Bathroom Tile
Here are my thoughts from personally installing Bathrooom Tile, Travertine, Slate and Porcelain tiles. Travertine and Slate floors and Porcelain shower walls. First off I LOVE natural stone…
Natural Stone Tile— Travertine, Slate etc and Porcelain or Ceramic faux stone tile
Natural stone looks and feels awesome, will add a huge value $$$ to your home…natural stone tile is timeless. I am huge fan of slate and travertine.
Natural stone tile is slightly more expensive than Porcelain. It can crack during installation if you are rough on it when setting or need to pull it up bc it sits higher or lower than a surrounding tile(you goofed when troweling on the thin set)…usually only a factor on large tiles 16” or 18” etc. You should reseal natural stone once a year to keep it looking brand new. You should reseal the grout once a year too.
Travertine is typically pretty flat on the underside which helps setting in the thin set. If you are doing large tiles 16” or 18” make sure your substrate is dead flat (not necessarily level flat)…large tiles are not very forgiving. If you go with small tiles (6x6 or less) they are more forgiving on less than dead flat substrate. I usually recommend Travertine for a newbie if they want natural stone tile and large tiles (16" or 18")
Slate on the other hand is not very flat on the underside…which makes setting the tiles a little more “fun”. You should lay out all of your slate tiles on the garage floor ,draw an outline of the bathroom on the garage floor. You want to strategically place tiles for color as well as matching up surrounding tiles for thickness…every slate tile varies in color and thickness…most might be fairly close in thickness but there will be some tiles that will be the extremes (thicker or thinner) . Therefore you need to either match them up naturally OR chip away at top or bottom to make them match. Practice on a broken piece before you do this on a good piece and take into consideration which surface you should chip away. This pre matching will prevent “surprises” when you start to set the tiles. …number or mark all of the tiles so you know what goes where.
Slate will break if it gets too thin, be careful with pieces that you cut to fit around the toilet drain fitting. If you make the perfect piece for around the toilet sewer drain and it has a thin finger that breaks before you are ready to set it….use clear 5 min Epoxy…the joint most likely will be covered by the toilet anyway …if the glue joint is not covered by the toilet do a nice job and the glue joint will not even show. OR you may just need to cut out a whole new piece….!
One more thing about natural stone tiles on a bathroom floor…you may run into a situation where the tiles sit higher than the sewer flange …maybe as much as 3/8”…there are two methods to deal with this. First is the one I always do… buy two wax seal rings and put them on top of each other…you only get one chance to set it down perfect…have a helper spot and guide the toilet to the flange bolts. Second is buy a flange extender to make up difference in height….it’s your choice.
Porcelain tiles are relatively inexpensive…and can be found in virtually any finish you desire, faux natural stone to brilliant smooth shiny white. Some porcelain faux stone tiles are very convincing…and some are not. Some imported ceramic tiles are very expensive (Italian for example). Porcelain and ceramic tiles are bomb proof during installation…they can be man handled without fear of cracking or breaking. They are dead flat and thin. These two features make them highly tolerant of less than dead flat substrates. Since you know the tiles are EXACTLY the same all you need to worry about is more or less thin set to deal with a less than perfect substrate. With natural tiles you need to be concerned with the variance between tiles AND a less than perfect substrate.
Porcelain tile will require less maintenance bc the surface is of course man made and a glazed which makes the surface impervious to water, chemicals etc…this makes it easier to clean since the surface is not porous.
Karl Eberhardt
aka Bathroom Daddy
Natural Stone Tile— Travertine, Slate etc and Porcelain or Ceramic faux stone tile
Natural stone looks and feels awesome, will add a huge value $$$ to your home…natural stone tile is timeless. I am huge fan of slate and travertine.
Natural stone tile is slightly more expensive than Porcelain. It can crack during installation if you are rough on it when setting or need to pull it up bc it sits higher or lower than a surrounding tile(you goofed when troweling on the thin set)…usually only a factor on large tiles 16” or 18” etc. You should reseal natural stone once a year to keep it looking brand new. You should reseal the grout once a year too.
Travertine is typically pretty flat on the underside which helps setting in the thin set. If you are doing large tiles 16” or 18” make sure your substrate is dead flat (not necessarily level flat)…large tiles are not very forgiving. If you go with small tiles (6x6 or less) they are more forgiving on less than dead flat substrate. I usually recommend Travertine for a newbie if they want natural stone tile and large tiles (16" or 18")
Slate on the other hand is not very flat on the underside…which makes setting the tiles a little more “fun”. You should lay out all of your slate tiles on the garage floor ,draw an outline of the bathroom on the garage floor. You want to strategically place tiles for color as well as matching up surrounding tiles for thickness…every slate tile varies in color and thickness…most might be fairly close in thickness but there will be some tiles that will be the extremes (thicker or thinner) . Therefore you need to either match them up naturally OR chip away at top or bottom to make them match. Practice on a broken piece before you do this on a good piece and take into consideration which surface you should chip away. This pre matching will prevent “surprises” when you start to set the tiles. …number or mark all of the tiles so you know what goes where.
Slate will break if it gets too thin, be careful with pieces that you cut to fit around the toilet drain fitting. If you make the perfect piece for around the toilet sewer drain and it has a thin finger that breaks before you are ready to set it….use clear 5 min Epoxy…the joint most likely will be covered by the toilet anyway …if the glue joint is not covered by the toilet do a nice job and the glue joint will not even show. OR you may just need to cut out a whole new piece….!
One more thing about natural stone tiles on a bathroom floor…you may run into a situation where the tiles sit higher than the sewer flange …maybe as much as 3/8”…there are two methods to deal with this. First is the one I always do… buy two wax seal rings and put them on top of each other…you only get one chance to set it down perfect…have a helper spot and guide the toilet to the flange bolts. Second is buy a flange extender to make up difference in height….it’s your choice.
Porcelain tiles are relatively inexpensive…and can be found in virtually any finish you desire, faux natural stone to brilliant smooth shiny white. Some porcelain faux stone tiles are very convincing…and some are not. Some imported ceramic tiles are very expensive (Italian for example). Porcelain and ceramic tiles are bomb proof during installation…they can be man handled without fear of cracking or breaking. They are dead flat and thin. These two features make them highly tolerant of less than dead flat substrates. Since you know the tiles are EXACTLY the same all you need to worry about is more or less thin set to deal with a less than perfect substrate. With natural tiles you need to be concerned with the variance between tiles AND a less than perfect substrate.
Porcelain tile will require less maintenance bc the surface is of course man made and a glazed which makes the surface impervious to water, chemicals etc…this makes it easier to clean since the surface is not porous.
Karl Eberhardt
aka Bathroom Daddy
Labels: bathroom tile
posted by Bathroom Daddy at
9:53 AM
1 Comments:
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