose to use mastic for installing natural stone make sure it's specifically designed for such use.
Cost is the last factor. Mastic is more expensive but often times it's grabbing capabilities, its longer open time on the wall, and easability of use will, in the long run be money well spent.
Ryan Carlson
Custom Touch Interiors
http://www.customtouchinteriors.com/
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
How do I figure my layout? Or, in other words, where do I start?
This is somewhat of a mixed bag. By in large there is a hierarchy of precedence to consider. Of course nothing in set in stone but some things are more demanding than others to consider.
"Consider" is the key word here. First off when considering lay out you must look at the overall job to determine what the major focal point is and satisfy that more so than the periphery.
Example.
Lets imagine you are doing a kitchen floor that may also have an attached pantry or powder room floor. Obviously in most cases the kitchen floor is the most important to look nice. So priority would ask that the kitchen floor should look the best with little or no consideration of the adjacent areas. One exception might be if the pantry or powder room is connected by a hallway that is somewhat of a focal point in and of itself. In other words if we were to satisfy the look in the kitchen , and that in turn causes the balance in the hallway to be really bad, and the hallways is a major part of the look then you would need to consider both together and pick the best for the two spaces together. It's always a trade off when you have more than on area connected to another. So you have to ask yourself " what do I want to look the nicest and at what ex pence to the rest of the job"?
Here are 2 examples when finding a starting point on floors that almost always mandate top priority.
Doorways and transitions.
Rarely, if ever, would you ever want to walk into a room through a doorway and not start with full tiles at the transition. Meaning, if you have carpet or wood flooring in a hallway leading to a tile or marble floor in the bathroom you always want to break the tile/carpet transition in the middle of the door when closed, and the start with a FULL TILE at the doorway into the room.
Secondly, same holds true when you have a transition from , say, either a carpet or wood floor to a tiled space. Almost always FULL Tile will lay next to the carpet or wood floor. Starting with some type of cut in these areas are almost never acceptable.
Same holds true for tile that looks like it's setting vertically on top of a horizontal surface.
Example.
Rarely would you ever start a back splash with the first row of tile above the countertop being a cut. Normally speaking, the same holds true on a tub surround. One exception to the tube surround would be if you were going to the ceiling and you end up with a very small cut at the ceiling. Or if you have a feature stripe and you want to position it at a predetermined height. Same holds true if you have tile walls setting on tile floors.
Now I can finally start to answer this question :)
Again, normally, but not always you want to look at any surface with an X and a Y axis. If you have no particular focal point that demands top priority you simply strive for balance and symmetry. Find the center of your space first. Now, from left to right, start with a grout joint and run out your tiles to the side to where the tile will stop. If you last piece is greater than a half tile your all set. If it's smaller than a half tile, instead of starting on your center line with a grout joint you move that tile over and center the tile over your center point. By doing this, when you get to the edge by the wall you will now have a cut that is greater than half tile. So now we have big cuts on the sides instead of small sliver cuts. After doing this above to your right and to the, lets now do the same for your top to bottom tiles and your good to go.
In short , what we are trying to do is get a sense of balance from side to side so the cuts on both sides are of equal value and as big as possible. Same holds true for "up and down"
"Consider" is the key word here. First off when considering lay out you must look at the overall job to determine what the major focal point is and satisfy that more so than the periphery.
Example.
Lets imagine you are doing a kitchen floor that may also have an attached pantry or powder room floor. Obviously in most cases the kitchen floor is the most important to look nice. So priority would ask that the kitchen floor should look the best with little or no consideration of the adjacent areas. One exception might be if the pantry or powder room is connected by a hallway that is somewhat of a focal point in and of itself. In other words if we were to satisfy the look in the kitchen , and that in turn causes the balance in the hallway to be really bad, and the hallways is a major part of the look then you would need to consider both together and pick the best for the two spaces together. It's always a trade off when you have more than on area connected to another. So you have to ask yourself " what do I want to look the nicest and at what ex pence to the rest of the job"?
Here are 2 examples when finding a starting point on floors that almost always mandate top priority.
Doorways and transitions.
Rarely, if ever, would you ever want to walk into a room through a doorway and not start with full tiles at the transition. Meaning, if you have carpet or wood flooring in a hallway leading to a tile or marble floor in the bathroom you always want to break the tile/carpet transition in the middle of the door when closed, and the start with a FULL TILE at the doorway into the room.
Secondly, same holds true when you have a transition from , say, either a carpet or wood floor to a tiled space. Almost always FULL Tile will lay next to the carpet or wood floor. Starting with some type of cut in these areas are almost never acceptable.
Same holds true for tile that looks like it's setting vertically on top of a horizontal surface.
Example.
Rarely would you ever start a back splash with the first row of tile above the countertop being a cut. Normally speaking, the same holds true on a tub surround. One exception to the tube surround would be if you were going to the ceiling and you end up with a very small cut at the ceiling. Or if you have a feature stripe and you want to position it at a predetermined height. Same holds true if you have tile walls setting on tile floors.
Now I can finally start to answer this question :)
Again, normally, but not always you want to look at any surface with an X and a Y axis. If you have no particular focal point that demands top priority you simply strive for balance and symmetry. Find the center of your space first. Now, from left to right, start with a grout joint and run out your tiles to the side to where the tile will stop. If you last piece is greater than a half tile your all set. If it's smaller than a half tile, instead of starting on your center line with a grout joint you move that tile over and center the tile over your center point. By doing this, when you get to the edge by the wall you will now have a cut that is greater than half tile. So now we have big cuts on the sides instead of small sliver cuts. After doing this above to your right and to the, lets now do the same for your top to bottom tiles and your good to go.
In short , what we are trying to do is get a sense of balance from side to side so the cuts on both sides are of equal value and as big as possible. Same holds true for "up and down"
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Do It Yourself
We welcome you to contact us through this blog on DIY questions. Simply post your questions and we will provide you with the answers on tile installation and repair. In addition, we welcome you to visit our website at http://www.customtouchtile.com/ visit our FAQ's on tile installation in Denver, Colorado.
Thank you!
Ryan Carlson
Thank you!
Ryan Carlson
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