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Tiling tolerances

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Tiling tolerances

Postby RogerS » 01 Dec 2017, 10:34

What sort of tolerance in terms of coplanar-rality should you expect on a tiled wall using 610 x 305 mm tiles. Just been to have a look at what the tiler has done and there are - too my inexperienced eyes - too many tiles where there is a transition in level between them. Am I expecting too much ?
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Phil » 01 Dec 2017, 10:44

Roger, when I did floor and wall tiling at the old house, I used those small plastic X spacers on the floor and wall where big tiles were used.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Andyp » 01 Dec 2017, 10:51

I will have to guess what coplanar rality means :D but 2' x 1' tiles are going to need a very flat surface behind them to remain level, or an awful lot of adhesive. Just my uneducated opinion of course.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby RogerS » 01 Dec 2017, 10:56

Phil wrote:Roger, when I did floor and wall tiling at the old house, I used those small plastic X spacers on the floor and wall where big tiles were used.


Phil..he did use spacers but only to maintain the gap between the tiles.

Andyp wrote:I will have to guess what coplanar rality means :D but 2' x 1' tiles are going to need a very flat surface behind them to remain level, or an awful lot of adhesive. Just my uneducated opinion of course.


They've gone onto tilebacker type boards that Doug recommended and which are much larger than the tiles and so I don't think that that is the issue.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Rod » 01 Dec 2017, 11:42

If the tiles are flat and the surface is flat then there should be no protrusions.
I laid some large floor tiles on a slightly uneven floor which required a slight bit of packing in places but achieved a flat surface with no lips.

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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Phil » 01 Dec 2017, 12:53

Phil wrote:Roger, when I did floor and wall tiling at the old house, I used those small plastic X spacers on the floor and wall where big tiles were used.



I should have added in - very long spirit level held across them and as Rod says some packing where required to get them flat/on the same plane.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Andyp » 01 Dec 2017, 13:25

Well if the tile backer boards are flat then I would expect the tiles to be too.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby RogerS » 01 Dec 2017, 14:28

Andyp wrote:Well if the tile backer boards are flat then I would expect the tiles to be too.


Not necessarily. Accepted standards for many types of tiles allow for non-flatness. So much so that for large tiles they recommend that any overlap a la brick bond is limited to 1/3 of a tile.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby TrimTheKing » 01 Dec 2017, 15:10

RogerS wrote:
Andyp wrote:Well if the tile backer boards are flat then I would expect the tiles to be too.


Not necessarily. Accepted standards for many types of tiles allow for non-flatness. So much so that for large tiles they recommend that any overlap a la brick bond is limited to 1/3 of a tile.


How is that possible then?? Surely 1/3 overlap from one side is equal to 2/3 overlap on the other side...
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby RogerS » 01 Dec 2017, 16:13

TrimTheKing wrote:
RogerS wrote:
Andyp wrote:Well if the tile backer boards are flat then I would expect the tiles to be too.


Not necessarily. Accepted standards for many types of tiles allow for non-flatness. So much so that for large tiles they recommend that any overlap a la brick bond is limited to 1/3 of a tile.


How is that possible then?? Surely 1/3 overlap from one side is equal to 2/3 overlap on the other side...


When I read this I thought :eusa-think:

So I mocked up the two in SketchUp and 1/3 is better

tile overlap.png
(94.43 KiB)
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby StevieB » 01 Dec 2017, 17:29

You are assuming all your tiles 'dip' in the middle though - what about if they bow the other way! :twisted:

There is a surprising amount of variability allowed in tiles as they are fired and not 100% uniform. I did quite a lot of investigating when SWMBO wanted a mosaic tiled floor in a hallway - it was impossible to run small tiles over a long distance and maintain equal spacing - variations meant tile spacers simply wouldn't fit and tiles would have to be laid 'by eye'. Went for carpet in the end!

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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Doug » 01 Dec 2017, 18:36

Large tiles tend to be bowed, if laid brick pattern they can look awful even if they are going on a flat surface, I tend to assess the tiles first before recommending which way they are laid.

Out of interest Rog is the chap using ready mixed adhesive or mixing powdered adhesive?
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Robert » 01 Dec 2017, 23:45

I tiled my bathroom with 600 x 300mm tiles and I've just been in there to check the levels.

I'd say 60% are completely level where 4 corners meet. 35% have well under 1mm height difference, 4.5% just over 1mm and I left half a percent because I know there is one that is just over 2mm but it is high up and no one has noticed..

The tiles out of the pack look completely flat but you do get some that are bowed just like that sketchup, but not that bad of course so you don't see it until on the wall. Then you have to decide how to push it about or to pull it off.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby RogerS » 02 Dec 2017, 08:53

Doug wrote:Large tiles tend to be bowed, if laid brick pattern they can look awful even if they are going on a flat surface, I tend to assess the tiles first before recommending which way they are laid.

Out of interest Rog is the chap using ready mixed adhesive or mixing powdered adhesive?


Mixing powdered.

On closer examination, the back wall (the largest area) is immaculate. It's the two side walls that have gone out of whack. Not sure what happened ....rushing maybe ? It's a very delicate conversation that I need to have with him.
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby Doug » 02 Dec 2017, 15:37

RogerS wrote:
Mixing powdered.


At least that’s promising Rog, it sounds like he knows something about tiling.

RogerS wrote:On closer examination, the back wall (the largest area) is immaculate. It's the two side walls that have gone out of whack. Not sure what happened ....rushing maybe ? It's a very delicate conversation that I need to have with him.


Doesn’t sound like it’s a case of bowed tiles if one wall is perfect, how flat were the side walls ?
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Re: Tiling tolerances

Postby RogerS » 02 Dec 2017, 19:01

Two sheets of tilebacker on each. I think that they were parallel but even if they weren't then I'd have thought that extra adhesive would sort that.
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